1. Growing Crystals Experiment
By Cole and Anna B.

2. Question How do you grow the biggest and purest crystals?
What are the best temperatures and conditions for growing crystals?
How long do they take to form?

3. Background Information
Using chemical reactions you can make crystals.
Hot water will dissolve more particles than cold water.
A crystal is made of molecules.
Crystals are made in a repeating pattern.
The pieces that don’t match the repeating pattern are called impurities and are rejected.

4. Hypothesis (If… then…)
If you slowly cool the borax, then you will have bigger and clearer crystals.

5. Materials Notebook Large bowl Ice cubes Water Thermometer String
Scissors
Three pencils
Identical jars or large drinking glasses
Cooking pot with lid
Measuring cup
Borax
Tablespoon
Plastic wrap
Gloves (optional)

6. Procedure Write hypothesis in notebook
Fill large bowl ¼ full with ice and fill up to ¾ with water
Use thermometer to take the temperature of room & ice bath
Write temperatures in note book, including the fridge temp.
Cut three pieces of string and tie them around each pencil and lay on jars (string should almost touch the bottom)

7. Procedure Continued
Fill cooking pot with enough water to fill each jar ¾ full
Bring water to boil
Once boiling shut off the stove so water is no longer boiling
Add one tablespoon of borax to water and keep adding until no more will dissolve
Pour solution into jars until ¾ full
Lay pencil across jar so string is in solution and cover with plastic wrap
Put one on the counter, one in the fridge, and one in the ice bath so the water in the ice bath reaches ¾ up the jar.
Leave jars for 5 hours.

8. Analyze Results
Run the experiment 3 times. Fill in a different chart every time
Cooling Condition
Trial 1
Temperature
Time of Crystal Formation (in hours)
Number of Crystals
Size of Individual Crystals
Other Observations
Ice bath
Refrigerator
Room temperature