Making Crystals

Crystals are all around us like salt, sugar and snow.

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They are made up of geometric shapes such as hexagons and cubes

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Crystals can be made from things such as minerals, ice, sugar, sand, ceramics and some liquids.

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Crystals are so common because the word ‘crystal’ describes any units of matter that are arranged in an ordered form. These units can be molecules, atoms or ions.

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You can grow a crystal, just like you would build something with Lego, connecting lots of bricks together to make a solid shape.

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When the molecules of the to-be crystals (called solute) are bumping around each other in a liquid (called solvent), they stick together. These hang on to other molecules and before you know it, a crystal has started to form. The more solute in the solvent, the faster your crystal will grow.

Salt crystals

Sugar crystals

Snow crystals

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You are going to make your own crystal using sugar and water. It will make an edible rock candy for you to enjoy eating!

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When you have finished your crystal experiment, you can share your results with your teacher in one of the following ways:

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1. Draw a picture or take a photo of your finished crystal.

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• Write what you see in the recording table on slide 7 and take a photo of your finished crystal.

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• Fill in the recording table on slide 7 by writing what you see and including a photo of your crystal growing every day.

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• Make a short video showing you making the crystal, it’s growth over a few days and the final product!

To make your own edible rock candy, you will need this equipment:

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• 1 cup water
• 3 cups table sugar
• a clean glass jar
• a pencil or butter knife
• string or thin rope (use cotton, not nylon)
• a pan for boiling water and making the solution
• a spoon for stirring
• food colouring (optional)

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Instructions:

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You will need an adult’s help to use the stove.

1. Tie the string to your pencil or butter knife. The string should be able to hang into your jar without touching the bottom or sides.
2. In the pan start boiling the water.
3. Stir the sugar into the water, one spoonful at a time. You want to make sure there is lots of the sugar in the solution but not so much that it doesn't all dissolve into the water. If you have some undissolved sugar your crystals will start building onto those molecules rather than your string.
4. Add a few drops of food coloring if you want your crystals to be coloured.

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pan spoon sugar water

5. Carefully pour the solution from the pan into your clean glass jar. If the jar is not clean, the crystals will grow on the jar instead of the string.

6. Tie the string to the middle of the pencil or butter knife. Balance the pencil or butter knife over the edge of the jar and let the string dangle into the sugar and water solution. Make sure the string does not touch the sides or bottom of the jar.

7. Cover your jar with paper or cling wrap to keep dust out.

8. Put it somewhere safe where it won’t get knocked over.

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Check your crystals every day and notice the changes you are seeing.You can use this table to record what you see every day. Add more days if you need to. Use words, drawings and/or photos. After about a week, you should be able to remove your string and eat your rock candy!

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Crystals growing

Here are some links to videos about crystals:

This video takes students to a museum to learn about rocks and crystals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEJXaWRptQo

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This is an animation with basic information about crystals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkNM6666hG4

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This video presents more detailed information. Recommended for older students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgSRAsgrKmg

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