KAMP KIDSPACE: The Crystal Garden

We recently grew a crystal garden in the Robins' class and it captured the interest of the children and adults alike. This is a really fun science experiment that would be really easy to recreate at home.

Ingredients:

6-7 Charcoal briquettes
A pie pan
6 Tablespoons salt
6 Tablespoons water
6 Tablespoons laundry bluing (This can be found in the laundry aisle at most stores)
1 Tablespoon ammonia
Food coloring

Directions:

For best results, break up briquettes into smaller pieces ( I used a hammer). Place pieces in the pie pan. Mix salt, water, bluing, and ammonia and spoon mixture over charcoal. We had extra so we saved it in a covered jar to use later on. After this was done, the Robins took turns using pipettes to add their favorite color to the charcoals.

Day 2:

The following morning, the Robins gathered around to see the beautiful crystal garden that had grown over night. Although we used many different colors, the garden was mostly blue and green. The Robins examined the crystals through magnifying glasses and drew their observations. We discussed the concepts of absorption and evaporation. We learned that crystals were growing because the salt in our mixture did not evaporate the same way as the liquids. (For a more in depth scientific explanation, visit http://www.mrsstewart.com/pages/explanation.htm). At the end of the day, we added the remaining mixture to the bottom of the dish, careful not to disturb the growing crystals.

Day 3:

Again, the Robins rushed into the classroom, eager to see if the garden had changed. It had! The children noticed crystals were growing up the sides of the dish. It was really tempting to touch the garden, but we learned that touching the crystals damaged them.

Day 4:

By day 4, some of the children started to lose interest, but a few asked what would happen to the garden over the coming weekend. We decided to make another batch of the mixture. We poured it into the dish before we left that Friday evening.

Day 7:

A week had gone by since the star of our experiment and the crystal garden had gone wild! So many changes had happened over the weekend. The coral like crystals had changed color and shape and now they looked more like a head of broccoli or cauliflower.