Magic Milk Experiment: DIY Science Project Ideas for Kids

The Magic Milk Experiment results in a rainbow of colors and patterns on the plate, bringing out excited squeals from your child. They’ll be wide-eyed with excitement and filled with curiosity and look forward to learning more about science. Additionally, Science Experiments For Kids like these help kids understand their science lessons better.

Magic Milk Experiment

Step-by-Step Instructions on Magic Milk Experiment

Here is a step-by-step guide to performing the magic milk experiment at home with your kids:

What You’ll Need?

The best part of the Magic Milk Experiment is that you don’t need a lot of materials for the experiment. All you need are:

  • ½ to 1 cup milk 
  • Red, blue, green and yellow liquid food coloring, 
  • Dishwashing liquid, and 
  • Cotton swabs 
  • A plate

How to Perform Magic Milk Experiment?

Step 1: Pour the milk into the plate, ensure that the base of the plate is covered with milk.

Step 2: Simply add a few drops of the food coloring of your choice to the milk. You can choose to use just one color or use as many colors as you wish.

Step 3: Point out to your child that the food coloring stays intact on the plate of milk.

Step 4: Carefully, add just one drop of dishwashing liquid to the milk. Now, the magic show begins!

What You’ll See?

A wonderful chemical reaction occurs as soon as the dishwashing liquid touches the milk mixture. You’ll see a kaleidoscope of colors and swirly patterns forming on the plate. The colors start spreading away from the spot where you added the drop of dishwashing liquid and start to mix and form swirling patterns.

Science Behind The Milk And Dish Soap Experiment

Explain the significance of the milk, soap, and food coloring experiment to help your child understand the science behind it.

What happened to the milk after you added the dishwashing soap to it?

Adding the drop of dishwashing soap to the milk and food colors creates magic. The colors spread away from the drop of soap and start mixing and forming swirly, colorful patterns. Milk is mostly made of water but it also has essential nutrients in it like proteins, fats, and minerals. When the dishwashing liquid is added, the soap lowers the surface tension of the milk. The soap also reacts with the protein in the milk, which alters the shape of the molecules.

As a result, the soap molecules try hard to combine with the fat molecules in the milk and form micelles. This makes the colors move around, mix and form swirly patterns in the milk until it eventually reaches equilibrium. Normally, this chemical reaction is invisible to the eye,  but adding food color moves shows us the chemical reaction in myriad colors and patterns.

Children will be more interested in learning more about science when they learn about it through experiments.

Download Magic Milk Experiment Printable

Conduct An Interactive Session With Your Kid After The Milk And Dish Soap Experiment

The Magic Milk Experiment results in a rainbow of colors and patterns on the plate, bringing out excited squeals from your child. They’ll be wide-eyed with excitement and filled with curiosity about the result. An interactive question and answer session with your child helps them understand what they saw.

Ask your child questions about what they saw and experienced while performing the Magic Milk Experiment. Here are a few questions to help you get started:

  • Did you have fun doing the Magic Milk Experiment
  • Did you learn anything new from it?
  • What did you notice about the milk soap experiment?
  • What do you think happened to the milk after you added the dishwashing soap to it?
  • Why do you think the food color spreads around and creates patterns when you add soap to it?

Why should you do the magic milk experiment?

Magic milk experiment is one of those experiments that are simple and fun activities to do with your kids. Little kids will be thrilled with the results! When kids learn the concepts of chemical reactions between fat molecules and soap molecules in class, they might not really understand it. But performing the magic milk experiment at home helps kids understand the concept easily. 

Children are curious beings, they are always exploring new things, new places and finding out things. It is essential for kids to stay curious and interested in trying out new things. Curiosity helps children explore, seek answers to questions and learn new things every day. This keeps their minds and body active throughout the day. 

You Can Do More With Milk, Soap And Food Coloring Experiment

You can do more with the milk and soap experiment! Take 3 different types of milk: whole milk, 1% milk and 2% milk (% indicates the fat percentage present in the milk). Ask your child to repeat the same procedure mentioned above with the three kinds of milk and food color on 3 different plates. Ask your child to note their observations and report anything different they noticed in each trial.

Science experiments can take kids on a whole new adventure. There are several simple science experiments that children can try at home. All they need are minimal guidance, adult supervision, and some easily available and inexpensive materials. 

Frequently Asked Questions on Magic Milk Experiment

Why should kids be taught the Magic Milk Experiment?

Kids must be introduced to the Magic Milk Experiment because as it helps children to understand the concepts of chemistry and different formulas. It also supports them to learn about the quantities and qualities of different solutions.

What are the materials required for the Magic Milk Experiment?

The materials required for the Magic Milk Experiment are a plate, dishwashing liquid, cotton pads, half to one cup milk, blue, red, yellow, and green, and liquid coloring solution.