Rainbow Drinks- Kool Science and Summer Fun

Kool-Aid rainbows were always a summer staple. Of course, an ice cold glass of Kool-Aid is the perfect treat on a hot summer day, but as a kid being able to create custom color rainbow drinks was the perfect activity for hot afternoons or long family dinners. As a kid, I never realized all of the math and science lessons that my mom had hidden in the Kool-Aid rainbow. Fun and learning is an unbeatable combination, the science and math concepts are bold printed, so if you are creating the rainbow with a kid, the learning is easy.

Kool-aid (Cherry, Lemonade, Blue Raspberry Lemonade)

Yellow Food coloring

Sugar or sweetener of your choice

Measuring cups

2 quart pitcher

6 bottles

Tall glasses ( Champagne glasses work great)

Funnel, stirring spoon

Measure the volume, or amount of space the water takes up in the glass. Do not fill the glass to the tippy top, which would be the capacity or the maximum amount the glass can hold! Fill one glass with water and pour it into a measuring cup. The glasses pictured were 8 ounces or 1 cup.

Add 1 cup of sugar to the measuring cup to make a solution, the sugar dissolves or seems to disappear as it spreads out in the water. If you use sugar the solution will be super saturated, even if you vigorously stir it may still be cloudy or there may be particles or tiny pieces of sugar on the bottom. If you use a sweetener such as Splenda it will dissolve clearly.

Notice that the volume of the solution is greater than the volume of plain water, because even though you cannot see it the sugar is taking up space! Add the Cherry Kool-Aid to the measuring cup.

Add 7 cups of water to a 2 quart pitcher.

This is a good point to explore the relationship between ounces, cups, pints, quarts ... .an excellent website is https://www.exploratorium.edu/food/measurements which also allows you to explore the metric equivalents.

However, the magic of this step is density, the amount of matter packed into a given volume. The Kool-Aid sugar solution has a much greater density than the plain water. So it will sink when added to the water. Add the Kool-Aid solution slowly and WATCH and enjoy a mini “lava lamp”

Using a funnel, pour the Kool-AID into one quart bottles. The bottles will make it easier and more fun to make the rainbow and custom colors. Repeat the process for the other two flavors of Kool-Aid. If you have several young friends, each could make one flavor. A few drops of yellow food coloring added to the lemonade flavor will make the rainbow colors more intense.

Create a rainbow. ROY G.BIV is a mnemonic, a memory aid that uses patterns of letters to help people remember information.

Red- 8 ounce of red into a glass

Orange - 4 ounce of yellow and 4 ounces of red

Yellow - 8 ounces of yellow

Green - 4 ounce of yellow and 4 ounces of blue

Blue - 8 ounces of blue

Indigo - 1 tablespoon of red, add blue to equal 8 ounces

Violet - 7ounces of blue and 1 ounce of red

Raise your glass in a toast to summer and Kool science. Enjoy a rainbow of drinks, then make custom colors too.