THE SCIENCE LAB

Make & Do Activity Kit

Christmas crystals experiment

Lots of different things can be evaporated from sollution to form crystals such as salt, sugar and in this experiment, borax. Try out this science experiment to create sparkling Christmas tree decorations.

Time:1/2hr preparation & up to 5 days to grow. Difficulty: Hint: It is important that the bowl and pipe
cleaners arent moved while the crystals are forming as it will effect their growth.

1. Wrap pipe cleaner around a Christmas shape to get

the shape and twist at the ends to join it. If your pipe cleaners are too short you can twist 2 together. the 2. Tie a string onto and top of the pipe cleaner attach to the skewer with string. This should be quite short, as shown. Fill the 3. ADULT ONLYtoSTEP:top with bowl almost the hot water. Keep adding, mixing and dissolving borax in the hot water until it wont dissolve any more.
1 ribbon each Mixing spoon or stick Optional: Christmas shaped biscuit cutter or pattern Optional: Rubber gloves

What you will need:

Borax powder Hot water (adults only) Bowl Skewer 40cm of String Pipe cleaners Scissors

4. Balance the skewer, with pipe cleaner shapes

attached, onto the opposite sides of the bowl, as shown. Make sure the pipe cleaners are covered with sollution.

5. Put the bowl in a safe place and leave undisturbed for

a few days. Check it daily and after a few days you will notice the crystals have stopped growing. them out of the 6. Takehang to dry. Thenbowl and tie them with a ribbon and decorate your tree.

500 Harris St Ultimo PO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238 Australia

Tel: 02 6217 0111 http://play.powerhousemuseum.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 2.5 License.

THE SCIENCE LAB

Make & Do Activity Kit

Desert Garden

Page 2

What else can you see? Whats going on?

The borax powder dissolves in the water. Borax is an example of a crystal. All crystals have a repeating pattern based on its unique shape. Once no more borax can be dissolved, a saturated solution has been created. As this solution cools, the water can no longer hold as much borax. Crystals begin to form and build on one another as the water lets go of the excess borax and evaporates. What shape are the borax crystals? Draw a picture or write a description.

What else can you try?

1. You can try leaving the pipe cleaners in the solution for a longer period of time. Do the crystals grow bigger? 2. Try our Sugar crystal experiment and compare the difference in crystal sizes.

500 Harris St Ultimo PO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238 Australia

Tel: 02 6217 0111 http://play.powerhousemuseum.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 2.5 License.