Magic Marbling Milk

Today's activity is a fun science experiment using food colouring, milk and washing up liquid. This is one where you will definitely hear lots of 'oohs and aahs'. It is also a great activity to incorporate into home learning as you can explain the science behind this in a visual and exciting way!

What you will need:
- shallow bowl/plate
- milk (you only need enough to fill the surface of your bowl/plate)
- food colouring (gel food colour won't work as well for this)
- cotton bud 
- washing up liquid 


1. First of all, fill your plate/bowl with some milk, you only need enough to cover the bottom of the plate.

2. Add droplets of your food colouring into the milk. You can add as many colours as you like! (Just be aware that food colouring does stain, so an adult to supervise this task may be a good idea).

3. Now squirt a small amount of washing up liquid onto the cotton bud and place the cotton bud into the milk mixture.

4. You should start to see that when you place the cotton bud into the milk, the colours move and separate, creating an amazing marble pattern.

To explain how this works, have a look at the 'How does it work section?' in this link: https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/milk-color-explosion/

Extra Suggestion:

- As a way of remembering this experiment, you could place a piece of paper onto the surface of your mixture and lift it out to see the pattern transfer onto the paper.