Science Fair project

Step 1 Big Question

       What are the best temperature conditions for growing the largest, purest crystals?

Step 2 Hypothesis

       My hypothesis is that if the saturated solution is cooled quickly the best crystals will form.

Step 3

I learned that crystals are solids made of molecules in a specific repeated pattern .

I learned that crystals can form out of a saturated solutions. A saturated solution is when you cannot dissolve any more

solids in water or other substances. I also learned that you can dissolve more sugar in hot tea

than cold tea. Crystals form when a hot saturated solution is cooled .

Cooled water cannot hold the solids and so the solids come out of the solution in crystal form.

Step 4 Experiment

   Lab notebook    Large bowl    Ice, enough to fill large bowl at least three times    Water    Thermometer    String    Scissors    3 Pencils    3 large drinking glasses    Pot with a lid    Borax    Tablespoon    Plastic wrap

Step 5

The refrigerator had the most crystals.The room temp. had the least amount of crystals. The ice bath had the medium amount of crystals. The ice bath was 32 degrees. The room temp. was 70 degrees. The refrigerator was 41 degrees.

Step 6 Data

COOLING CONDITIONS TEMPERATURE TIME NUMBER SIZE OBSERVATIONS

ICE BATH 32 degrees 7hrs medium big random shapes

  REFRIGERATOR 41 degrees 7 hrs

most biggest random shapes  ROOM TEMPERATURE 70 degrees 7 hrs

least small cubed shaped 

Step 7 Analysis of data

My experiment tested my hypothesis which was that if a saturated solution is cooled quickly the best crystals will form .I tested this by putting the saturated borax solutions in three different temperature, one that cooled quickly (ice bath) , one that cooled less quickly (refrigerator) and one that cooled slowly (room temperature) and after 7 hours I checked each and recorded my results .

Step 8 Conclusion

My hypothesis was not correct. The borax solution cooled in the ice bath did not produce the best (largest number of nice cube shaped) crystals. The ice bath produced a medium number of medium sized crystals of random shapes. The refrigerator had the most and the biggest crystals but they were not all cubed shaped. The room temperature crystals had the least amount but were cubed shaped. As I did more research I discovered that the crystals that should have done the best was the room temperature because the crystals have more time to arrange in a cube shape.

Step 9 References

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Chem_p082.shtml?fave=no&isb=c2lkOjEsaWE6Q2hlbSxwOjEscmlkOjQwOTE4Mzc&from=TSW

  ttp://www.ehow.com/how_3866_grow-

borax-crystals.html