Eagles Elementary Science Night
Welcome young scientists of Eagles Elementary
Here at Concordia Science Academy, we’ve being making videos of us doing some awesome science experiments and we have a few cool experiments we want to share that you can do at home. So watch the videos and if you want to see how to make sugar rainbows or do chromatography at home, we’ve got instructions and pictures below the videos to show you how…
Sugar Rainbows (or colorful density)
Basic Ingredients, Wee (bathroom) cups of sugar and food color 
Two small cups of sugar ready to mix 
The plastic test tubes (it’s ok if you only have one available 
Blue (2 cups of sugar), yellow (1 wee cup of sugar), red no sugar 
Another shot of our solutions we made 
Blue added first, red added slowly second 
Red added first this time and density means blue will sink to bottom 
The sugar rainbow (blue added first then yellow slowly and red slowly)
Materials needed:
1 or 2 plastic test tubes (i take home science kit)
2 plastic pipettes (In take home science kit)
4 plastic cups or containers [9 oz solo cup is a good size)
Plastic spoons for mixing
Small bathroom cups
1 jug of water
Food colors (can be bought as 4 different colors at the grocery store)
A cup or glass so plastic test tubes can be stood up
Towels or a cloth to wipe up spills
Instructions:
First we have to make our solutions. Fill three of the small bathroom cups with sugar as you see in the picture above.
Into one of the larger 9 oz cups, fill this 2/3 with water and then add 2 small cups of sugar and enough blue food color to make it a dark blue color. Stir (it takes a while) until all the sugar is dissolved
Into a different cup, fill 2/3 with water, add the other small cup of sugar, some yellow food color and stir till all dissolved (will be easier to dissolve than the blue
Finally, in the last cup, add just water and red food color
First, let’s learn to layer solutions. Using a plastic dropper pipette, squeeze out the bulb at the top, put end in blue solution and allow the bulb to reinflate. It will suck up some of the blue liquid. Put 2 squirts of blue (about a pipettes worth for each) in the plastic tube.
Now using a different pipette or one you have washed by sucking and squirting water into it, we are going to add red carefully. Tilt the tube till it is almost flat but not enough to let stuff spill. Rather than squirt fast, hold the pipette with the bulb up and touch the tip of the pipette to the inside of the tube near the top and gently let the liquid run down (see the video with Mia and Dr Graeme above). If you do this right, you’ll have blue on the bottom and red on the top. Maybe practice a couple of times if you need (the tube can be washed withe water between experiments)
WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?? It’s all about density. Things which are heavier sink and things which are lighter tend to float. The blue liquid is heavier because we took all that sugar and dissolved it in the water making it heavy. The red is lighter because it has no sugar
Instructions Continued
Now let’s see what happens if we change the order. Add 2 squirts of red to a new or washed tube and then tilt and slowly add blue? What happens – the blue should sink down into the bottom of the tube and leave the red (less dense) on the top
Try seeing what happens when you add red and yellow or blue and yellow to clean tubes. You can add the first liquid fast and you should always add the second one slow with the tube tilted or else they will mix too fast (even though they have different densities, they can mix if added fast)
Finally to make the rainbow, add 2 squirts of blue, tilt and add 2 or 3 squirts of yellow slow and then a squirt of red while tilted and slow. If you do this right, you should have a rainbow in a tube like the one Mia made in the picture and video above
Chromatography
In this section, we have two experiments that use chromatography, a science technique that separates out things whether they stick to a solid (paper in this case) or stay in a moving liquid (water). In this experiment, we’ll see permanent markers like sharpie stick to the paper and not move at all and washable markers move with the water. This is related to something called polarity, a property of materials that Dr. Graeme looks at in his research lab.
Materials Needed:
Water soluble marker pens
A sharpie
Bathroom cup or similar small cup
Taller plastic up or glass (see through is better)
Water
Several paper coffee filters
This time round, we’ve added instructions on the pictures so if you want to do this at home, scroll through the pictures or just watch the awesome videos with Mary and Morgan helping Dr. Graeme do science above
Torn strip from coffee filter (you can also cut it) 
Write or draw something in Sharpie or permanent marker 
Carefully color over in water soluble or washable marker 
More washable marker on top 
Lower into cup with small amount of water in bottom. Careful not to get ink in water 
Let water run up paper. Washable inks move, sharpie does not! 
Let it run for 5 minutes then take out to dry
Things you need – these should be washable markers 
Make a colorful pattern leaving a blank area in the center 
Roll up another bit of coffee filter 
Make a small tear in the center of the pattern 
Carefully poke the rolled up bit of filter through 
Fill a small cup with water about 3/4 full 
Lower the filters in so rolled up bit is in water 
Water moves up the center piece and spreads out 
As the water moves, so does the washable inks 
Let it run till it looks awesome then take off the cup and carefully remove the central rolled up bit (watch – it’s easy to tear when wet so be careful) 
Let it dry and you’ve made an awesome pattern
Hope you had fun with these experiments, Keep doing science!!