Summer Kickoff!
July 1, 2025On Tuesday, July 1st, we kicked off the summer with an experiment combining art and science! We made marbled paper with shaving cream and food dye!
This experiment format was different, as we did a live demonstration, instead of students doing their own experiments. There were upwards of 30 kids, and they were so excited to see the science in action! Students got to see and even assist in the live demonstration! They added food drops and asked curious questions! One kid was curious about using whipped cream instead of shaving cream for the experiment, and how that would impact the results. Spoiler: It wouldn’t work the same way as the composition of whipped cream is different from shaving cream!
Here’s what the students learned:
Colloids: Shaving cream is a type of colloid, a mixture where tiny particles (in this case, air bubbles in liquid) are evenly scattered and don’t settle out. That foamy texture is what makes the marbling process work!
Surface Tension: The students learned that food dye stays in a drop shape because of surface tension. The particles in the drops “like” each other a lot, want to be close, thus making the drop shape! After using a stick to spread the dye, it breaks the surface tension, allowing the marble pattern to take place!
Capillary Action: For the final part of the experiment, the students saw how the dye was able to be transferred from the shaving cream to the paper. Capillary action is our superhero, as it allows liquid to move through narrow spaces against the flow of gravity! The water was able to flow into the microscopic holes in the paper, and students were amazed.
The students were so excited and loved seeing the final results! They were ready to try out this experiment at home, and the smiles on their faces were worth it.
Stay tuned for more experiments, and if you want to be a part of ChemZoo, sign up to be a chapter director or a volunteer in your state. ChemZoo is all about making science accessible and fun, because our generation needs more scientists.
