Crystal Snowflakes

Science Experiment

Supplies:

• Large, hot-water-safe container

• 1 cup of boiling water

• Pipe cleaners

• ¼ cup borax

• String

• Pencil or popsicle stick that is longer than the mouth of the container

• Food coloring (optional)

Directions:

• Remove your snowflake to the side.

Try this:

Try experimenting with the places you leave the snowflake overnight to see if that changes the crystal shape. If you leave your snowflake in a dark place, are the crystals bigger? What happens if you leave it in a warmer place? Or a cooler place? • Boil the cup of water and transfer it to the container you are using. • Stir in ¼ cup of borax until it all dissolves. If you are using more than 1 cup of water, add ¼ cup of borax for each cup you are using. • Add 20+ drops of food coloring if desired.

• Create a snowflake shape by twisting pipe cleaners together. • Attach your snowflake to the pencil or popsicle stick so that it is able to hang into the container without touching the bottom or sides of the container.

Share your results with us @Roanoke.Family on Instagram #RKESCIENCE

• Place the snowflake into the borax water so that it is hanging and not touching any of the sides or bottom of the container.

• Let sit in a warm place overnight, and then remove it from the container to dry.

What’s happening?

When you heat the water and borax, you are creating a super-saturated solution. Essentially, you put more borax into the water than it could normally hold. This happens because by adding heat, the water molecules move away from one another — creating more room for the borax.

However, when the water cools, that space goes away because the water molecules move closer together. This means that all of the extra borax will fall out of the solution as the water starts to cool. When it does this, the borax needs somewhere to go. Pipe cleaners have lots of places for the borax to stick, so it grows into crystals.

Experiment provided by

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