Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Snowflake Science

Crystal Snowflake

What You Need:

1 wide mouth jar
3 white pipe cleaners per snowflake
boiling water
borax (look in the laundry aisle for 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster)
pencil or pen
String

Twist the 3 pipe cleaners together in the center to make a 6-sided figure (picture an X with a line through the middle). Trim as needed so that the snowflake will fit easily into the mouth of the jar. Fill the jar 3/4 full with boiling water. Add 3 tablespoons of Borax for every cup of water that is used. Stir until completely dissolved. It is ok if some of the Borax settles in the bottom of the jar. Tie the string to one of the ends of the snowflake and the other end of the string to the pencil. Dip the snowflake into the water making sure that the string is long enough to completely cover it with water. Rest the pencil across the top of the jar. Check to see that the snowflake floats freely not touching the sides or bottom of the jar. Let the jar rest, undisturbed overnight (at least 8 hrs). The result is a snowflake covered in shiny crystals!

Important: Adult supervision is needed when using boiling water and Borax. Please keep the Borax out of children's reach.

No comments:

Post a Comment