How dairy you!

Week 2 of Connect: Sensory Science

It’s Olivia here, and I am back with another Last Week at Connect blog! In this week of Connect: Sensory Science, we did two very fun experiments! We first started off with a magical milk experiment, and then followed it with a kid favourite: slime!

For the magical milk experiment, the kids were given paper plates, milk, Q-tips, soap, and food colouring. They started by pouring a small amount of milk into the paper plate, followed by their choice of food colouring. The kids then dipped the Q-tips into the soap and tapped the blobs of food colouring that formed in the milk. The soap caused the food colouring to expand and create wavy colours along the surface. This reaction is caused by the soap molecules attaching to the fat molecules in the milk. The soap lowers the surface tension in the milk, which is what causes the cool-looking swirls in the experiment. Of course, we add the food colouring to make it pretty, but it also acts as an indicator to see the effects of the chemical reaction! How cool is that?

After we cleaned up the magical milk experiment, we made translucent slime! Of course, slime is a kid favourite, so the kids were very excited to be doing this activity! We kept to a classic recipe by using warm water, clear glue, borax, and food colouring. The kids got to personalize their slime by adding glitter and colour. It was so cool to see all the different colours and types of glitter each kid added to their slime to make it unique. After it was completed, the kids got to bag it up and take it home.

Overall, this was a super fun session of activities, and the kids seemed to really have fun – and of course, Emily and I had a blast as well!

I am so excited to see what next week brings!

April 24, 2023

-Olivia, BigsNBC Volunteer