🎨 Which paper colour fades fastest in the sun?

My hypothesis

If I change the colour of the paper, then how faded the sunny half of the paper is after fourteen days will ______, because ______.

🔊 You fill in the blanks. Think about what the sun's light can do to the dyes that give paper its colour. A guess is a good because: the test finds out.

Change, measure, keep the same

Scientists call the thing you change the independent variable and the thing you measure the dependent variable. The things you keep the same are the controls: if one of them changed too, you wouldn't know which change made the difference. Try each of the 4 levels 3 times.

What you need

• 🟨 Construction paper: black, white, red, blue and yellow: 1 sheet each of red, yellow, blue and black
• 🥈 Foil
• 🩹 Masking tape, to mark lines
• ✏️ A pencil
• ✂️ Kid scissors
• 📏 A ruler

Steps

1. Cut three squares, about 8 cm wide, from each of four colours: red, yellow, blue and black.🔊
2. Tape a strip of foil over half of each square, on one edge only, so you can lift it to peek.🔊
3. Make a fade scale: 0 means both halves look the same, 4 means the sunny half is very pale.🔊
4. Tape all twelve squares to the inside of a sunny window, mixing up the colours.🔊
5. Never look at the sun: look at the paper.🔊
6. Every day, lift the foil a little and give each square a fade score from 0 to 4.🔊
7. Put the foil back each time and write the scores in your log.🔊
8. On day fourteen, write each square's score in your results table.🔊
9. Find the middle score for each colour and draw a bar graph.🔊

Every step is one you can do yourself, with a grown-up nearby. Write each number down straight away, in the table below, so nothing is lost.

Your results table

From 4th grade, add the tries for each level and divide by how many there were: that's the mean, and it goes in the last column. Then draw a bar graph, one bar for each thing you tried.

Why it works

🔊 The colour in paper comes from dyes that soak up some colours of light and bounce back others. Sunlight has so much energy that it slowly breaks these dyes apart, so the paper loses its colour and looks paler. Which colours go first depends on what each one is made of, so the result can surprise you.

Going further (7th and up): Change a second thing: put one set of squares in a sunny window and one in a shady spot, and graph the fade score for each place.

Board layout

This project at your grade

From 4th grade up, the table gets a mean column. See every project for 2nd grade, or print a blank results table.

What a judge will ask

• What did you change, and what did you measure? I changed the colour of the paper and measured how faded the sunny half of the paper is after fourteen days, in fade score, 0 to 4.
• What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? I kept the same kind of paper, cut to the same size and foil covering exactly half of each square the same, so the only difference was the colour of the paper.
• How many times did you test it? 3 times at each of my 4 levels.
• If you did it again, what would you change or test next? I'd put one set of squares in a sunny window and one in a shady spot, and graph the fade score for each place.

Make it yours

Keep this project on this device and Peabody counts down to your fair day, with a plan for each day. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Try next

• 🌡️ Which colour of paper warms up most in the sun?3rd–8th grade · 1 day of testing · about $3🌦️ Growing and weather · 🌱 Outside and plants
• 🌡️ Does a cover keep water in the sun warmer?3rd–7th grade · 1 day of testing · about $3🌦️ Growing and weather · 🌱 Outside and plants