Christmas Crystals
It has taken many attempts to get these crystals to grow. The first time we tried nothing grew at all as the solution was not concentrated enough, the second time we made it too concentrated and the whole solution crystallised. The third time we grew this, and were quite impressed!
Photo taken with this.
What you need
3 cups of caster sugar
1 cup of water
A lolly stick or circle of wire. Or some string.
A Jar,
Sellotape.
Some sparkles and/or food colouring( optional )
Instructions
Dissolve the sugar in the water, as soon as it is dissolved remove the heat and leave to cool a little bit. If you can get a bit more sugar to dissolve then thats a good thing. We want a saturated solution.
Pour the solution into a glass jar and suspend the lolly stick, we used some sellotape to hold it in place. Don’t let it touch the bottom or the sides. Alternatively you could tie some string to a pencil and rest the pencil on top of the jar with the string hanging in the jar.
You should see crystals start to form after a few days.
We made a lolly and a circle to hang on the Christmas tree. I was a bit disapppointed with the circle, but we will be trying again with a star!
The Science Bit
A crystal is a solid material with a naturally geometrically regular form. Some take millions of years to form, such as diamonds. The crystals we made above take just a few days.
Most minerals dissolved in water will form crystals given enough time and space. The shape of the crystal formed depends on the mineral’s molecule shape.
In the case of our sugar crystals there are two process at work.
Evaporation – the water evaporates slowly meaning the solution becomes more saturated, so the sugar molecules come out of solution and collect on the string/wire or stick.
Precipitation – the solution we made was very concentrated which means there was too much solute to remain dissolved in the water, therfore it starts to precipitate.
Emma @sciencesparks
I added some pink sparkle and some peppermint flavouring to the lollypop to make it a bit Christmassy!
22 Comments
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This is amazing! such a genius idea!!!!
I might even try and convince husband to give it a go…baby still too little for this.
Fun for adults too!
ooh I love this. Definitely going to try it with my little ones. Thanks for sharing. x
Thank you, good luck with it x
wow how beautiful and magical. i guess xmas at your house will be a ‘bomb’, lol
How cool is that?? Your kids must love being your kids!
Ahhh, thank you. I do try hard. xx
Too cool! We just read a book about these being the entry for a Science Fair! It’s called My Blue Ribbon Day (or The Blue Ribbon Day). We’ll definitely have to try these sometime!
These are amazing!!
Thank you. xx
Awesome idea and for an ornament too!
awww, thanks. xx
That is really cool!
Thank you. x
Love this idea! My boys will have tons of fun with this. So glad I found your blog (through ABC & 123) – I’m a new follower.
So glad you liked it. x
this is so cool! I’d love you to add this to my What We Wore and Made Party over at http://raegunwear.blogspot.com/search/label/WWWMW
Hi! I think that this is just great!
I would LOVE for you to stop in and link this up in my Homeschooling on the Cheap! Link up. It is fairly new and I post it every Thursday. IT stays up all week. I’m looking for ideas on things homeschoolers can do. This looks like something for sure!
Thank you, Kelli
http://3boysandadog.com/deals/2011/homeschooling-on-the-cheap-12152011/
They look great, especially with the pink. I’m a very impatient person but still I might try to make this
We’ve had the worst time trying to grow sugar crystals! I’m glad you finally managed it
This is amazing!! What a cool, cool activity!!! We are definitely going to be trying this!!! I am your newest follower! I’d love for you to follow me back, if you want to =) I also wanted to invite you to link up to TGIF Linky Party – http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties – I know my readers would love this!! Merry Christmas,
Beth
My daughter approves of the one that looks like a bracelet!
Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday (yes I am this late on commenting).