Science Experiments
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Crystal Snowflakes
These fun snowflake crafts will help you celebrate the winter season whether there is snow on the ground or you are only wishing for some.
Crystal snowflakes-This beautiful craft also demonstrates some basic chemistry principles.
What you will need:
- Wide mouthed jar
- 3 white pipe cleaners
- String
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Boiling water (have an adult do this part)
- Spoon
- Borax (Keep in mind that the product called Boraxo will not work)
- Optional: blue food coloring
Instructions for the project: Start by making a giant snowflake frame from 3 white pipe cleaners and string. Twist the 3 pipe cleaners together in the center in order to make a 6-sided, spiky figure. Remember that you must make sure this figure fits inside the wide-mouthed jar. Tie the string around the pipe cleaners so it will look like a snowflake shape. Trim off the excess string. Tie a few inches of string on to one of the pipe cleaners. Tie the other end of the string to a pencil, so that the snowflake will just hang from the pencil and dangle inside the jar. Test this out first so that you know that everything fits. Take the snowflake out of the jar. Pour boiling water into the jar (have an adult do this part). Add the Borax Laundry Booster to the hot water in the jar. You will need to keep adding the Borax until you have a supersaturated solution (you will see un-dissolved Borax at the bottom of the jar). Keep in mind that you will have to add about 3 tablespoonfuls of Borax Laundry Booster to each cup of hot water in the jar.
Optional: Add a few drops of blue food coloring for a bluish snowflake.
Hang the snowflake in the jar and wait at least overnight. In the morning, your snowflake will be covered with beautiful crystals. This works because as the supersaturated solution cools, the borax comes out of solution (less of the borax can dissolve in cool water) and forms crystals on the pipe cleaners and string.
Variation: You can do the same type of project using supersaturated sugar-water and a string, making edible rock candy (keep in mind that the crystals take longer to form).
Colored Carnations
While this may not be exactly a craft, it presents a good opportunity to talk to the kids about how plants "eat and drink." Purchase a few white carnations. Then you will need to create a dye solution out of one ounce of food coloring, one pint of warm water, and one teaspoon of sugar. Then carefully cut the tip of each carnation stem to make sure the stems are freshly cut and can absorb the water. Now have the kids put the stems in the die solution so that it covers about 3 inches up the stem. The color will start to change in about an hour, but could take as long as 24 hours. When you get the color you want, simply rinse off the stems and use them any way you desire. You can literally move onto another craft project by letting kids arrange the flowers.