Water Diffusion Science Experiment

Project Summary:

This water diffusion science experiment is a really simple and way to enable children to explore the concept of how the rate of diffusion differs based on the temperature of water!

Project Details: Water Diffusion Science Experiment

Step 1: Prepare the materials

You will need two glass containers, a jug of warm water, a jug of cold water and two different food colouring dyes. The children may also wish to create description cards or labels.

Step 2: Create the description cards

Creating description cards or labels is a fun way to enable children to engage in the experiment, to learn about the process and to document the results. We created different cards for “hot” and “cold”.

Step 3: Create the experiment for cold water

The next step is to fill the first glass with cold water. Then add a few drops of your chosen food colouring, for example green.

As the food colouring is being added, ask the children to observe and talk about what’s happening – the green food dye falls to the bottom of the glass container and the water only slightly turns green.

Step 4: Create the experiment for hot water

The next step is to fill the second glass container with warm water. This time add a few drops of the other food colouring.

Again ask the children to observe and talk about what is happening – this time the red dye moves more slowly through the water and appears to combine with the water as is falls turning the water red.

Step 5: Compare the results  

By comparing their observations children may conclude the that the container with the hot water changed the colour of the water much more quickly, the entire glass appeared to have red water.

In contrast, the container with the cold water changed the colour of the water more slowly, the glass only appeared to have changed some of the water to green.

The children may conclude that the rate of diffusion was much quicker in hot water as the food colouring dispersed much more quickly in hot water!