We all know crystals can grant magical healing and seeing-the-future powers. That’s a no brainer. We all also know that it has to be just the right kind of special crystal, though, in order to imbue the user with these powers. It can be difficult or impossible to determine which crystals will impart these powers, though—you can’t just grab any crystal you find on the street and start curing cancer!
Rather than fumble and bumble about trying to find a magic crystal, I suggest growing your own crystals and keeping your fingers crossed that one of them will turn out to be magical. You’ve got a whole classroom full of students at your disposal, so you can have them each grow their own crystal and multiply your chances for magicalness by, um, however many students you have. It’s easy!
Grow Like Magic*
For this Demo Science science demo, you’ll need a jar for each student, a half cup of salt for each student (good thing salt is dirt cheap!), spoons, string, at least one scissor, a mess of toothpicks, and a good amount of water.
The actual experiment itself is really pretty simple. Have each kid pour about a half cup of salt into his or her jar, then fill it the rest of the way with water (not totally full, you need a little room to work, so leave some room at the top). Pass the spoons around so everyone can stir up their salt-and-water mixture to turn it into saltwater.
Cut a length of string for each student; if any of them can be trusted with a scissor, they can help you cut the string. Have everyone tie their bit of string to a toothpick, then have them plop the strings into their jars, with the toothpicks hanging over the side.
Then, we wait…
Patience is A Virtue, Kids
You’ll have to leave this one for a while, possibly several days. Some strings may start to “grow” their crystals sooner than others—those kids get bonus points. Eventually, though, everyone should have a nice little string of salt crystals. Take them out of the jar when the time is right and examine them under a microscope or microscopes. (Oh yeah, you also need as many microscopes as you can round up for this science experiment. Add that to the list above.)
What do your students see when inspecting their crystal strands? Under magnification, they should be able to see the structure of the individual crystals pretty clearly. What shape are the crystals? What color? Are there any living microorganisms mixed in? (This is entirely possible, depending on what might be in the water and/or salt, but not guaranteed to happen.) Are they groupings of a bunch of smaller crystals? Or just a few larger crystals?
There’s a lot that can be learned from just lil’ ol’ water and salt. With any luck, at least a quarter of them will impart magical powers. Don’t let your students know that, though, or all heck will break loose!
* Magic not guaranteed.