Mad Science Monday: Study of Chromatography & Butterfly Craft

Leave it to preschool science to teach me a word I'd never heard before: chromatography. Language development in children (and adults!) is one reason I love doing Mad Science Mondays both in the classroom and now, at home! I first came across this experiment last spring when I was teaching 4-5 year olds on this great blog post from buggyandbuddy.com. It combined two of my favorite things in life: Mr. Sketch markers (my nose is still all different colors from sniffing these scented markers as a child) and butterflies! Since we have been learning about and growing our own butterflies here, this was the perfect time to try the experiment with S, who has appreciated the crafty results of my classroom experience with it lining the walls of our stairwell at home over the last year.

Chromatography is a "fancy science word" (as I always tell my young scientists when introducing vocabulary) that means "separating mixtures." Many times, we talk to children and work with them on mixing colors, but can you "un-mix" colors? Is the ink inside the markers we use really the color it appears when we use it on paper (or in this case, coffee filters)? It should be noted that this is a very rudimentary definition of chromatography and that I, nonetheless, do not shy away from using big words with little kids--this is a great way to build vocabulary and confidence all in one fell swoop!

To perform your own study of chromatography and make a cute butterfly craft to go with it, you will need:

• white coffee filters
• Mr. Sketch Markers* *these are suggested as the markers that work best for the experiment, however any non-permanent marker can be used
• pencil
• cups or jars of water
• pipe cleaners
• paper plates, art mats, paper towels or newsprint for protecting the table and drying wet work on
• string and a clothes hanger or push pins for hanging your butterflies when done

Instructions:

• To demonstrate chromatography, choose one color to test per coffee filter. If you have an eager young scientist with a love for art who wants to test many colors on one coffee filter, you can allow for that as well!
• Label your coffee filter with the name of the color you are testing. Hint: if you are only testing a few colors, I highly recommend testing out black and brown!

• Draw a thick ring around the center circle of the coffee filter in your color of choice. Again, if you have an eager young scientist who wants to test out drawing other shapes or lines on the coffee filter, that's OK--you'll still see amazing results!
• Fold your coffee filter in half twice to create a cone shape. Using a short glass of water works best so that you can place just the uncolored tip into the water and not turn the water any color in the process. In  my classroom, I had short bell jars I used and at home I only had larger plastic cups. Again, your results will still show even if you do not have the exact proper size of cup/glass.

• Let your coffee filter sit and steep--watch with your young scientists as water is absorbed and flows up the paper! We talked about words like "absorb" and how that means to soak or drink up the water. Since we have also been doing a lot of gardening here, S reminded me that this is how plants drink water from the ground!
• Once water has reached the outer edge of your coffee filter, it's time to take it out and let it dry flat (I found paper plates to work well for this, but you can dry them on paper towels or newsprint if you prefer).
• Observe and discuss the results! Which colors were comprised of the most colors mixed together? Which had the fewest? 

Brown and Black are always my favorite colors to see "un-mixed," and even resemble monarch butterflies
a bit when dry and completed!

• Once they are dry, you can scrunch and fold your colorful coffee filters into a butterfly shape and gather the center by looping a pipe cleaner around the center and shaping your antennae. You can twirl or bend your antennae and you can either pin/tape your butterflies to the wall or create a beautiful mobile using string and a clothes hanger. They would even make a lovely addition to a wrapped present in place of a bow!

This year's flock of butterflies...

Last year's flock--as you can see, I'm not ready to part with the beautiful results of this simple science experiment!

This simple activity is a great way to explore science at home or in a classroom and a great way to decorate your home or classroom afterward. I even had the older sibling of one of my students use this as her science fair activity last year! It's a great supplement to learning about butterflies, colors, or just some spring/summertime fun. 

We've had such fun and amazement following our caterpillars' journey from baby caterpillar, to growing caterpillar, to chrysalis to butterfly, and this was a fabulous way to compliment that at home. We will definitely be back with more about that adventure, but until then...

Happy Playing!