Frozen Water Magic Science Project
Frozen has been popular around here, so I've been working on my ice powers (of science experiments)! See this picture? With this science project, I made the water freeze into a pillar of ice...instantly!
Ever since I saw "The King of Random's" video about freezing water, I knew my kids would love it. (By the way, you should check out his channel here...he has loads of fun ideas!) Now that it's summer and super hot outside, and my kids have been singing Frozen for months, ice activities are even more popular for our crew! So, we set out to make water turn into ice!
And, since we've been playing with videos lately, I thought I'd share our experiment with you! Detailed instructions are below. If the video doesn't load, you can see it here.
You can also use cool ice powers to freeze water (just like Elsa!) by following these easy steps:
1- (Preparation) Place several water bottles in the freezer for about three hours. You want the water to reach a freezing temperature, but not be frozen yet. You can test a "tester" bottle by squeezing the water bottle very hard. If ice begins to form in the middle of the bottle, you're ready! If not, put it back in the freezer. Ours were in the freezer for 3 hours and 15 minutes.
2- Fill a small glass bowl half full of ice. Alternatively, you could place the bowl in the freezer too. Crush a few cubes of ice with a hammer and place them in the bowl. These will serve as "seeds" for the ice crystals to grow around.
3- Very slowly pour your super cold water onto the crushed ice, and watch your ice "frozen" towers grow!
What's going on?
Ever since I saw "The King of Random's" video about freezing water, I knew my kids would love it. (By the way, you should check out his channel here...he has loads of fun ideas!) Now that it's summer and super hot outside, and my kids have been singing Frozen for months, ice activities are even more popular for our crew! So, we set out to make water turn into ice!
And, since we've been playing with videos lately, I thought I'd share our experiment with you! Detailed instructions are below. If the video doesn't load, you can see it here.
You can also use cool ice powers to freeze water (just like Elsa!) by following these easy steps:
1- (Preparation) Place several water bottles in the freezer for about three hours. You want the water to reach a freezing temperature, but not be frozen yet. You can test a "tester" bottle by squeezing the water bottle very hard. If ice begins to form in the middle of the bottle, you're ready! If not, put it back in the freezer. Ours were in the freezer for 3 hours and 15 minutes.
2- Fill a small glass bowl half full of ice. Alternatively, you could place the bowl in the freezer too. Crush a few cubes of ice with a hammer and place them in the bowl. These will serve as "seeds" for the ice crystals to grow around.
3- Very slowly pour your super cold water onto the crushed ice, and watch your ice "frozen" towers grow!
What's going on?
As water gets very cold, ice crystals will form when one of two things happen: 1- Water molecules will form ice crystals by latching on to other ice crystals (or seeds) that have already formed or 2- Water molecules get close enough to each other that they arrange as a crystal and other water molecules attach to the first crystals. The crushed ice serves as ice crystal seeds. You are pouring water onto the seeds that is cold enough to freeze...it just needs something to "grab" onto!
Extend the experiment!
Compare different types of water with this science experiment. How does spring water (which we used) behave differently than tap water? Or filtered water? What if you poured almost-frozen water into a chilled bowl and "planted" ice seeds in different spots? What else could you try for this science project?
I may share at any of these parties!
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