Molecular Movement Scientific Method Activity

Different cups of varying water temperatures affect the movement of color dye molecules. These different movements can be seen, as well the labeled cups that inform viewers of what temperatures have the biggest or slightest impacts. Read more below to get a more detailed view at how this works!

The tools required to perform the Scientific Method experiment are:

1. Sharpie - 1
2. Clear 16oz and above cups - 50
3. Color dye - 4 0.3oz colors
4. 5 pound bag of ice - 1 (for cold temperature water)
5. Room temperature water
6. Hot temperature water

In this step, students will be introduced to molecules and how they can be represented all around us. Beginning, you will need to introduce them to molecules and how warm and cold temperatures around us affect movement of people inside and outside. When it's summer, people are outside, have more energy and move a lot, whereas with winter, people aren't as active and move slower inside their house. This example or another can demonstrate how molecules interact and can help students become more familiar with them.

In this second step, have students form hypotheses or "educated guesses" on what they think might happen upon dissolving the solute into the different temperature solutions. The first temperature solutions to compare will be the lukewarm and cold water, then the second will be cold and hot water. Before handing out the color dye to the students, explain that they will need to wait until they are all instructed to drop ONE dot of color dye into the lukewarm and cold water cups upon receiving them.

For the third stage of the activity, the students will receive the color dye and will need to be instructed when to drop the dye into both experiment cups. For each cup, the students will drop ONE drop and they will be one directly after another to closely compare results without much offset. Following the completion of the first two cups, which are lukewarm and cold, you will move onto experimenting with hot and cold water. The process of dropping one drop into each cup directly after another will follow suit in this next round.

For the fourth step of the experiment, you will conduct another discussion with the students as to if their hypotheses were correct and if not, what they gathered from the different outcome. Its best to gather and analyze the different viewpoints of how students viewed the results of the experiment and to steer them towards gathering the best knowledge and purpose of the activity. Have students explain why the results concluded how they did.

For this fifth and final step, cycle back to the Introduction where molecules were introduced and compare how the dye interacted with the water in the same way as us humans interacting with our environments. For the cold water cups, there was less movement similar to how in the winter we do not go out as much. In contrast, the hot water featured greater movement similar to how in the summer we go out more. Continue to go into detail on how this experiment can pertain to the world around us, such in the way that molecules are all around us and make up many life forms. Leave room for questions from the students regarding how they felt about the activity and more.