Using water and oil along with some food coloring you can make a fascinating science project. The liquid lava lamp is easy to make and is a wonderful play thing for children in the primary classes. they can actually spend hours just shaking the bottle and watching the pretty colors and blobs change.

To make a liquid lava lamp you will need a clear plastic bottle. Any 500 ml plastic Pepsi bottle will do. Just make sure that you wash and clean it out before you use it for the experiment. Now get one cup of water and one cup of oil. Add a few drops of liquid food color to the water and mix well.

Get ready to make the liquid lava lamp. You will find it easier to pour the fluids into the bottle with a funnel. In case you do not have a funnel handy, just use some thick paper to make a temporary funnel. Now add both the oil and the colored water to the bottle. Seal the bottle with its cap and give it a shake. Now watch as the different colored blobs move in and out of the non colored bits.

In this case the oil is of a lower density than the water, so it will not dissolve into the water. Thus when you stop shaking the bottle the two layers will come apart with the oil on top and colored water below. Try out some more science projects from this page.