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Growing Crystals

My kids just spent a few days on growing crystals.  They have some interesting chemicals for crystals like 'aluminum mono basic' and 'copper sulphide ', that can grow large clear or blue crystals.

What the kids love most is just growing crystals in a borax solution.  They like using pipecleaners to make interesting shapes and colors.  Then after 4-6 hours in the solution, they are magically covered with crystals.

Here is a picture of their latest creations.

I know there is some debate about using borax with children.  It's a decision each parent learn about and make the decision for themselves.  

You can research any chemical by using google to search for the information.  In the search box, type in MATERIAL SAFETY DATA and the name of the chemical.  Usually there will be few to different copies to choose from and it's often interesting to read the differences.  Be sure to check for other chemicals you keep in your home like baking soda or laundry detergent.

 

There's lots of new content on the science website.  There are science experiments for growing salt crystals, and sugar crystals.  And information pages on what are crystals, how atoms bond, and what is in an atom.

Comments (4)

Almi:

Exciting experiments. And not just for kids, for childish adults as well... I'll probably try it sometime :) And those crystals can work nicely as Christmas decoration!

victory:

nice this will help me with my science project

davina:

Thank you for pouting this blog here for us kids you realy help us with finding projects this is great information for me i love projects. thank you! you help me alot.

abby:

Thank you for puting this blog here for us kids you realy help us with finding projects this is great information for me i love projects. thank you! you help me alot.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on October 25, 2006 2:26 PM.

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