Over the past few months, the preschool children at Guardian Childcare & Education Tempe have been exploring the wonderful world of science experiments. Below you will find one of the children’s favourite experiments, Melted Rainbow Ice. We hope you enjoy this experiment as much as we did!
Materials:
Bowls or dishes (for making the ice)
A large tray with sides
Rock salt
Food colouring
Droppers or a spoon
Instructions:
Make the ice by pouring water into a bowl or bowls and freezing overnight.
Once the ice is freezing, set up your melting station (large tray and newspaper/an old towel if required) and tip your ice ‘domes’ onto the tray.
Sprinkle your rock salt over the tops of the ice domes and observe any changes that occur.
Use a dropper or spoon to add drops of food colouring over the top of the ice domes. Experiment by using different colours to achieve different effects, and observe how the ice melts once in contact with the salt.
How it works:
This was a fun experiment that can teach chemistry or chemistry terms on all different levels, such as how sodium (Na) from salt (NaCl) reacts to ice by heating it up and melting it, and how salt diffuses in different water temperatures.
