Saturday STEM Challenge – Walking Water

This Walking Water STEAM experiment is so much fun and so easy to do! The whole family will love it!

Kids will be amazed by this Walking Rainbow Water experiment! Using simple household materials like jars, paper towels, water, and food coloring, you can watch colors slowly travel from one jar to another to create a beautiful rainbow. This fun STEM activity shows how water can “walk” through paper towels while also demonstrating the magic of color mixing.

Materials:
-Small plastic cups, glasses, or jars
-Paper towels
-Food Coloring in primary colors
-Water

Tip: Use half sheet paper towels. Depending on how absorbent your paper towels are, depends on how quickly the colored water moves.

Instructions:

  1. Place 7 cups in a row or a circle
  2. Pour water in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th cup. Fill about 3/4 up.
  3. Add 5 drops of food coloring to the following cups.
    -red to the 1st cup
    -yellow to the 3rd cup
    -blue to the 5th cup
  4. Take you half sheet of paper towel fold it lengthwise until its a small strip.
  5. Trim the paper towel strip so it isn’t too long
  6. Place these paper towel strips into connecting jars.
  7. Watch the water “walk”

Extra STEM Challenges to try:

  1. Prediction Challenge: Ask kids which colors will appear when the water mixes before the experiment begins.
  2. Speed Test: Try using different types or thicknesses of paper towels. Which one moves the water the fastest?3.
  3. Design Challenge: Try arranging the jars in a circle to make a full rainbow loop.
  4. Experiment Upgrade: Test what happens if you use warm water versus cold water.
  5. Science Journal: Have kids draw or write what they notice as the colors travel.

This hands-on activity helps kids explore capillary action, color mixing, and observation skills while creating a colorful rainbow experiment.

How did it go? Let us know below!

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xo Shiny Happy Kids