Instructions for Growing Crystals

Salt, sugar, and Epsom salt crystals are easy to grow at home or in a classroom.

Crystals come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. Growing crystals is a simple process that is a good science experiment for students both at home or in the classroom. Due to the nature of crystal growing, you should provide adult supervision to children who are performing the experiment. You can choose from salt, sugar, or Epsom salt with this process. These materials will produce beautiful crystals in as little as a few hours. Large crystals will grow if you let the experiment sit for a day or more.

Things You'll Need

• Glass jar
• String
• Spoon
• Pencil
• Hot water
• Salt, sugar, or Epsom salt

Instructions

1. Heat 1 to 2 cups of water and transfer it to a clean jar. For salt and sugar crystals, you can boil the water, but Epsom salt grows best with hot water that did not boil.

2. Pour an equal amount of salt or Epsom salt into the water. For sugar crystals, add twice as much sugar as water. Stir until the water is saturated. You will know the solution is saturated when no more materials will dissolve in the water.

3. Tie a piece of string to a pencil and place the pencil across the top of the jar so that the string suspends into the water. Epsom salt crystals will also grow in a jar or bowl without a string.

4. Place the Epsom salt solution in the refrigerator. The salt and sugar solutions can sit on a counter at room temperature. Check the solution in three hours. The Epsom salt and salt crystals will begin to form quickly. Sugar crystals take longer to grow. The longer you let the container sit, the larger the crystals will grow.

Tips & Warnings

• Dissolve the sugar into the water in a pot on the stove to fully saturate the solution, if possible. Take care not to spill the sugar on the burner, because it can cause a flame.

• Check your crystals daily. Sugar crystals will continue to grow in size if you replace the solution water at least every other day.

• Do not let the string touch the sides of the jar.

• Add food coloring to the solution to color the crystals.

References

• This and That: Crystal Growing