Rock Candy Crystals
Here's another activity that demonstrates how chemicals change when they're combined.
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- Button with large holes
- 1 cup water
- Medium saucepan
- Drinking glass or glass jar
- Help your child mix the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook the syrup over medium heat until it boils. Let it boil for 4 minutes without stirring it, then remove it from the heat and let it cool for a minute.
- Thread the string through the button and tie it securely. Tie the other end of the string to the pencil. Leave several inches of string between the button and pencil.
- Pour the syrup into the glass. Don't touch the glass after you?ve poured in the syrup; it will be very hot. Set the pencil across the top of the glass or jar. The button should hang suspended in the syrup.
- When the glass is cool enough to touch, move it to a place where it'll be easy to see but be undisturbed for a week or so.
- Look at your syrup from time to time. First you'll see small crystals forming on the string. Eventually these will become larger chunks that can be broken off and eaten.
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Copyright © 2001 by Patricia Kuffner. Excerpted from The Children's Busy Book with permission of its publisher, Meadowbrook Press.
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