Color Hot Air Balloons

This week I was very excited to talk about color, because it is one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling concepts to me. I talked a little bit about the science of color and how our brains perceive light differently. I also included a small color "experiment" using milk, dish soap, and food coloring. I showed how the dish soap reacted to the fat in the milk (which is why you need to use whole milk) and made the colors swirl around. I found that not all dish soaps work the same however, since I bought cheap Ajax and I probably needed something a little stronger to make the swirling a little more dramatic. For the project we made hot air balloons with colored tissue paper glued to paper plates. I showed the students how the transparent tissue paper changed color when other colors were layered on top of it. It was a less messy way to mix colors without using paint! We also attached little "baskets" with colored string.