Making a Homemade Lava Lamp

 

Disclosure: I have partnered with Gummylump.com and I received products to use in my post as a result of this relationship. 

Everyone loves weird science activities, right?! I had the privilege on Monday to guest blog at Gummylump.com about a weird science activity for part of their summer camp at home series. Check out our fizzy experiment! It was one we’ll be doing over and over again!

Today I’m sharing another weird science activity. This time we’re exploring water and oil to make homemade lava lamps!

Here’s what we used:

*Spill-proof cup from Melissa and Doug

*cold water

*oil

*salt

*food coloring

When I got these spill proof paint cups, I knew we could use them for more than just painting!! I thought we could coordinate the color of the liquid with the color of the lid to practice colors. To make it even more fun, I thought we would explore water and oil. So to begin, we filled each cup three-quarters of the way with cold water. Then we stirred in the food coloring.

Next we added about an inch of oil. We watched the bubbles form as we mixed the two ingredients together.

Touching the bubbles!

Then we poured in some salt. Since the oil is lighter than water, it rises to the top. Salt is heaver than both water and oil, so it sinks. As it passes through the oil layer, it picks up blobs of oil and sticks to them temporarily as it passes through, which makes the bubbles. Then it releases and the oil floats to the top.

This was a neat experiment and Troy enjoyed observing how oil and water always stay a part from each other.

Make sure to check out Gummylump.com for lots of fun Melissa and Doug gifts and great discounts!