On 10/20 the 3rd and 2nd graders embarked on a crystal growing adventure! With all the fun and festive Holidays just around the corner, I thought it would be a great idea to have the students learn how to grow their own crystals and explore the amazing chemistry behind it all. For our class, we decided to use Borax (the detergent booster) to grow our crystals but you can also make crystals out of more common household items like sugar and salt. We talked about solubility and saturation of the solution we are making with Borax and why heat is such an important element in making a solution that works. Not only does our Borax solution have to be super saturated, it has to be pure. Any impurities in the beaker may cause the crystals not to form correctly or it may cause a discoloration in the crystals. Crystals are formed through the process of nucleation. We explored the concept of a nucleus or a "seed" crystal - one in which other crystals start bonding and connecting to. We made hypothesis about the cooling temperature and environment and what would yield bigger, chunkier, fewer crystals vs small and numerous crystals. Check out the beautiful creations below - everyone took home an awesome crystal!
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AuthorsMrs. Shim and her STRETCH students Archives
May 2015
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