winter science experiments

Winter ScienceExperiments

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TABLE OF CONTENTS: CRYSTAL SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENT .......................................................................3

SCENTED AIR FRESHENER .....................................................................................4

HOMEMADE BUTTER ...............................................................................................5

ROCK CANDY STICKS ...............................................................................................6

BORAX SNOWFLAKES ..............................................................................................8

HOT CHOCOLATE SOLVENT ....................................................................................9

LIP BALM ..................................................................................................................11

DIY SUGAR SCRUB .................................................................................................12

BATH BOMBS ...........................................................................................................13

BATH SALTS .............................................................................................................14

FROSTED WINDOW PANES ....................................................................................16

PAPER SNOWFLAKE CRYSTAL ORNAMENT ........................................................17

MARBLED PAPER - CORNSTARCH METHOD .......................................................18

MARBLED PAPER - SHAVING CREAM METHOD ..................................................20

POINSETTIA PH PAPER ..........................................................................................21

BUILD A FULL-SIZE IGLOO......................................................................................23

BUILD AN ICE CUBE IGLOO ....................................................................................24

DIY HAND WARMERS ..............................................................................................25

DIY SNOW GLOBE ...................................................................................................26

WHAt YOu NEED:

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Make a supersaturated solution of Borax and water by having an adult help you use the microwave to heat about 200 ml of water until boiling. Use caution when removing the glass from the microwave, because it will be hot! Mix in teaspoons of Borax until no more will dissolve. Allow the solution to cool.

If you’re using a petri dish, use it as a template to cut your filter paper (or coffee filter) down to size so it will fit inside. Then fold the paper in half 2-3 times and snip the edges thinking about where the cuts will appear when you unfold it. You may want to practice on scratch paper first and figure out where to cut to come up with the best snowflake design.

Unfold your snowflake and place it in the petri dish (or on the plate) and carefully pour the supersaturated solution over the snowflake, making sure it’s completely immersed.

Let the snowflake sit in the solution for an hour or longer until it’s covered in crystals. Pour off the solution and use a butter knife to carefully remove the snowflake. Place it on paper towels to dry. You may need to use a toothpick to knock crystals out of the snowflake’s holes.

Once it’s dry, feed fishing line or string through the snowflake and hang your ornament on your tree. Or if it’s a gift, wrap it up for Christmas!

filter paper (or coffee filters)sodium tetraborate (Borax)water600 ml beaker (or another glass container)stirring rod (or spoon)scissorsfishing line (or string)

You’ve probably seen lots of crystals—even if you don’t know it! Diamonds are crystals, and so are snowflakes. Even salt and sugar are crystals! To make these crystal projects, we’ll first make super saturated solutions. Remember in October, we learned that a solution is a liquid (solvent) with a solid (solute) mixed into it. Our solution is super-saturated because no more of the solid (solute) can be mixed in; it’s reached saturation. Crystals form as a result.

crYstAl sNOWflAkE OrNAmENt

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ome Science Tools. All rights reserved. R

eproduction for personal or classroom use only.

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WHAt YOu NEED:

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Boil one cup of water and stir in four packages of gelatin until dissolved. Remove from heat and add in one cup of cold water.

Add about 10 to 20 drops of the fragrance oil to the gelatin. If you would like, add a few drops of food coloring as well.

Add one tablespoon of salt to the gelatin mixture to keep mold from growing.

Carefully pour the gel into the small jars. Allow the gel to set either at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Set them around your home and smell the fragrance coming from them.

Unflavored gelatinWaterFragrance oil

Food coloringTable saltSmall jars

Polymers have numerous uses and have made our lives much more comfortable. One way is to help make your home smell fresh. (Adult supervision is recommended for this project.)

scENtED AIr frEsHENEr

WHAt HAPPENED:

Gel air fresheners are able to scent the air for a long time because gelatin is a polymer. Specifically, the polymer is collagen, a protein that forms a matrix type structure, allowing the gelatin to hold its shape. The fragrance oil particles are suspended in the matrix of the gel which keeps the scent trapped inside. As the gel evaporates, the scent particles are released from the matrix, causing a continuous scent to be released from the air freshener.

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Make sure the whipping cream you’re using is at room temperature (not cold from the refrigerator).

Put a half cup of the cream into the jar. Put the lid on, and start shaking the jar. You can try rolling the jar back and forth with a family member, or take turns shaking the jar.

Eventually, the cream will form into a ball. When this happens, you can pour off the excess liquid and then add a sprinkling of salt to your homemade butter.

Whipping cream (at room temperature)Small glass jar (like what jam comes in)

HOmEmADE buttEr

WHAt HAPPENED:

Whipping cream is a dairy product that contains a lot of milk fat—usually around 30% or more. Cream comes from skimming off the top of fresh milk, where most of the milk fat has risen. The fat from the cream is contained in tiny droplets, like mini balloons too small to see without a microscope. When you shake the jar, these balloons break open, letting the bits of fat go free. All the fat is collected together the more you shake it, creating an emulsion, or a mixture of two immiscible (not mixable) substances wherein one substance is immersed into the other. Eventually all the fat comes together and forms butter. Once the butter is made, there will still be extra liquid in the jar. This is the leftover part of the cream, once the fat has been taken out. It might taste a bit like milk, which has a lot less fat in it than cream does.

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Fill a glass with water, pour some sugar on a small plate, and lay out a sheet of waxed paper. Dip one end of each stick (cut pointed ends off if you use skewers) into the water and then roll it in the sugar, tapping it gently to remove excess. Set each stick to dry on the waxed paper.

Pour the cup of water into the saucepan and add 1/2 cup sugar. Stir it well until no more sugar will dissolve. Add more sugar (1/2 cup at a time) until you can’t get any more to dissolve even after stirring for several minutes. You should end up with about 1 1/2 cups sugar dissolved in the saucepan. It’s OK if there is some undissolved sugar at the bottom of the pan. (You now have a saturated sugar solution.)

Ask an adult to help you heat the sugar mixture on the stove until it boils, stirring the whole time. Turn the heat to medium-low and keep stirring until all the sugar dissolves. (Now you have made a supersaturated solution!)

Keep cooking the liquid and stirring it until it becomes clear, but not for more than 5 minutes, or it will get too hot and turn into hard candy! Turn off the stove as soon as it starts to look clear.

Move the pan off the heat and allow it to cool down until the pan is no longer hot (the sugar solution will still be slightly warm).

Have an adult slowly pour the thick sugar solution into the jars. Fill each about 2/3 full, or enough so that sugar solution will cover several inches of your sugar-coated sticks.

Add 5-6 drops of food coloring to each jar and stir. (Optional: Only do this step if you want to make different colors of rock candy!)

Once the solution is cool and the sugar-coated sticks are completely dry, place several sticks into each jar. Carefully move the jars to a place where they won’t be disturbed. Check them every other day and gently stir the sticks around in the sugar solution to break up any large crystals forming on the surface.

Within a few days, you should start to see crystals growing on the sticks. After about one week, you will probably have a lot of crystals. When your “rock candy” crystals are as big as you want them to be, take them out of the jars and set each color of candy in a clean glass to dry.

Once they are dry, you can wrap in cellophane food wrap and tie with ribbon for a sweet Christmas gift!

1 1/2 cups of white sugar1 cup of waterSmall plateA spoonA glassWax paperSaucepan

StoveSeveral small clean jarsCake pop sticks or wooden skewersFood coloring (optional)An adult to help you

Get ready to watch some cool crystals grow! And when you’re done, you can eat them or give them away as Christmas gifts!

rOck cANDY stIcks

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WHAt HAPPENED:

In step two you made a saturated solution—there was so much sugar in the water that it couldn’t dissolve any more sugar and some was left in the bottom of the pan. Once the saturated solution started to heat up, the water was able to dissolve even more sugar and a supersaturated solution was formed in step three. Then, as the solution cooled, the sugar molecules in it started to join with the sugar molecules on the sticks. The sugar on the sticks are called “seed” molecules and the sugar molecules in the solution attached themselves to the seed molecules.

Meanwhile, the water in the solution started to evaporate or dry up into the air, leaving only sugar molecules behind. More sugar molecules gradually joined with the ones already on the stick, forming larger crystals. Because all of the solute molecules are the same (they are all sugar), they all form the same shape of crystals and they all stick together, making a big chunk of sugar crystals that are pretty to look at and tasty to eat!

Note that this is a special science project that is safe to eat because you only used food products, not chemicals. Plus, you used clean dishes from your kitchen. Never eat any experiment unless it is made entirely out of food and you only used clean dishes to prepare it!

Note: You can make Rock Candy without sticks. Use a piece of clean cotton string or thread. Follow steps 2-7 then dip the string into the solution so that half of the string is coated. Take the string out and let it dry. Once the string has dried, tie the clean end around a pencil and put the dipped end back into the glass of sugar water solution, balancing the pencil across the rim of the glass. Make sure the string does not touch the bottom or the sides of the glass, or your crystals will not form right! When your piece of “rock candy” is as big as you want it to be (about one week), take it out of the glass, let it dry, and enjoy!

rOck cANDY stIcks - PAgE 2

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Twist pipe cleaners into whatever shape you’d like (we chose a simple star). Note: Make sure your pipe cleaner shape will fit easily into your jar with plenty of space around the mouth of the jar as the shape will be slightly wider once crystals have formed on it, making it harder to remove!

Tie a piece of string to one point of the shape. Tie the other end around the middle of a pencil. Hang the shape in the jar with the pencil resting across the mouth of the jar. Make sure that it hangs without touching any part of the jar. Take it out of the jar and set it aside.

Use a 1-cup measuring cup to count how many cups of water you need to fill your jar about 3/4 full. Then microwave the jar of water for 3-5 minutes or until it begins to boil. Have an adult carefully take the jar out using hot pads (the jar will be very hot!) and set it on a heat-safe surface. For every cup of water you put in the jar, measure three tablespoons of borax. Stir the borax solution with a spoon until as much of it dissolves as possible. If you don’t see any tiny pieces of borax floating around in the jar, add another tablespoon and stir. This will make a saturated solution (meaning no more borax can be mixed in!).

Hang your pipe cleaner shape in the jar so that it is completely covered in the solution. Let it sit overnight. Gently remove your now crystal-covered shape in the morning and let it dry by setting it in a dry glass.Optional: To make colored crystals, use colored pipe cleaners and add 5-10 drops of food coloring to the solution in step five. To make your snowflakes glow in the dark, paint the pipe cleaner shape with glow-in-the-dark paint in step one and let it dry completely before continuing. Once the crystals have dried, cut off the string and tie a ribbon to one point of your crystallized shape to make a Christmas tree ornament! These ornaments are fairly sturdy and make lovely Christmas gifts for friends, teachers, or family members.

Wide-mouth jarPipe cleanersStringScissorsA pencilWater

1-cup measuring cupTablespoonBoraxFood coloring (optional)Glow-in-the-dark paint (optional)Ribbon (optional)

Make crystal snowflakes, stars, or candy canes using borax (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at the store). Then you can use the real crystals as pretty decorations! This activity takes about 30 minutes of active preparation and then overnight to set. (Adult supervision recommended.)

bOrAx sNOWflAkEs

WHAt HAPPENED: You made a saturated solution of borax, which is a chemical that forms crystals when the conditions are right. By mixing it with hot water, letting it cool, and having something for the borax (solute) molecules to attach to (the pipe cleaner shape), you gave the solution the right conditions to grow crystals! Once the crystals started to grow on your shape, more and more crystals formed around them. Ice crystals that real snowflakes are made of are not quite like these borax crystals, but they do look sort of similar and they both are pretty and sparkle when light shines on them. Real ice crystals are made only of water. The difference is that they are formed when water vapor in clouds freezes and falls to the ground as snowflakes! Frost is another form of ice crystals that you might see on windows and grass on cold mornings. To learn more about snow and ice crystals, check out our Snow and Hail article.

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Place the first piece of chocolate in the volunteer’s mouth. Tell the volunteer to not move his or her teeth, tongue, or actively suck on the chocolate. Simply let it sit there and dissolve in the saliva in the volunteer’s mouth. Time how long it takes the chocolate to dissolve from the time it is placed in the mouth until it is completely gone.

Place the second piece of candy in the volunteer’s mouth. This time, tell your volunteer to use the tongue to move around the chocolate, but do not chew on it. Again, time how long it takes for the chocolate to disappear.

Place the third piece in the volunteer’s mouth, this time letting him or her chew on the piece. Again, time how long it takes for the chocolate to disappear.

Three identical pieces of chocolate or candy – soft chocolate, like milk chocolate sections, works best

Stopwatch or a watch with a second handVolunteer (or you can be the volunteer)

Here’s a yummy experiment to help you understand how hot cocoa powder becomes hot chocolate.

HOt cHOcOlAtE sOlvENtExperiment

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http://www.homesciencetools.com/

WHAt HAPPENED:

All three methods worked to dissolve the chocolate because they all exposed the chocolate to the mouth’s saliva. In chemistry terms, saliva is a solvent that helps to break down food (a ‘solute’) in the mouth before it is swallowed. (A solute is anything the solvent dissolves.) In hot chocolate, the hot water or hot milk acts as the solvent that dissolves the cocoa powder, the solute. But why did each piece of chocolate take a different amount of time to dissolve? To answer this, we must first understand how solvents and solutes work. For a solvent to break down a solute, it must be in contact with the surface area of the solute. The more surface area the solvent is exposed to, the quicker it can break down the solute. In your experiment, the only variable was the amount of agitation (movement) each piece of chocolate experienced while in the mouth.

The first piece of chocolate that just sat in the mouth and slowly dissolved away is like just emptying a packet of cocoa powder into a cup of hot water. Without any movement to expose more surface areas of the solute, it takes a while for the solvent to dissolve the solute. The second piece of chocolate that was moved around the mouth by the tongue is like stirring the cocoa powder and the hot water. It takes less time than just letting it sit there, but it still takes a while to expose all the surface area of the cocoa to the water (hence why you get dry ‘clumps’ of powder when trying to make hot chocolate). The third piece of chocolate dissolved very quickly because the teeth chewed it up, which allowed the saliva to come in contact with a larger surface area more quickly. This is comparable to putting your hot water and cocoa powder in a blender. The blades of the blender act like teeth and can quickly break up those dry clumps of powder, making hot chocolate that much quicker. But for practical purposes, and not having to clean up the blender every time, most people are content with just using a spoon to stir their hot chocolate.

As a side note, water is often called the universal solvent because, given enough time, it will dissolve just about anything. There are two main factors that increase how fast something will dissolve: agitation and temperature. As you found in this experiment, the more agitation and movement the solute experiences while immersed in the solvent, the quicker it will dissolve. With temperature, the hotter the solvent is, the faster the molecules in the solvent move. Therefore, the molecules have more energy and can dissolve the solute faster.

HOt cHOcOlAtE sOlvENt - PAgE 2

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WHAt YOu NEED:

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Place the beeswax and jojoba oil in the beaker and then set the beaker in 2-3 inches of water in a saucepan. Heat over the stove until the water boils and stir until the beeswax is melted. Have an adult turn off the stove and carefully remove the beaker from the heated saucepan using hot pads. Stir both the honey and tea tree oil into the beaker.

When nearly cool, add 3-4 drops of your preferred essential oil flavor.

Pour into the small jar.

Glass beaker or glass measuring cupSaucepan and stove3 tsp. unbleached beeswax (in “pearl” form or grated and then measured)5 tsp. jojoba oil1 tsp. honey

2 drops tea tree oilEssential oil of your choice for flavor (e.g., coconut, citrus, peppermint)Small clean jar (or other small container)

Our lips have thin skin that doesn’t produce protective oils like the rest of our skin. This means it’s very easy for them to dry out with heat and cold and become chapped. Use the following recipe to make a natural lip balm that will moisturize and protect your lips! Most of these ingredients are available online or at health food stores. (Adult supervision recommended.)

DIY NAturAl lIP bAlm

WHAt HAPPENED:

Lip balm helps provide a protective layer on the lips that locks moisture in and helps heal chapping. The various ingredients in this lip balm work together to keep your lips soft and moist.

Beeswax is an emulsifier, helping keep the other ingredients smoothly mixed. It forms a protective barrier on your lips that holds moisture in the skin and prevents irritants from making contact. Jojoba oil is a liquid wax from a desert plant and helps protect skin. Honey is a sweet flavor, but also a skin moisturizer and can soothe irritated skin. Tea tree oil acts as a natural antibacterial and antifungal.

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WHAt YOu NEED:

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Add the sugar and coconut oil to the plastic mixing bowl.

Mix well, until the sugar and oil are blended together in a paste.

Add food coloring and essential oils. Mix well until all food coloring is evenly dispersed throughout. Use the spoon to scoop the scrub into the jar, and close it up tightly. To use, rub the scrub into your skin using a circular motion. For further customization, try adding lemon juice and zest, dried herbs, coffee, and essential oils to your scrub. Ground coffee beans are said to have firming and toning capabilities.

1/2 cup granulated white sugar*

1/4 cup coconut oil or olive oil

8-10 drops essential oil

2 drops food coloring

Plastic mixing bowl

Plastic mixing spoon

Jar with lid or other airtight container

You already know sugar is tasty and sweet. With this sugar scrub science project—perfect for a gift—find out how a couple of its other properties make it a treat for your skin, too!

DIY sugAr scrub

WHAt HAPPENED: Sugar is more than just a sweet treat! When applied topically, it also offers attractive benefits to the skin. The sugar in this DIY scrub acts as a natural humectant and exfoliant.

A humectant is a substance that readily absorbs water from its surroundings. So the sugar in our scrub provides moisturizing properties.

Exfoliation is the process by which the outermost layer of dead skin cells is removed, either by mechanical or chemical means. This bath product exfoliates through mechanical means (scrubbing vigorously aided by sugar crystals). This scrub helps to slough off dead skin cells and possibly improve circulation.

*If you find granulated sugar too rough, try using it only on your feet, as that skin is typically calloused and not as sensitive as skin on other body parts. Alternately, try making your homemade sugar scrub with caster sugar, which is superfine, or brown sugar.

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Put the gloves on and combine the baking soda, citric acid, corn starch, and Epsom salts together in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Combine the oils, water, and borax in a jar. Cover it with the lid and shake vigorously to mix the ingredients well.

Slowly add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture, a few drops at a time, stirring continuously and quickly to minimize fizzing. When fully mixed, the mixture will be very dry and crumbly.

Pack the mixture into molds or ice cube trays and let rest for two days. (You can also use metal tealight candle holders with the candles removed.)

After two days, carefully remove the mixture from the molds. If using metal tealight holders, have an adult help you use scissors to cut the metal away from the bath bomb. Take one of the finished bath bombs and drop it in water. What happens?

1/2 cup baking soda1/4 cup citric acid in powder form1/4 cup cornstarch2-1/5 tablespoons Epsom salts1-1/4 tablespoons olive or almond oil1-3/4 teaspoons water1/4 teaspoon fragrance oils

1/8 teaspoon boraxPlastic mixing bowlGlovesJar with lid or other airtight containerMolds or ice cube trays

Some bath products fizz and make bubbles when added to water. Ever wonder why? Try this experiment to find out. (Adult supervision recommended.)

WHAt HAPPENED: A bath bomb is really showing how acids and bases react when mixed together. In this experiment, the baking soda is the base and the citric acid is, well, the acid. But the reaction of this acid-base combination can be controlled by the other ingredients in the bath bomb.

The cornstarch and Epsom salts both act as liquid absorbers to help keep the baking soda and citric acid from reacting with each other when liquids are added. They are also helpful if you live in a place with high humidity. The borax acts as both a preservative and an emulsifier, stabilizing the acid and the base and keeping them from reacting with each other before entering the water.

Water is the catalyst for the reaction to occur because it dissolves the solids and allows the ions in the acid and the base to move and collide with each other, causing a chemical reaction to occur. A catalyst is something added to a chemical mixture that speeds up the chemical reaction time. This reaction forms carbon dioxide, a gas, which rises to the surface of the bathwater in the form of bubbles. The oils and the fragrances are useful as a liquid to help form the bath bombs as well as leave the skin smooth and scented.

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DIY fIzzY bAtH bOmbsExperiment

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Mix together the Epsom salt and sea salt in the mixing bowl. Add glycerin to the salt mixture and mix thoroughly. The glycerin is not necessary, but it helps the colorant and oil get dispersed evenly through the salt.

Add a few drops of fragrance or essential oils. Fragrance oils smell pleasant, but essential oils have therapeutic properties. Try using a couple of the following: Rosemary: stimulating, invigorating, deodorizing Lavender: deodorizing and antibacterial Chamomile: calming Calendula: healing Peppermint: stimulating Lime: refreshing Note: Essential oils have different grades and must never be taken internally or applied directly on the skin. Use as directed.

Add a few drops of colorant. We recommend getting oil-based skin-safe colorant from a craft store or else leaving out the colorant.

Wet your hands with tap water, add a drop of soap to your hands, then rub together to form a lather. Observe how much lather forms, then rinse off your hands.

Fill a sink with water and add about 1/8 cup of salt mixture to it. Use your hands to stir the water to help the salt dissolve. With your hands still wet from the salt water, add a drop of soap to your hands and rub them together to form a lather. How much lather formed this time?

Store the remaining salts in a jar, keeping the lid on tightly to keep moisture out. Use about 1/4 cup of the salts in your bath.

*Baby soda bottles are ideally sized for storing single use portions of bath salts. If using baby soda bottles, you may find it easiest to fill them using a funnel.

Plastic mixing bowlPlastic mixing spoon1 cup Epsom salt1 cup sea salt1/2 teaspoon glycerinFragrance or essential oils (craft or health store)

Colorant (craft store)Liquid soapJar with lid, baby soda bottles* or other airtight container

Note: Epsom salt and glycerin can also be found at drug stores.

Bath salts do more than simply scent the water in your tub! Make your bath more relaxing and learn about salts and osmosis. (Adult supervision recommended.)

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DIY HOmEmADE bAtH sAltsExperiment

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WHAt HAPPENED: Most likely you found it easier to form lather (and more of it!) when using the water with salt rather than the water with no salt. This is because of the difference between hard water and soft water.

Most households in America have hard water. Hard water has a high mineral content, usually with calcium and magnesium, whereas soft water contains less of these minerals. Calcium and magnesium ions in the hard water react with the soap, forming insoluble gray flakes called soap scum rather than a lather. This means you need more soap to get clean and the bathtub gets a grimy ring around it from the leftover soap scum. One way to soften hard bath water is to add bath salts. The calcium and magnesium ions in the water are replaced with sodium and potassium ions from the salt, allowing the soap to lather much more easily. (If your home has soft water, you may not notice too much of a difference in how well the soap lathers in the water with your bath salts and the water without the bath salts. However, the salt and essential oils will still have a beneficial effect on your skin.)

Another benefit of adding bath salts to your bath has to do with osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water through a membrane (such as your skin) to achieve equilibrium. Your body contains water and salt, whereas an ordinary bath contains mainly water and very little salt. Therefore, water passes through your skin in an effort to balance the concentration of water and salt in you and in your bath. This excess water causes “pruning” (your fingers and toes wrinkle). Adding bath salts to the water causes a more equal balance of salt and water in both you and in the bath, so less water enters your skin and less wrinkling occurs. Salt is also thought to draw impurities and toxins out of your skin and soothes sore muscles!

DIY HOmEmADE bAtH sAlts - PAgE 2

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Make a supersaturated solution by stirring the Epsom salt (solute) into warm tap water (solvent) inside the beaker. If the salt doesn’t dissolve completely, have an adult help you microwave it for about 30 seconds. Carefully remove it, and stir it again.

Add the dishwashing soap and stir again.

Use the lens cloth to “wash” the solution onto a glass window or mirror. Dab away the excess to avoid drips.

Let it dry and enjoy your homemade “frost!”

1/3 cup (75 grams) Epsom salt, (magnesium sulfate)1-2 drops liquid dishwashing soap 1/2 cup water, (125 ml)lens cleaning cloth (or similar high-density cloth)

600 ml beaker (or other glass container)stirring rod (or spoon)

Use epsom salt to create crystals and frost your windows - even if it’s hot outside!

frOstED WINDOW PANEsExperiment

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WHAt YOu NEED:

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Make a supersaturated solution of Borax and water by having an adult help you use the microwave to heat about 200 ml of water until boiling. Use caution when removing the glass from the microwave, because it will be hot! Mix in teaspoons of Borax until no more will dissolve. Allow the solution to cool.

If you’re using a petri dish, use it as a template to cut your filter paper (or coffee filter) down to size so it will fit inside. Then fold the paper in half 2-3 times and snip the edges thinking about where the cuts will appear when you unfold it. You may want to practice on scratch paper first and figure out where to cut to come up with a snowflake design that you’re happy with.

Unfold your snowflake and place it in the petri dish (or on the plate) and carefully pour the supersaturated Borax solution over the snowflake, making sure it’s completely immersed.

Let the snowflake sit in the solution for an hour or longer until it’s covered in crystals. Pour off the extra solution (rinse it down the sink drain with hot water) and use a butter knife to carefully remove the snowflake. Place it on paper towels to dry. You may need to use a toothpick to knock crystals out of the snowflake’s holes.

Once it’s dry, feed fishing line or ribbon through the snowflake, tie the ends, and hang it on your tree. Or if it’s a gift, gently wrap it up for Christmas!

Note: Borax can be irritating to skin, so make sure you wash your hands after doing this project.

filter paper (or coffee filters)Borax (sodium tetraborate)waterspoon or skewerscissors

petri dish or deep platefishing line or ribbonglass measuring cup (or a 600 ml beaker)

Some bath products fizz and make bubbles when added to water. Ever wonder why? Try this experiment to find out. (Adult supervision recommended.)

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PAPEr sNOWflAkE crYstAl OrNAmENtScience Project

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Use the fork to mix 1 tablespoon (15 g) of alum into 2 cups (~475 ml) of warm water in the 600 ml beaker until it’s completely dissolved. Clean the fork and set aside.

Make a small mark on one side of the paper with a pencil. Use the brush to lightly coat the marked side of the paper with the alum solution. Allow the paper to fully dry (about an hour). If the paper is more wrinkled than you’d like, have an adult help you iron it between two plain sheets of paper on the low setting. Clean the beaker and set aside.

Create a size by combining 1/4 cup (2 oz) cornstarch with 1/4 (~60 ml) cup cold water in the 600 ml beaker. Stir with the fork. Once it’s well mixed, add 2 cups (~475 ml) cups hot water. Mix until the solution is syrupy and pour in the shallow pan.

Next, drop the food coloring into the size. Use 1-4 colors. If you’re using acrylic paint, thin it out with water first, so it’s the consistency of milk and use a dropper to put it onto the solution. Alternatively, you can try dipping a brush into the paint and gently tapping the handle over the solution. You want the paint to float on the surface of the cornstarch solution.

Use the comb, chopsticks, etc., to swirl, rake, and otherwise distribute the paint across the solution’s surface. Avoid disrupting it so much that the individual colors are no longer visible.

Carefully lay the paper, marked side down, into the size, smoothing it out so that no bubbles remain. Leave it for 30 seconds or so.

Lift the paper from the solution and rinse off any excess size with a gentle stream of water. Repeat step 3.

Place a sheet of newspaper in the solution to absorb any excess paint, and repeat steps 5-8.

Plain non-glossy white paperFood coloring or acrylic paintsMedicine dropper or pipet (if using acrylic paints)Large shallow panToothpick, comb, fork, chop sticks, paint brushes, or the likeAlum

mArblED PAPErUsing Cornstarch

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Paper marbling sprawls continents and centuries. Take one look at its stone-like or curlicue effects and it’s easy to see why. A variety of methods produce marbled paper. In this example, we will explore the method using cornstarch. Use your marbled paper for cards, gift wrap, or place it in a frame for one-of-a-kind art!

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NewspaperIron (optional)CornstarchWaterFork600 ml beakerPaint brush

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mArblED PAPEr usINg cOrNstArcH - PAgE 2

WHAt HAPPENED: First, you prepared the paper with a mordant, a substance used to set dyes. Mordants are used to set dye on fabrics and paper and to augment staining of cell and tissue samples. Since we used the mordant before the dying process, it’s called pre-mordanting or onchrome. Meta-mordanting, or metachrome, means the mordant is included in the dye, and post-mordanting, or after-chrome, is when mordant is applied following the dying process.

Once the mordanted paper was dry, you transferred a paint design from a viscous solution’s surface to the paper. You did this by making a size, or a substance used to alter the way the paper interacts with liquids. Specifically, the size slows the paper’s absorption rate, allowing the paint to adhere to the paper’s surface rather than being absorbed. Since the size has higher density than the paint, the design you made sits atop the size. Can you think of other materials you could use to make a size?

Tips: If your water stream isn’t gentle enough, it will wash off some of your paint, too!A common mistake is layering the paint too thick atop the size; a little goes a long way.Try making the classic nonpareil pattern by first raking the length of your size container, then carefully raking the width.

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Dispense a mound of shaving cream in a shallow pan or countertop.

Level it out with a ruler or spatula as best you can.

Drop food coloring or paint onto the shaving cream and swirl it (as shown in the second picture to the right. Take care not to mix the colors too much.)

Carefully press the paper into the shaving cream, smoothing out bubbles. Leave it on for a minute or so.

Lift the paper off. Gently rinse under running water and let dry.

If the paper is more wrinkled than you’d like, have an adult help you iron it between two plain sheets of paper on the low setting.

Shaving cream

Shallow pan

Ruler or spatula

mArblED PAPErUsing Shaving Cream

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Paper marbling sprawls continents and centuries. Take one look at its stone-like or curlicue effects and it’s easy to see why. A variety of methods produce marbled paper. In this example, we will explore the method using shaving cream. Use your marbled paper for cards, gift wrap, or place it in a frame for one-of-a-kind art!

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Food coloring

Plain non-glossy white paper


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Remove 4-5 red leaves from the poinsettia and use the scissors to cut them into pieces.

Place the cut up leaves into the bottom of the 400 ml beaker. Add just enough water to cover the leaves.

Use your hot plate, lab burner with stand, or alcohol lamp with stand to heat the water to boiling. Be sure to follow lab fire safety protocol! (You may also use a microwave for this step.)

Continue simmering a few minutes until the leaves lose their color and the water is tinged deep red. Turn off heat source. If you’re handling the beaker (removing from the microwave), use caution as the beaker will be hot! Allow the solution to cool.

Once the beaker is cool enough to touch, carefully pour the liquid through the filter paper-lined funnel into the other beaker. Remove the funnel and discard the remaining plant material and used filter paper.

Place another piece of filter paper (or coffee filter) into the petri dish (or other shallow dish).

Carefully pour the filtered liquid over the paper. Saturate the filter paper

Remove the now saturated filter paper from the shallow dish and allow to dry. Consider laying the saturated paper across a baking rack with paper towels or a cookie sheet underneath.

Once it’s dry, cut it into strips and it’s ready to use!

4-5 red poinsettia leaves400 ml beaker250 ml beakerFunnelGlass petri dish (or other small, shallow dish)Baking rackCookie sheet

mAkE POINsEttIA PH PAPErScience Project

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Once Christmas is over, use the red leaves from a poinsettia plant to do an easy after-Christmas chemistry science project! In this experiment, you’ll make pH test strips from poinsettia leaves and use them to discover acids and bases.

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Heat source, such as a hot plate, lab burner, or alcohol lampScissorsWaterFilter paper (or coffee filters)

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POINsEttIA PH PAPEr - PAgE 2

WHAt HAPPENED: Like red cabbage (which can also be boiled to make pH test strips), poinsettia leaves contain a chemical pigment called anythocyanin. It’s responsible for giving poinsettia leaves their deep red color. It’s also behind the color of red cabbage, blueberries, and the fall colors of some leaves. Anthocyanin is also pH sensitive, which is why we can use it to make test strips.

Remember that the pH scale allows us to measure how acidic or basic a solution is. Many varieties of pH test strips are commercially available, but some plants contain chemicals that can be used to make your own pH test strips! With these poinsettia strips, acids will turn the pigments in the indicator to an orange or reddish color. Bases will turn the pigments in the poinsettia pH strips yellow-green, blue or purple. Neutral substances will show no change on the test strip.

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Make sure you have someone with you at all times while building your igloo, so if it collapses, you won’t be trapped inside.

Use your plastic storage tub or mold to shape snow bricks. The size igloo you want to build will determine how many you need. Building igloos is hard work, so you may want to build one only big enough to accommodate two seated people. If you’re ambitious, try to build it big enough to lie down inside!

Use your shovel to dig out a pit from the area where you got the snow for your bricks. This will be your cold sink hole and entrance, so it doesn’t have to be very large—perhaps a third of the size of your igloo’s floor space and a foot or so deep. It will be like a short tunnel that you crawl down into then back up to enter the igloo. (see above)

Now starting at one edge of the sink hole, flatten out a circular span of ground. A fun way to do it is by making a snow angel. This flat area should be the size you want your igloo to be.

Assemble snow bricks in a circle around the edge of the flattened ground. This is the base of your igloo’s walls. Make sure the igloo is accessible via the sink hole entrance. You may need to dig it out a bit more.

Stack another row of snow bricks atop the first, overlapping blocks and packing loose snow in the gaps as you build up and shape the walls into a dome. Be sure to leave small gaps here and there to allow air in, so you can breathe inside your igloo.

For the final brick or cap, you’ll need a brick slightly larger than the hole. Have your adult supervisor or friend help you set it in place. Now have one person go inside the igloo and wiggle and shape the brick to fit snugly. You may have to chisel it down a bit.

Continue to fill the cracks (but not all of them!) with loose snow. In particular, leave a hole near the top. From the inside, smooth the walls out and create grooves running floor-to-ground. These will catch water as it melts, so it flows down and doesn’t drip on you.

With adult supervision, bring a candle inside and light it. This will melt the walls a bit, which will strengthen your igloo when they refreeze. At night, you may pour a glass of water on your igloo to strengthen it from the outside too.

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Adult supervisionHard, packed, dry snowRectangular plastic storage tub or other suitable mold

Friends to helpSnow shovel

buIlD A full-sIzE IglOO

WHAt HAPPENED: The snow acts as an insulator, that is, something that is a poor conductor of heat or electricity. So the heat in the igloo, from body temperatures, candles, etc., can’t escape through the snow walls. But what about the cold air? After all, the temperature must be below freezing (32° F) in order to build an igloo! That’s where the sink hole comes in. First, since it’s lower than the rest of the igloo’s floor, cold air settles into it while warm air rises, filling the rest of the igloo. This occurs because warm air is less dense than cold air since its molecules are more spread out than those in cold air. Second, the angle of the sinkhole means that wind can’t blow straight into the igloo like it would if the entrance was level to the rest of the igloo. All these factors work together to make the air inside an igloo as much as 40-50 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. The small hole in the top of the igloo allows the hottest air to escape, which is why the igloo doesn’t melt completely.

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You’ll need around 50 ice cubes in various sizes. Make half the ice cubes full sized. The other half should be an assorted sizes made from filling the ice cube trays half and three-quarters full.

Sprinkle salt on the cookie sheet. Make a circle with 12 ice cubes and place in the freezer untill completely frozen.

For the second row, dip one side of each ice cube in the salt. Center each cube, salty side down, on the seam between two cubes from the bottom row (like brick walls). Use the slushy mix to carefully fill the gaps. Refreeze.

Repeat step 2, making each successive layer with smaller and smaller cubes. Each new row should be smaller than the one before, creating a dome. Refreeze as necessary. Continue until only a small hole in the top center remains.

Make a door with two parallel rows of ice cubes and smaller ice cubes placed on top. Use slushy mix to fill the gaps.

Carefully pat a thin layer of slushy mix over the entire igloo and then refreeze for 2-3 hours.

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Slushy mix (made with a few ice cubes and tablespoons of water in the blender) 2-3 ice cube traysSalt

WaterTeaspoonBaking sheetFreezer space

buIlD AN IcE cubE IglOO

WHAt HAPPENED:

The salt works as an adhesive by melting the ice cube where you dipped it. The melted part then “sticks” to the frozen cubes below. The salt works by lowering the freezing point of the ice cube. Freshwater freezes at 32° F, but saltwater freezes at 28.8° F. In order for the salty ice cube to stay frozen, the side with the salt on it would need to be below 28.8° F. Since room temperature is often around 70° F, the ice melts.

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Put 30 grams (approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons) iron filings in 3×5 zip-top bag.

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons salt. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons sodium polyacrylate.

Finish with 1 1/2 tablespoons of warm – NOT hot – water.

Carefully remove air and zip bag closed.

Place 3×5 bag inside 4×6 bag. Carefully remove air and zip bag closed.

Shake, squeeze, and knead the mixture for 30 seconds or so until a slush forms inside the smaller bag and the water is completely mixed in. Be cautious to set the bag down if it gets too hot.

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Iron filingsSodium chloride (table salt)3×5 thick zip-top bag, or other small size you may have4×6 thick zip-top bag, or other larger size you may have

Water gel powder (sodium polyacrylate), or other absorbent material, such as sawdust or sand

DIY HAND WArmErs

WHAt HAPPENED: When you introduced the iron filings to salt, air, and water, it produced iron oxide, or rust. The chemical reaction that occurred is considered an exothermic reaction. Exo means out and thermal means heat, so an exothermic reaction is literally one in which heat (or light) is released. In this case, while the oxidation is occurring, heat is produced. The sodium polyacrylate, or water gel powder, helps lock in moisture so the chemical reaction can take place. But once the air-activated process is complete, no more heat will be emitted—this can take from one to several hours! To avoid tetanus exposure, throw hand warmers away when you’re finished experimenting.

Further exploration: How does the reaction change if you add more iron filings? How does it change if you add less? What about the other ingredients? How does adjusting the ratio of salt or water gel powder affect the reaction?

Repeat the experiment using varying amounts of materials. Use a thermometer to record the temperature of each and and note how long the bag stays heated.

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Perhaps you’ve toted a pack of hand warmers along to a football game or crammed them into the toe of your ski boots. While there are various types of commercial hand warmers, this version uses rusty iron filings to create a toasty, pocket-portable heat source.

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With a grown-up’s help, use the superglue or hot glue to affix your trees or other decorative items to the inside of the lid. Let dry.

Fill jar about 3/4 full of water.Put a few pinches of glitter or fake snow in the jar. Screw the lid on very tightly.

Turn your jar upside-down and watch the snow fall inside your homemade DIY snow globe.

Now add several drops of liquid glycerin (or an equal amount of corn syrup) making sure you leave room for air at the top. Repeat step 3.

Finally, if you like, you may decorate the base (lid) of your snow globe with ribbon, fabric, or pretty paper.

Adult supervisionSmall glass jar with tight fitting lidHot glue gun or super glueDistilled waterLiquid glycerin or light corn syrup

DIY sNOW glObEExperiment

WHAt HAPPENED: Have you ever noticed how sometimes objects of the same size weigh different amounts? That’s because of density. We figure out an object’s density by comparing its mass to its volume. Mass refers to the amount of matter that makes up an object. Volume refers to the amount of space an object occupies. Compare a rock and a marshmallow that are the same size (having equal volume), which is heavier? The rock is, because it has more mass. That means the rock has greater density than the marshmallow because it has more mass (amount of matter) in the same volume (occupied space).

Liquids have density, too. The more dense a liquid is, the easier it is for an object to float on. Glycerin (or corn syrup) is more dense than water; so after we added it to the snow globe, the snow fell more slowly. Try adding a few more drops of glycerin (or corn syrup). What did you notice? You should have found that the more glycerin (or corn syrup) you add, the slower the snow falls.

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Learn about liquid density with an easy snow globe project. Kids of all ages, the young and the young at heart, appreciate the appeal of a snow globe. And even young kids are capable of mastering this easy DIY snow globe.

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Fake snow or glitter (find at craft stores)Small plastic trees, animals, houses, or other decorations

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winter science experiments

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