Rainbow Rain

Difference Between Osmosis and Diffusion (with Comparison Chart) - Bio Differences

Overview:

In this experiment, students will learn how to make a rainbow rain experiment using materials from home. Ultimately they will be able to see the way water and oil interact.

Time: 

5 mins

Lesson Materials:

*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*

Rainbow Rain Lesson Plan

The plan is editable and printable. Copy the Google Doc in your own drive and make edits or you can just print.

Rainbow Rain Lesson Video:

Learning Objectives:

  1. Create a rainbow waterfall (rain),
  2. Understand why the food coloring separates. 
  3. Analyze how the food coloring interacts with the oil.
  4. Identify why the oil layer sinks at the bottom.

Materials Needed:

  1. Water
  2. Oil
  3. Food coloring
  4. Spoon
  5. 2 cups

Experimental Methods:

  1. Get one cup of water ( leave enough space for the oil)
  2. Have your oil in a different cup (about a little less than half a cup)
  3. Then you are going to put food coloring into the oil (5 drops per food coloring that is used).
  4. Then stir the oil and food coloring with a spoon until the food coloring separates into lots of small drops of food coloring
  5. Pour the oil and food coloring into the water glass
  6. Then observe your rainbow waterfall

Questions to Think About:

  1. Why do you think water and oil don’t mix?
  2. Can you think of a different way you could do this project? 
  3. Do you think if the oil was poured into the water then the food coloring, would it still work? 
  4. Do you think you could add something else to make it better?

Chemistry:

The way this experiment works is water and oil never mix. Oil has non-polar bonds while water has polar bonds. This means oil is less dense than water. Their molecules are not attracted to each other.

Society:

This experiment relates to society because of the oil spills in oceans. There are oil spills happening and it’s affecting the marine ecosystem.

Logistics:

STEAM Subjects: 

Science (Chemistry) and Art

Science Vocabulary: 

Molecule: a group of atoms bonded together.

Polar: the separation of electric charge leading to a molecule.

Non-polar: has no separation of charge, so no positive or negatives poles are formed.

Density: measurement of how much stuff you have in how much space.

References:

Yasmin, & Here, P. (2020, October 05). Is Oil Polar or Nonpolar Molecule? Retrieved November 11, 2020, from https://youaskweanswer.net/is-oil-polar-or-nonpolar-molecule/