STEM Learning: Water and oil science exploration

Friday 8th June 2018

When it comes to teaching science, early childhood educators have tremendous impact and influence on shaping the thoughts and opinions of children. Research shows that most children have formed an opinion (either positive or negative) about science by the time they reach the age of 7. That puts a tremendous about of responsibility on early childhood professionals, especially with all of the emphasis being placed on STEM education. As educators we have the opportunity to create amazing experiences that will have a lasting impact on our children throughout their entire school experience.

Science is all about making observations and figuring out how things work. Simple, hands on experiments that begin with, “What do you think will happen?” or end with, “Can you make it happen differently?” get children’s minds in the right place. Last month, our children explored how water and oil interact with our lava lamp experiment and mixing these ingredients together to see what would occur. The children requested that we look into this concept again but this time the set up was different.  

Materials included: 

+ Baby oil in a shallow tray

+ Food colouring in cups of water (If you have liquid watercolor paint, you can use it interchangeably with the food coloring as we did.)

+ Droppers 

The children used their droppers to transfer the color mixture to the dish of oil. The water based drop remains intact until it floats through the oil. The oil remains separate from the water because it lacks polarity and floats because it’s less dense. 

The children were able to express that oil and water repel rather than mix. Ava said “It’s moving away.” As a colour bubble merged with another bubble beside it and moved across the tray. “It’s getting bigger…two drops…it’s bigger….growing.” Gus found, as we saw that adding the drop of colour on top of a bubble created a much bigger bubble as it expanded. “Colour…look.” Repeated Teddy. He was able to spot the colours merging and changing as they blended. “Swimming bubble…can you see it’s floating on top?” Finn asked.  

It was great to see our children explore the materials and come to their own conclusions without being given an explanation. They could verbalise that oil molecules are only attracted to other oil molecules and water molecules are attracted to water molecules. Through this activity we could understand the concept of density. Water is less dense because it floats. Oil is denser because it sinks. This is a simple experiment, but with really great effects and good scientific concepts. Our children enjoyed viewing the explosion of colour once the food colouring makes it through the oil. The children found that this bubble would separate into a bunch of miniature bubbles when broken with the dropper.  

In reflection, it would have been more insightful to have a light box on hand as the extra light makes it easier to see how the colours interact with the oil as well as using a brighter, more fluorescent tempera paint. To extend on this concept, we may try creating art pieces with oil marbling, to see how paper reacts to bubbles of colour when applied to the tray. We are constantly working towards creating experiences that encourage discovery through play, exploration and using creativity to solve simple problems. We have a profound impact on the way our children view science and it all starts with creating unforgettable learning experiences that never lose the element of fun.