Over the rainbow

over the rainbowWell we finally got to try and make a rainbow!

We returned to our scientific method of predicting, experimenting and reporting in our logbooks.

The question I posed was what would happen to the light from a torch if we shone it through a glass of water?  I didn’t want to mention colour as I didn’t want to lead the children in their predictions. As a result the predictions showed that the children drew on their previous knowledge and experiences. (Applying knowledge is a higher order thought process – showing deep learning!)

“I don’t know………maybe a gas?” – Gabriel

(click on each picture to see whose is whose).

Charlie’s was the most poetic prediction however:

It will "get a bit gleamy"
It will “get a bit gleamy”

Fisrt we checked what the torchlight looked like normally:

There was some debate as to the colour of the light – silver, white, bluey or grey!

Then we took turns to shine the light through the glass of water…..

These photos don’t really capture what we noticed. So take it

"I made a rainbow"
“I made a rainbow”

from Caoimhe:

 

 

 

 

 

 

or Zach:

"It looked like a rocket!"
“It looked like a rocket!”

and others (again click on the pictures to see who said what)

Again Charlie described it well:

“It’s like 10 different shapes and colours!”

Or have a look for yourself – how would you describe it?

Rainbow light through the water

So why? Where did the colours come from?

“the water changed the light”! – Gabi

“It bends, it was pushing it away” – Innes

wee science meThe water bends the beam of light which has a affect on each different colour that makes up white light, all bending at a different angle. In other words the water seperates the colours that make white light. This is called refraction. It is what happens to sunlight reflected on raindrops which creates a rainbow in the sky.

The experiment didn’t impress everyone. Every session ends with a question:

“What could we do better?”

Normally I just get shrugs and “don’t know”s but today I got a couple of good replies:

“I prefer the spray experiment” – Charlie

“Maybe changing the colours a different way” – Gabi

So now we have evaluating to add to our skills that we practice with our science!

3 smart cookies

Smart cookies!

Colour bore?

fed up faceAm I becoming a colour bore? I feel we have been looking at colour for a long time now. However the children continue to be really engaged and invested in their learning.

As planned, I offered the same experience, well the same resources again today. Of course it isn’t the same experience as now the children have their previous learning to draw on and develop. And me being me I had to add a twist. I added  a mystery mixture in test tubes and a squirty bottle.

There was some debate over what the mystery mixture was.

“Is it vinegar?” – Patrick

“It’s water!” – Gabriel

“It’s nothing colour” – Heidi

It had a strange effect – it chased the colour away intead of mixing it.

“I’m chasing all the colours away!” – Heidi

“You’re chasing them all the way to America!” – Charlie

And it had a weird effect on the paper – it turned it see through too!

“It’s invisible colour!” – Charlie

Sophie
Sophie noticed that you could draw with it using a pipette.

And the oddest thing was what it did to the colours when you put them in the test tubes to mix……

It separated!
It separated!
Tommy's blue floated around in little balls within the mystery liquid before settling on the bottom.
Tommy’s blue floated around in little balls within the mystery liquid before settling on the bottom.

“Gravity is what makes the colours go down!” – Caoimhe

Can you guess the mystery liquid? It was very slimy…

“Maybe it’s jellyfish” – Patrick.

“No they might sting us!!” – Alex

No fear it wasn’t jellyfish but just baby oil.

Oil and water won’t mix so our colours wouldn’t mix with the oil.

Well now we have begun to think about colours separating I think the time has come to chase rainbows….

chasing rainbows

Thank you for sharing our learning!Please remember to leave a comment. Ant suggestions for areas of science to explore would be very welcome! And don’t forget totell us about any science learning going on at home!

Colour lab

 

I thought we could ccolour sprayontinue to explore colour as the children were so entranced with the colours mixing rather than dancing during the magic milk experiment.

 

I had intended on using the squirty bottles to make a mist for us to attempt to reflect light on and make rainbows but our inquisitive and curious scientists were so taken with the squirty bottles it seemed wrong not to let them freely explore colours using the sprays as they wished. So I added red, yellow and blue water to the bottles as well as the test tubes.

Daniel had to coordinate his movements and use his hand muscles to fill the test tube using the squirty bottle. He mixed yellow and blue and made green!
Daniel had to coordinate his movements and use his hand muscles to fill the test tube using the squirty bottle. He mixed yellow and blue and made green!

 

It was hard to make out the colours that were being mixed in the test tubes however,

“I made black!” – Natalie

So I fetched a big bit of paper for us to spray the colours on to.

“It’s not black it’s a bluey green!” – Natalie

“I made it orange by doing 2 colours at the same time!” – Gabi

“Look it’s changing red – it’s mixing orange!” – Belle

But the paper got soggy and absorbed the spilled water in the tray making the colours tricky to make out. So we added a shelf from the drying rack and it worked a treat!

We had to use our hand muscles and coordination to spray the colour out of the bottles and on to the paper or the tray. We made a range of colours and talked about what we had created. We remembered which colours we had added and attempted to remake purples, oranges and greens although often ended up with browns.

Sophie's report

Patrick and An were sure they had created more than just colours…

” I made dynamic soda! It powers rockets!! – Patrick

“It’s a samurai  colour!” “It’s sacorizing! (It’s like a decorated surprize!)” – An

“Look I made Bicarbonate Soda!!!”

We had to take turns for the bottles and work together, developing our social skills.

Yes! You CAN help me!” – An to Lauren

We also had to solve problems when things didn’t work as we’d hoped like the wee vapourizers being stiff, the bottles stopping working or when we set ourselves the challenge of filling the test tubes using the bottles. We compared amounts to see who had the most and the least, using lots of comparative language.

“I’ve got many!” – Adam

Some of the colours didn’t mix straight away so we had to solve the problem of how to get them to mix.

So we shook them (with the top covered of course!)

“Shake shake shake tomato!” sang Evie

Evie enjoyed mixing colours by shaking. She created a little song and wiggle dance to help mixing!
Evie enjoyed mixing colours by shaking. She created a little song and wiggle dance to help mixing!

The shaking (and singing!) did the trick and the colours mixed well.

"Look at my green!"
“Look at my green!”

 

I don’Thinking scientistt think we have exhausted the exploration of colour mixing. I think on Wed we shall revisit the learning and experience again but this time with coffee filters to see what happens to the colours with them.

And who knows maybe we’ll get on to rainbows, but then maybe we’ll explore another area altogether.

"Oh I made brown - do you think this would make a penny shiny?"
“Oh I made brown – do you think this would make a penny shiny?”

After all Patrick did mention the cleaning properties of Coke! Hmmmmm……

 

 

Best laid plans…..

colour thoughtsAfter the enthusiasm about the bright colours of foam mixing and the shouts of rainbows being made, I thought it would be a good time to try the dancing colours milk experiment.milk colour experiment

It’s been something I have fancied since I saw it on Pinterest.

It looked really impressive on YouTube too!

I have had a couple of Pinterest fails with this previously and discussed my failure with a few folk at recent courses and the big National Science Network (with proper science teachers!) So this time I was confident it would work and we would have lovely dancing colours to observe.

So we poured our milk (full fat as it is the fats reaction to the washing up liquid that makes the colours move).

 

The heavy lifting and coordination in having to pour our own milk helps us to develop muscles needed to eventually write! Any heavy play actually helps us with our sensory processing and core muscles which help us to be able to sit and concentrate on a shared focus – perfect preparation for classroom learning.

Then we added food colouring. In the morning we used a straw to add the drops of colour…

However after much spilling of food colouring and dyeing of the table (and hands!) I decided to offer the food colouring through the pipettes and test tubes for the afternoon (which not only controlled the amount of dye used but added the dimension of fine motor pincer grip to draw and squirt the dye and washing up liquid – again great for writing preparation).

Our predictions for the experiment showed that the children were applying previous knowledge.

“I think it’s going to explode all over you again!” – Olivia

“I think it might make bubbles because of the washing up liquid.” – Ross

We squirted in a little washing up liquid by ourselves – more hand muscle exercise! However the addition of the washing up liquid had a different affect.

“The colour is running away!” – Innes

And we made some mixed patterns with our fingers through the dye.

So some of the experiments worked. But some didn’t.

It seemed to depend on how much dye was used, how well they were mixed and which kind of dye we used. The shop bought food colouring seemed to dissipate quickly in the milk as though the fats were reacting with the dye itself, however the dye bought in bulk for the nursery seemed to hold it’s shape until the washing up liquid was introduced, making the effect much more dramatic.

We never did see dancing colours or swirls moving like in the videos, we had to swirl ourselves.frustrated-student-clipart-1

That’s not to say there was no learning! Lots of discussion followed about the colours produced and Ross, Olivia, Lara, Jude and Gracie all extended the learning further by investigating mixing and creating their own colours with the palette paints. And we were able to explore the mixing of the colours in the milk – making greens and purples.

Mistakes and failures are all a part of learning I suppose , I just don’t like having another Pinterest Fail.

I just need to remember that…

mistakes are proof

failure and learning