Coffee Filter Science and Art

Coffee Filter Science and Art

To be honest, I can't remember what inspired this activity! I think it was something to do with pens having permanent ink or water based inks. It doesn't really matter, it was fun and the science behind it is a bonus point!

What you need:

• Some coffee filters
• Pens, try different types to see what happens
• A tray or dish 
• Water

Start off by drawing your design on the coffee filters, leave some space between the colours for the pens where the ink will run. If you are experimenting with different types of pen, use a biro and write the pen type along the sealed edge of the coffee filter.

When you have completed the design. Pour some water into the tray, open the coffee filter and stand it up in the tray, watch as the water gets soaked into the filter...

Remember to ask your child to predict what will happen and why.

This is also a lesson in patience as it takes some time to let the water soak up but slowly the magic starts to happen...

And eventually you end up with some beautiful designs. 

If you split open the coffee filters and leave to dry you can then use them for crafting, they make an interesting addition to the craft paper drawer.

The beauty of this experiment is that it can be done with kids of any age and mixed ages if you have siblings.

The Science:

Permanent markers (think Sharpie) use three main ingredients is specific quantities: colorant, pigment and resin. And although they are called permanent realistically the ink can last from a few months to several years depending on the surface that it's written on.

The colorant in a permanent pen is usually from pigment as it is less likely to bleed through paper and fade less that dyes.

Carriers otherwise known as solvents are what is used to carry the pigment to the paper and must evaporate quickly. These days most pens use alcohol based solvents.

The resin is the binder and this is what causes the pigment to stick the paper and creates a film over it once the carrier evaporates.

The other type of pen are water based markers (like Crayola or Copic) - these re more popular with parents because the ink is easier to remove when you child decides to do a Picasso on the white sofa! (why do people buy white sofas?)

Water based pen use water (duh) or glycerine to suspend the dye in. And because it is water based it's much easier to remove that permanent or alcohol based pens. It also means that in experiments like this the ink will run with the coffee filter in water. To get the same effect with permanent pens try adding a few drops of alcohol (not you gin, that would be a waste) or nail varnish remover may work too.

It would be a good way to extend the experiment, trying different solutions to see what effect it has. Just be sure not to be mixing them together. Start afresh with each new experiment, mixing chemicals together when you don't know what you are doing can lead to some nasty results!

If you try this at home, let me know how it goes!

Speedy Science: hot and cold

This experiment was messy so do it somewhere it is easy to mop up the water, we used the bathroom, outside would work too.

What you need:

• 2 identical jars
• a piece of card big enough to cover the top of the jar
• a jug of cold water, coloured with food colour, blue
• a jug of hot water, coloured with food colour, red (slightly hotter than bath water)

1. Fill the first jar with the blue cold water.

2. Fill the second jar with the red hot water.

3. Place the card on the jar of hot water.

4. This is the tricky bit... hold the card and carefully tip the jar and card upside down...

5. Place the jar on top of the cold water jar, make sure the mouths of the jars are aligned. Then carefully remove the card...

6. Taa-daaa the colours don't mix!

7. But wait! What happens if you do it the other way around? Repeat the exercise but this time with the cold water on top, what happens?

I must admit, we had a couple of hiccups doing this and didn't quite get the jars aligned, good job we were doing it in the bathroom! Fun trick though.

The science...

Liquids of a higher density will sit beneath those of a lower density. Therefore this proves that hot water has a lower density to cold water. This is because the molecules in hot water are moving faster than the cold water molecules, which creates more space around them thereby reducing the density.

Don't forget to share the post if you think your friends would like to dye their bathroom floors purple too...

Speedy Science: Mysterious Magic Thread

We have some more Speedy Science experiments for you!

What you need...

• Piece of cotton thread
• Bowl
• Jug of water (from the tap)
• Washing Up detergent
• Small spoon/dropper
• Small child (optional)

1. Tie the ends of the cotton thread to form a loop.

2. Pour most of the water into the bowl.

3. Dunk the cotton thread into the left over water to get it wet.

4. This is the tricky part... float the loop of thread on water in the bowl. What shape is it?

Now add one drop of  washing up detergent inside the loop. What happens?

If all goes to plan the thread starts out as an irregular shape but when you are the washing up detergent, the thread moves to make a circle (much harder to capture in a photograph than you might think!).

When you add the detergent the surface tension of the water inside the loop is weakened, making the outside stronger which pulls the thread into a circle.

Try it! Let me know how it goes :)

More speedy science experiment HERE

Speedy Science - mobius strips

Another fun and quick science activity.

What you need:

• Piece of paper
• Tape
• Pen
• Scissors

We didn't have a long piece of paper handy so we cut 2 strips of A4, about 3cm wide. Then taped the short ends to make one long strip.

Then hold one end of the strip and give the rest a half twist and tape the two ends together (if you imagine the paper has a front and back, you tape the front to the back)

This will give you a loop. 

Put the pen in one spot in the middle of the inside of the loop and draw a line through the middle, don't take the pen off the paper.

Magic! The pen has marked both sides of the paper!

How does it work?

What will happen if you cut along the line?

Does this trick have any practical applications?

For older kids you can get into the maths behind it all, it's a good springboard for many activities.

It is the same principle that they use in conveyer belts, audio tapes and typewriter ribbons (OK your kids might not know what they are, get some history of machines in there too!) because it uses both sides equally, so equal wear and tear.

More recently infinite scarves have been popular - same thing! So your speedy science experiment can now be a knitting project!

Quick Science Experiments

With Ebi-kuns new school schedule we have very little after school time these days :(
So for the little time we have I want to fill it with fun activities to use his brain, ask more questions, expand his English...

Today's experiments were will balloons, quick an easy to set up...

You need:

• 2 chairs
• String
• Balloons
• Straw
• Masking tape 

To set up, tie one end of the string to the back of a chair. Then the string through a straw. Tie the other end of the string to the other chair, pull the string so it is tight.

Next, blow up a balloon, don't tie the end, hold onto it! And using the masking tape, stick it to the straw (shown below)

Let go and see what happens...

Once you have done it a couple of times, try experimenting. 

• What happens if you only tape the front of the balloon? How about just the back?
• What happens if you tape two balloons facing the same direction, how about two balloons facing the opposite direction?
• Why does the balloon move the way it does?
• Would a different gas produce a different result?
• What if the gas was warmer? Cooler?

Predict the results before you do each experiment.

What other experiments can you try?

I'm looking forward to more quick experiments, I foresee a jojoebi mini series coming on...

How To Make Goo

Ebi-kun came home from school the other day and requested to make goo or gloop or whatever you want to call it. We have done this before but he had the urge to do it again!

What you need:
Corn starch
water
food colour
bowl to mix

We didn't actually measure anything, not very scientific, I know but it's a good way for kids to learn that not everything has to be done perfectly correctly!

Then we decided to take it outside. We talked about the goo being an oobleck and why it acts the way that it does.

Neither of us know how he managed to do this gravity defying trick!

Definitely more fun outside but I'm not sure what the neighbours think of the strange goings on, I'm not sure I give us 'foreigners' a good name, like I care!

After lots of pouring, punching, squeezing and dripping he decided to make some artwork with it…

Quick, cheap and easy entertainment, can't shake a stick at that! Have you tried making goo with your kids?

Lots of free resources, printables and activities available in the free resources library

Click the image below to get free access pass to the jojoebi resource library

What Freezes Quicker Milk or Water?

These are the kind of questions I constantly have fired at me! This time, I decided we would figure it out ourselves, well with a little help from our friend google too.

What you need:

• Ice-tray
• Pen and paper
• Different liquids to put in the ice-tray
• Toothpick
• Freezer
• Timer

1. Start off by drawing a replica of your ice-tray, we don't actually have a proper ice tray so we used this tray that is for making chocolate skulls! 

2. Fill up each hole in your ice-tray with different types of liquid and make a note of which liquid is in which hole. 

3. Pop in the freezer and set the timer for 30 minutes. Go and play.

4. When the timer goes off, take out the ice-tray and use the toothpick to see how hard each liquid has frozen (if at all). Make a note of what is happening.

5. Set the time again for another 30 minutes and repeat.

6. After 2 hours, set the timer for 1 hour and after 4 hours set it for 6 then leave over night. Each time, make observations of what is going on.

Once we had a list of what had frozen at what rate, google came in handy to find out why.

7. Write a report on the findings.

Magic Water Trick

A quick and fun trick for you to try! Can you pour water out of a jug and get it into the jar without the jug being over the jar?

What you need…

A large jug
Piece of yarn/wool
A jar
A tray
Water
A small assistant

1. Fill the jug with water
2. Dip the yarn in the water to get it wet
3. Tie one end of the yarn to the jug handle
4. Place the jar on the tray (to catch any spills - easy clean up)
5. Pull the yarn so it is taut over the lip of the jug and the end goes into the jar
6. Now pour the water out of the jug, slowly. It should travel down the yarn and into the jar, you will probably have some spills as you try and get the hang of it.

MAGIC!

Want to et your mitts on more amazing tips and tricks to keep the kids busy and amused? Then hop of the MOC playbook list and you will get it delivered to your door weekly!

The coin challenge..

I am sure you must have done this yourself at some stage. A quick and fun experiment to set up. You just need a glass, water and coins, we used ¥1.

Fill the glass right to the top with water, so that it is almost over-flowing. The challenge is to see how many coins you get in the glass without the water spilling over. Ebi-kun tried this several times, I think his best score was 14. Fun bit of kitchen science, perfect to kill some time!

Dancing Raisins Experiment

This was a fun experiment, I remember doing it years ago but Ebi-kun doesn't remember at all and of course his understanding of the world is much great now he is older, so the whole experiment was like a new take on it all.

What you need:

4 clear glasses

Soda water and 3 other liquids, we used milk, tap water and vinegar

Food colour to distinguish the liquids 

12 raisins

Pieces of paper & a pencil

Baking soda*

1. Fill each glass about 3/4 full with each of the liquids, leave the soda water until you are about to do it in the experiment.

2. Label each glass with it's contents.

3. Ask the child to predict what will happen when they put a raisin the glass (they will probably just say sink or float). Write the prediction on the name cards.

4. Ask the child why each glass has three raisins. The reason is that you want to introduce the idea that scientific research is tested several times to cross out any flukes or accidents. You can ask what will happen if the first raisin in the water sinks and the second one floats? Does this mean raisins sink or float in water?

5. One glass at a time (leave the soda until last) drop in the raisins and note the result, was the prediction from the start right or wrong? What happened with the soda water? And Why?

The bubbles attach themselves to the raisins, which causes the raisin to float, when it hits the surface, the bubbles pop so the raisin sinks again, this will repeat until the soda goes flat.

***NOTE: If the soda water is not very fizzy, add some baking soda to get more bubbles in there. If you want to get messy try mixing the vinegar and soda, do it on a tray or in the sink though.

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7 fun weather experiments to do at home

Remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about the thunderstorm experiment? We I have put all the other experiment sheets together into one PDF, 7 in all. They are all easy, fun and use things that you have at home. You need to pop over to My Organized Chaos to download them (I can store the files myself over there).

If you think you know someone who would enjoy doing this with their kids then please share using Facebook, twitter, smoke signals...