Growing Crystals


For this project, you will need:
pipe-cleaner
string
water
Borax, Epsom Salts, Table Salt and/or Sugar
Container that is large enough to hold your completed snowflake
Food color, optional

Put some water on to boil.


Have your students examine the crystals with a magnifying glass.
If you use more than one type of crystal, have them compare them.

You can create any shape for the crystals to build on, and in fact, you can grow them on just a string, but snowflakes are a particularly pleasant shape for this project. You can create your snowflake by cutting a pipe cleaner into 3 pieces. Twist the pieces together at the center to form a six-legged shape. You can add more small pipe cleaner pieces if you wish. Make sure the snowflake fits into the container you will use.
Tie a piece of string to one leg of the snowflake.
Fill the container with boiling water
Add Borax, Salt, Epsom Salt, or Sugar one tablespoon at a time to the water. Stir after each tablespoon to dissolve. Stir as much into the water as possible, stopping when it no longer dissolves. This is called a Saturated Solution.
Add food color drops, if desired, to create color.

You can either suspend the pipe-cleaner snowflake in the jar or you can lay it down in a flat container. If you use the jar, roll the string around the pencil so that the snowflake hangs from the pencil laid across the jar. If you use a flat container, just lay it down on the bottom of the container.
Allow the container you use to sit undisturbed for several days.



Once the liquid has dissolved you can take the snowflake out of the container and carefully hang it up.
They look lovely hanging in the window.


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