Colored Ice Castles – Homeschooling Science Experiment

This is how home schooling happens a lot in our family:

Someone gets a cool idea they think would be a fun to try, (in this case, that would be me), and we decide to do it. For fun.  So we discuss our plan, start getting stuff together, and as we get to work on the project……….we start to wonder, or predict out loud.

And suddenly it hits me. “Hey!  This is a science experiment!  Yes….this is going to count for science.”

But ‘the lesson’ was not planned for school.  It was just something fun to do.  Curiosities arose that we wanted to explore and experiment with.  We were just LIVING.  Yes . . . . learning often times just happens.

As you can guess by now, that’s exactly what happened with this project.  The kids are always watching the outdoors thermometer through the window of our school room. If it’s below freezing, they like to put a bowl of water out, and check it all day to see how long it took to freeze.  You know…’just for fun.’   So I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be fun to fill up all kinds of containers, all different shapes and sizes, and then build an ice castle? “  (and continuing to talk to myself in my head….because a lot of conversation happens with myself up there, I said…) “Hey!!  We could use food coloring and make them COLORED ICE CASTLES!!!!”  Because I am a color freak, I got REAL excited the other day, to tell the kids what we were going to do.

Creating Colored Ice Castles

So we gathered everything we needed, bundled up as best we could, and went out and got to work.

The kids started filling up all of the containers with hose water.
*

And took turns choosing colors, and squeezing drops of food coloring  in.

When one of them added yellow to the red, the colors intoxicated me…..and I went CrAzY taking photos from then on.

And I love most all of the photos I took.

So now you’re going to have to see them all. : )

Because I have little control, when it comes to these kinds of things, you know. : )

Just look at the beautiful colors floating and swirling!

Oh….it gets better.

Look at that!!!  The kids started adding color to different containers at the same time, which resulted in lots of outbursts of excitement at the same time…“Look at this one, Daddy!”  “Mama look at these colors together!!  Hurry!”
We were getting dizzy. But it was all good!

I was having so much fun taking photos.  I just knew they were going to be beautiful.

Here below, {O and J} swap colors.

THIS ONE, ABOVE, IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!

Honestly, I get butterflies.

And by this time, I was (incorrectly) thinking that we were going to have the COOLEST TIE-DYE ICE CASTLES!

Oh Dear….Unexpected Science Experiment Happenings

About now we start to notice that the 2 colors are mixing and changing to one color.

BUMMER!!

No tie-dye ice castles?? I, personally, might have sulked for a moment or 2 over that development and reality check.  But, this is all part of science experiments, and the kids were still excited.  They got me excited again, too.

When I saw all of the multi-colors were gone, I thought “Good thing I took photos!!!”  lol

They still looked vivid and beautiful, all together.

Now, I did say to the kids at the start, “Let’s try NOT to get food coloring all over our hands. OK?”

Reality check number 2.  lol

But you know….I love the colors, even all over my children’s faces and hands. I do!!  Even if we’re going out…..going to Mass…where ever. If it doesn’t come off all of the way….OH WELL!!  I think it’s evidence of their creativity!

DIRT is another story!!

Watching, Waiting, and Wondering….For Days

So the next couple of days were annoying, temperature wise.  It kept being a little warmer than it was supposed to be, and the darn water in the containers would not freeze all of the way!!  We knew it needed to be 32 degrees or colder, to freeze. (We’re like Einsteins, huh?  Ha haha!)  But for how long would it need to be that cold?  And how much longer would the BIG containers take, than the small ones?  These are the scientific questions we had, and the things we observed and studied over the next few days.  We knew…..it was taking a lot longer than we ever wanted it to!!

What’s more….we could see the color really settling to the bottom of the containers.

Why, we wondered??  Which led us to what ‘wondering’ always does.  Research!!

The Scientific Explanation

BECAUSE:  Cold water does not allow the molecules of the food coloring to break down as easily….or dissolve.  So, because it could not really ‘mix’ with the water, being a separate element, it all settled. What’s more, the molecules of the food coloring were so big, that they were not able to freeze all of the way.  So the food coloring ended up being pockets of slush, within the frozen water/ice.   It was interesting that the 2 elements were able to separate that much in the end, from being 2 colors swirling around each other, when first added to the water.

By this morning, we were done waiting.  The big containers STILL did not seem solid all of the way through—-but gosh darn it….WE WERE BUILDING OUR CASTLES TODAY!!

The Results

{S}(on the far right) was excited about the pizza slice container one.  He is also very partial to green, because it is ‘his color‘.  (As triplets, we had a lot of color coding going on when they were babies.)

TA-DAAAA!!!!!!!

I LOVE this shot of my kids, and their ice creations!!

They had SO much fun doing this!!  So did I!!  So did their Daddy!!

We built it in the front yard, for the world to see. (You know…the ones who happen to drive down our dead-end street. Ha haha!).

Another lesson learned:  We don’t always get what we’re expecting to.  But we learn to love what we DO get.

Because it’s ours.  Because we made it.  Because we created memories together, doing it.
And that makes it all beautiful, to us!

Save

Save

Save