Science experiment: Fireworks Fail?

I told the boys to make an "oops" face with our 1st attempt.

I found an easy-looking experiment on pinterest called "Fireworks in a Jar".

The idea is that you have a jar of warm water. In a separate plate you put oil, and mix in some food coloring. You then pour the oil into the water, and as the oil sinks, the food coloring suddenly dissolves into the water creating the appearance of fireworks. (see link above or watch our videos below)

Attempt #2, using a plate to keep the coloring separate.

In our first attempt we used a measuring cup for the oil and food coloring. There wasn't enough space to keep the colors apart, so we ended up with a black cloud in our jar.
In the second attempt, we used a plate for the oil and food coloring, so the colors would stay separate, as shown in the picture. However, somehow our yellow mixed in very quickly so as the other colors "exploded" in the water, it sort of looked like we had a jar of urine that was slowly getting dirty...again, I missed the fireworks.

Charles watched the videos with me and thought the experiments were fairly successful, so check them out and judge for yourself.

I'm not saying the experiment couldn't work. In fact, I may give attempt #3 a try at some point and try barely warming the water- maybe ours was too hot.

A still picture I took and brightened, so the yellow is a pleasant color.

Either way, it's no problem. It's good for the kids to experience failure (or disappointment)  and try to figure out how to correct, or as in our case, we can just dump out the dirty water and move on.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2