Crystals By: Kaitlyn VerBrugge

Big Question Will Crystals form using warm water and bath salts? I want to see if crystals will form and if they will in warm water.

Hypothesis If crystals grow using baking soda and water, then will they grow using bath salts? I thought this because there as so many ways you can grow crystals so if it would work using bath salts and warm water.

Interesting Facts Crystals form by a process called nucleation. Some crystals are so small you would need a microscope to see one. Crystals form by atoms, molecules and ions. Crystals also form by a periodic table. One kind of crystal called a Geode is formed using salt, water, food coloring and an egg shell.

Materials Warm Tap Water Pencil One Piece of Purple Cotton Thread Spaghetti Sauce Jar Quart Pitcher Bath Salts Spoon

Step by Step 1. Get bath salts from the cabinet. 2. Get a quart pitcher and a spaghetti sauce jar and put all three objects side by side. 3. Go to the sink and fill the quart pitcher up with warm water half way. 4. With a spoon pour six spoonfuls of bath salts in to the water and stir. 5. Let the water cool. 6. With adult supervision, pour the solution into the spaghetti sauce jar. 7. Go down to the basement and get a piece of cotton thread. 8. Cut the cotton thread as big as you want. 9. Get a pencil and tie the cotton thread around it. 10. Set the pencil down on top of the jar and leave it alone.

Control and Variables Due to my project being a model my project doesn’t have a control or variable

Observations On the 6th day the crystals started to take form They started to grow on top of the pencil On the 10th day the grew bigger and bigger I am still growing them and observing them day by day

Data When I 1st started growing the crystals they grew slowly Then they started to pop up. What I found interesting was that it started to take form on top of the pencil when my references said they would start growing on the thread

Analysis of Data The experiment tested my hypothesis by how long it took and how it grew on top of the pencil I knew because one of my references said it would grow on the bottom of the thread

What would I change I would change the time of letting it cool Also I would change the size of pitcher and jar.

Questions Will anything change using two solutions instead of one? If I used two pencils and two threads will they grow on each one? If I cut my experiment short, unlike this one, would it affect it?

Conclusion Yes my hypothesis was correct; crystals do grow using bath salts and warm water

References 1.Science Library. Kerrod,R. 1996\par 2.http://www.chemistry.co.nz/crystals_forming.htm.September,2009\par 3.http://www.chemistry.co.nz/growing_crystals_recipes.htm.September,2009\par 4.http://library.thinkquest.org/J002289/crystals.html.September,2009\par 5.http://www.beloit.edu/sepm/Rocks_and_minerals/growing_crystals.html.September,2009\par