Experiment #1

Magic Christmas Milk Experiment

1. Cover the bottom of the dish or plate with milk. You don’t need it too deep.  The experiment works best with just a thin layer of milk.
2. Put some dishwashing liquid into a small cup or dish. You will only need a small amount. Just enough to coat the cotton swab several times.
3. Take the eyedropper and drop several drops of the red and green food coloring all over the milk layer. Do not stir.  Just carefully drop on top of the milk spacing them apart to ensure the best reaction.
4. Dip a cotton swab into the dishwashing liquid. You’ll only need enough to cover the cotton swab.
5. Touch the cotton swab to the milk mixture.  Don’t stir with the swab. Just touch the swab to the top of the milk.  You can keep dipping the swab into the dishwashing liquid and touching the milk mixture. If you hold the swab in the milk, the reaction will work as well.

The Science Behind the Experiment

The liquids in this experiment, like all liquids, is covered with an invisible protective coating called, Surface Tension and it keeps them from touching other liquids. The detergent breaks down the molecules in this surface tension and then allows the food coloring, milk and detergent to mix, allowing the reaction you are seeing.

Experiment #2

Candy Cane Science

1. Place the bowls or small plates together so that you will be able to watch results simultaneously. You’ll want to leave them where they are for about 30 min to get the full reactions.
2. Bowl 1 – Oil, Bowl 2 – Cold Water, Bowl 3 – Vinegar, Bowl 4 – Warm water You only need enough to cover the candy cane/surround the candy cane for reaction.
3. Place a candy cane in each bowl. Try to put the candy in all the bowls quickly as the reaction will start happening immediately.
4. On the chart provided, watch and record your reactions so that you can see which liquid affects the candy cane the most and the fastest. The experiment will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

The Science Behind the Experiment

Liquid molecules will insert themselves into the sugar molecules, breaking apart the bonds that hold the sugar together. Over time, they break all the molecules apart, which dissolves the candy cane.  The heat in the warm water makes the molecules move faster, which is why the candy cane in that bowl dissolved faster than the cold water.

What happened to the oil? The oil molecules are very close together so it is much harder for the oil to break the sugar molecules than the water.  Given time, it will still dissolve the cane, it will just take much longer.

Did you notice the red color tried to stay together as it dissolved the candy cane?  That’s because the red food coloring has its own molecule that tries to stick together during the experiment until it gets too diluted to stick and then will turn the water pink as it continues to blend with the water.

Experiment #3

Growing Crystals

1. Carefully split the hot water between the 2 jars or glasses.
2. If using food coloring, add a couple of drops of color to each jar and stir.
3. Split the baking soda between the 2 jars and slowly add half to each jar (¼ cup in each jar) and stir.  **the baking soda will bubble when added to the hot water so add slowly to avoid overflow**
4. Tie the string ends to the paper clips or objects you are using as weights.
5. Put one end of the string into each jar and slide the jars apart about 6 inches. Make sure the string is still submerged in the liquid. It does not need to touch the bottom.
6. Leave the jars undisturbed (don’t shake or move them around) at least overnight. You should see a good bit of crystals the next morning. After 2 days, you should see crystals forming along the string between the jars.

The Science Behind the Experiment

The science behind making crystals is that when you dissolve a solid such as sugar, baking soda, borax or salt in water, it doesn’t just disappear, even though you can’t see it. The solid breaks down into tiny molecules. As the water evaporates, it cannot hold all of those molecules anymore and crystals begin to form. The more water evaporates, the more crystals form. The formation type of crystal depends on what kind of salt or solid is used.

Using various types of salts will allow you to see different types of formations.

What Next?

If you want to experiment with different types of crystal formations, below are some other recipes for other salts that can be used.

Epsom Salt Crystals:

• 1 cup of hot water
• 4 tablespoons of Epsom Salt
• Black construction paper
• Container to hold paper and small amount of liquid

Add Epsom salt to the water and stir. Cut the black paper to fit into the bottom of the container that you will grow the crystals in. Pour just enough liquid over the black paper and allow to sit somewhere overnight. As the water evaporates, the spike like crystals will grow onto the black paper making it easy to see the formations.

Borax Crystals:

** Borax is a cleaner and should be handled with adult supervision**

• 1 cup of hot water
• ¼ cup of Borax cleaner
• Pipe cleaner
• Jar/Glass that will not be used again (the crystals are very hard & thick)

Add the hot water to the jar and then stir in the Borax slowly to avoid splashing out of the jar. Place the pipe cleaner in the jar. You can bend the pipe cleaner to form a hook at the end so that it can hang inside the jar. Set the jar somewhere safe from little hands overnight. The next morning, the cube shaped crystals will be big and very easy to see attached to the pipe cleaner and the bottom of the glass/jar.