Junior High Science Projects on Crystals
Experiments with crystals can turn into science fair projects for middle school students or even easy projects to complete in class. Students in junior high can grow their own crystals, classify crystals by their traits and create models to demonstrate scientific knowledge. Many of these projects are easy and inexpensive to do.
Other People Are Reading
-
Make Snowflakes
-
Cut a white pipe cleaner into three equal sections then twist the sections together in the shape of an asterisk. Attach a piece of string to the end of the pipe cleaner then tie the string around a pencil. Fill a wide-mouth jar with boiling water. Add 3 tablespoons of borax to the jar for every cup of water and stir until it's dissolved. Place the pipe cleaner in the jar with the pencil resting on top and let it sit overnight. In the morning, crystals will have formed on the pipe cleaner.
Make Rock Candy
-
For this activity, mix 1/2 cup of boiling water and 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time, to create a clear syrup. After letting the syrup cool for 10 minutes, pour it into a glass jar. Take a piece of string, approximately 6 inches long, and tie one end around a Popsicle stick and the other end around a pencil. Place the Popsicle stick in the jar with the pencil resting on top and let it sit for a week. At the end of the week, the mixture should have crystallized into rock candy. Students can experiment with different types of sugar to determine which makes the best candy crystals.
-
Which Makes Better Crystals?
-
Prepare four glass jars. In the first jar, place 1-3/4 cup of table salt and 4 cups of boiling water. In the second and third jars, add 1-3/4 cup brown sugar in one jar and the same amount of white sugar in the other jar along with 1 cup of boiling water in each jar. In the final jar, add 1 pound of powdered sugar and 1 cup of boiling water. Let each of the jars sit overnight and record any changes to the mixtures in the morning.
Crystals and Temperature
-
Using the simple rock candy recipe above, prepare three jars of the syrup. Place one jar in the freezer, one jar under a lamp and one jar at room temperature. Let the jars sit for a week, writing down observations daily. At the end of the week, take the temperature of the jar and determine which temperature grew the best crystals.
-
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
