Color Physics Project Highlight:
Chromatic Color Circles

The Chromatic Color Circle activity from Color Physics Camp explores science through art. It reminds us of the colors of spring; blooming flowers, bright butterflies, a vibrant world waking from it’s winter slumber.

Kids of all ages love this little activity, and it’s great because the older they are, the deeper their understanding of what’s going on, and the more science you can discuss with them.

​Read on for some concepts and questions to talk about with your kids while doing this activity.

​​Don’t want a table full of marker mess-ups? Don’t have room to string a drying line? Traded in all your coffee filters for a pod coffee system? Bring your kids to one (or more) of our Summer Camps! We’ll provide the community, the science, and clean up the mess.
All you need to get started are some white coffee filters (they must be white), some little containers to hold water (leftover baby food jars are perfect, but small cups work well too), some fresh markers in fun colors, and preferably, a pencil. Some pipe cleaners and a few beads are also nice for kids to make butterflies, flowers, or funky colored aliens out of their circles.

​Also, if you have the space, it’s helpful to set up a drying line or a place near a window with a few paper towels to lay out the finished circles to dry. Either way, you’ll need a place to put these beautiful bursts of color while they dry.

TIP: Though this project isn’t too messy, markers can bleed through the coffee filters, and pigment can drip or bleed after the colors have separate and are still wet, so it’s helpful to lay down butcher paper or other table coverings before starting.
Once you have everything set up, you’re ready to get started. At Renegade Tinkering, we like to begin a lot of our projects with simple questions to get kids thinking. Good questions to start with for this project:  
​Has a picture you’ve drawn ever gotten wet?
What happened to it? 
Was the picture drawn with a marker, pencil, crayon, or something else?​

  • While they are thinking about what happens when art gets wet, help the kids fill their small cups or baby jars with about ½ inch of water.
  • Choosing a single color marker, tell the kids to write the name of that color on their filters in pencil.
  • Next have them color a thick ring around the middle of the coffee filter. They must not color in the middle.
  • When they are done, the kids should lightly scrunch the filters into a loosely bunched cone, with the blank middle area at the bottom. Make sure not to fold tightly. The color will bleed.
  • ​The kids can watch as the water soaks into the filters, and spreads in an outward direction. This process might be quick or slow, depending on a number of factors. This would be a great time to start a discussion about capillary action, absorbency, and all the science of what’s going on. See the Q&A below. (Note: there is nothing wrong with just observing the process, either. It’s really pretty!)
  • Return to the filters and see what has happened.​
  • When the water reaches the outer edge of the filter or the creator wants to stop the spread of color, remove the filters and hang them on the line to dry.
  • Bring the jars over to the drying line so kids only have to lift the filter up and pin it in place instead of carrying a dripping filter across the room. The marker will bleed on hands at this point, and may drip. Also, the wet filters are fragile. Remind kids to be very careful and handle gently.​
After kids have made, discussed, and dried their circles, they can use these beautiful chromatic bursts to make flowers, butterflies, aliens, or whatever their amazing imaginations come up with!
Q&A​
Here are a few relevant topics and questions we like to discuss at camp, depending on the age and interest of any particular group. They are great ideas to get started, but have your internet ready to look up whatever you can’t answer. It’s great for kids to see how to investigate unknown questions.
  • What do you see happening?
  • ​Why do you think it’s happening? The water spreads up the ABSORBENT coffee filter, and moves along with CAPILLARY ACTION. The marker is WATER SOLUBLE, which means it loses cohesion/ gets all soft and wiggly in water. The water then carries the color along as it continues to spread across the filter. As the water (and color, which is now liquid) spreads, it DILUTES, or becomes less intense. The different colors that make up each color spread out. CHROMATIC, in this case, means relating to a color. The different base colors within each marker color separate and stop at different points while the water spreads, leaving them in rings. The water only moves outwards because it is moving into the dry areas.
  • What do you think will happen in the next 10 minutes?
  • Why does the water only go outwards? New water coming into the filter has nowhere to go but out as the filter keeps absorbing it. CAPILLARY ACTION is how liquid sometimes moves without the help of, or even against, external forces like gravity. It’s what happens when you dip a paintbrush in paint and that paint moves up into the bristles, or in this case when a liquid like water is ABSORBED into a POROUS materials such as paper. The forces of the liquid and the stuff it’s absorbing into work together to move the liquid out, even if gravity is pulling it in a different direction.  (or as wikipedia explains it: It occurs because of intermolecular forces between the liquid and surrounding solid surfaces. If the diameter of the tube is sufficiently small, then the combination of surface tension (which is caused by cohesion within the liquid) and adhesive forces between the liquid and container wall act to propel the liquid.)
  • Do you notice anything about the different colors? What happens to blue that is different from pink, or orange that is different from red? Some colors are made by mixing other colors together, like how yellow and red make orange. But each color will be moved along by the water differently. So some color will travel further along the filter, and other colors won’t. The colors that were mixed together to make the marker you originally used got separated again because of how the water affects them.
  • Do you think the marker color would act the same if the whole filter were submerged in water?​
See Summer Camps
All new location St Francis Wood/West Portal/Stonestown
Commodore Sloat Elementary School
50 Darien Way
​Panhandle Neighborhood location
John Adams campus of CCSF
​1860 Hayes Street at Masonic
SOMA location
Presidio Knolls School
250 10th Street
Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

Renegade girls offers a handful of scholarships to enable children without financial means to attend our camps.
If you are interested, please contact us.
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