How to Form Sugar Crystals
Growing sugar crystals can be a fun way to show children how crystals grow. It seems like magic when crystals start to appear out of a clear liquid. They continue to grow larger every day. Introduce children to science in a fun and tasty way. They can eat the results when the experiment is over. For some extra fun, add some food coloring before the experiment finishes.
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Things You'll Need
- 2 to 3 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- String or bamboo skewer
- Paper clip
- Coffee filter
- Food coloring
Instructions
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1
Place 8 oz. of water into a pan and heat on the stove until boiling. Do the first two steps exactly as stated or your sugar crystals may take longer to form. With the water still on simmer, slightly boiling, add the sugar a spoonful at a time, stirring to dissolve.
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2
Continue to add the sugar until no more sugar will dissolve in the simmering water. Remove the pot from the stove and carefully pour the water into the pre-sterilized jar. You will need to perform the next few steps rapidly before the solution starts to cool much.
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3
Put the bamboo skewer into the jar standing on the tip and poking through the coffee filter to keep it upright in the jar. Position the coffee filter over the mouth of the jar to keep dust out of the liquid.
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4
Position it in a cool and dry place in the sun and allow it to cool on its own. Look at the jar over the next few days and look closely for any sign of crystals grown on the skewer. You may also find crystal growth occurring on the sides and bottom of the jar.
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5
Add a few drops of food coloring to the jar a day or two before you decide to stop the growth of the crystals. This will trap some of the color in the crystal structure of the sugar and give your crystal skewer some color.
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Tips & Warnings
Try an experiment to give an example of what things are important for crystal growth. Prepare two jars to grow at the same time. In one, prepare and do everything as described above. In the second, boil the water and then remove it from the stove. As the water cools, add the sugar until no more will dissolve. You will note that not as much sugar will dissolve at the start and that the crystals grow slower than the one made by the original method.
