Chromatography Butterflies Lesson Video
Lesson Plan:
*You can use the document in the link below to either: tailor the experiment to your needs or to have a printable version of this lesson plan*
Google Doc of Chromatography Butterflies Lesson Plan
The plan is editable and printable. Copy the Google Doc in your own drive and make edits or you can just print.
Overview:
Students will discuss and learn about how food (nutrients) travel through plants by moving from areas that have nutrients to areas that do not have nutrients. The concepts of nutrients, diffusion and dissolving will be explored through the creation of chromatography butterflies. Students will create butterflies using coffee filters, markers, and pipe cleaners. Water will be sprinkled over the butterflies. Students will observe how ink moves through the coffee filter.
Learning Objectives:
- Create chromatography butterflies
- Understand that a single ink is composed of many different colors
- Understand that when the coffee filter (paper) is dampened with water, the paper begins to dissolve and the water spreads while bringing some of the ink molecules with it
- Analyze and observe how these colorful chemicals interact with water and paper through capillary action
- Observe how the lighter and smaller molecules of chroma travel further on the coffee filter paper than the heavier and larger molecules.
Alignment with NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)
| K-LS1-1. | Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. |
Logistics:
STEAM Subjects:
Science (Chemistry) and Art
Science Vocabulary:
Capillary Action: liquids, like water, move up through a solid without gravity.
Dissolves: become broken up or absorbed by something or to disappear into something else.
Molecules: the smallest unit of a substance
Chroma: purity of a color
Time:
2 days
Materials Needed:
- Non-permanent markers
- Ex: Crayola, Dry Erase
- 2 or more white coffee filters
- 1 cup or bowl (small amount of water)
- 1 small spoon
- 1 Pipe Cleaners
- 1 String
- Scissors
Special Thank You to Our Funding From:
