Christmas Science: An Oil and Water Experiment

We love holiday themed science activities here at Inspiration Laboratories. Our Christmas science ideas are especially great. Try out this easy Christmas themed oil and water experiment.

Christmas Science: An Oil and Water Experiment

We experimented with oil and water when we were learning about mixtures. Oil and water is a mixture that easily separates. We tested different kitchen ingredients to see which ones made good emulsifiers. Emulsifiers help oil and water mix. {Read more about the mixtures experiment here.}

Today our oil and water experiment is a little different and a bit more basic. We are predicting what happens when you add drops of water to oil. This would actually be a good experiment to do before the mixtures experiment. It will give your child the background experience for what happens when you try to mix oil and water. {Then, they can try to add emulsifiers to stabilize the mixture.}

Supplies:

• cooking oil or mineral oil
• water
• food coloring
• test tubes or drinking glasses {tall clear container}
• pie pan or baking dish
• eye dropper, pipette, or syringe

Fill a test tube or drinking glass about 3/4 full of water. Add a layer of oil. Add a few drops of food coloring to another glass of water. Use an eye dropper, pipette, or syringe to drop the colored water onto the oil. Observe what happens.

Water is more dense than oil, so the water drops fall through the oil and burst into the water with a colorful little “explosion.” Add several water drops at once and watch them sit on top of water in the oil for a little while. They each will fall through.

Add a thin layer of oil to a pie pan or baking dish. Add a few drops of food coloring to a glass of water. Use an eye dropper, pipette, or syringe to drop the colored water onto the layer of oil. Observe what happens. Use red and green water for a fun Christmas theme. {The colors eventually mix to form a murky brown.}

Or use blue and yellow water and watch the water drops mix to form Christmas green.

More Christmas Science

• Follow along with our Christmas Science Advent Calendar and do a fun Christmas themed science activity each day.
• Try one of these tasty Christmas science ideas.
• Buy the STEAM Kids Christmas ebook through my affiliate link. It has 25 holidaySTEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) projects for kids plus a printable, buildable advent calendar, Christmas STEAM Challenge Cards, shopping lists to make prep easy, and more…

This post was originally published on December 8, 2014.