Coffee Filter Science Experiment

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Just like cornstarch and water, this is another simple science experiment I remember doing back in elementary school.

Chromatography Experiment

All you need are some coffee filters, colored markers, water, and a little patience and you can explore chromatography!  (Don’t worry, it’s just a big word which basically means you are going to separate the colors.)

I showed the kids how to make colored dots with the markers along the bottom edge of the coffee filter.

coffee filter experiment

 

Then we put just the edge of the filter into a shallow container of water, making sure the marker dots were above the water.  (I had to use some clothes pins to hold the filters onto the edge of the container so they wouldn’t slide to deep into the water.)

Almost immediately you will see the colors start to spread as the filter soaks up water.

 

chromatography experiment
Make sure you keep those marker dots above the water line!

 

If you are patient enough the different colors will spread all the way to the edge of the filter.  This is really pretty if you use several different colored dots!

kids coffee filter experiment

 

Once the color was all the way to the edge, we took the filters out to dry.  If you don’t take them out of the water in time, the color will eventually disappear except for a thin line of color up at the top — like our green one in the picture above.

I think my youngest preschooler could have drawn dots and watched the colors all day.  We had a stove top full of colorful coffee filters when we were finished.

 

coffee filter experiment

 

Once they dry, use your colorful coffee filter experiment to create some beautiful coffee filter crafts!

 

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Comments

  6. My preschooler loves doing science experiments. I’ll have to remember to pick up some coffee filters for him to try this one. It looks so much fun.

    • I really think they could have done it until all the filters were gone! This week I’m sharing a couple crafts we did with our filters after they dried.

  8. These are such fun projects. Reagan and I made something similar a couple months ago. She loves doing this kind of stuff.

    Thank you for linking to Raising Imperfection.
    Please come back Friday to see if you were featured. 🙂

    ¤´¨)
    ¸.•*´
    (¸¤ Lanaya | xoxo
    http://www.raising-reagan.com

    • Wow! Out for summer already! Here they go until the end of the first week of June.

      Hope you have an awesome summer together!

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