Abstract

This science fair project was done to evaluate the rate of decomposition of bio-degradable
plastic in the natural environment. Biodegradable spoons are supposed to decompose with
time, but exactly how soon does this process take place? The experiment involved using
disposable spoons made from corn starch, wheat and plastic. These spoons were planted in
soil.

Hypothesis
Bio-degradable spoons lose some of their weight as quickly as within 30 days after being
kept in soil

Background
Biodegradable plastic
Bio-degradable plastic materials are able to degrade and decompose over time under natural
environmental conditions. The degradation of these bio-degradable plastics is achieved by
allowing micro-organisms to metabolize on their surface and decompose the plastic into
smaller parts and less harmful materials.
The decomposing of bio-degradable plastic can be done by natural composting or in a
landfill. Moisture and oxygen are normally required for the decomposition process to take
place and these conditions are readily available in most composting facilities.
Some of the concerns over the use of bio-degradable plastics are the release of carbon dioxide
during the decomposition process. The release of carbon dioxide into the environment
contributes to the release of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. However most
bio-degradable plastics are made from natural plant material ? and these plants hav consume
and reduce carbon dioxide gas in our atmosphere.

Scientific Terms
Biodegradable, decomposition, microorganisms, metabolize, composting, greenhouse gas

Materials

The materials required for this science fair project:

-

10 pieces corn starch based bio-degradable spoons

10 pieces wheat-based bio-degradable spoons

10 pieces plastic spoons

1 digital weighing scale

Soil, or a garden plot

Water

A black marker pen

Procedure
1. For this science fair project, the independent variable is the type of spoon used ? corn
starch based, wheat based and plastic. The dependent variable is the amount of
decomposition observed after 30 days. This is determined by using the digital
weighing scale to measure the weight of the spoons before and after the 30 days. The
constants (control variables) are the type of soil used, the length of time allowed for
decomposition, the temperature and humidity.
2. 10 pieces of each of the corn starch-based bio-degradable spoons, wheat-based
biodegradable spoons and plastic spoons are marked accordingly, as ?corn?, ?wheat?
and ?plastic?.
3. The total weight of each type of spoon is checked using the digital weight scale. The
total weight for the 10 spoons is divided by 10 to obtain the average spoon weight.
The values are recorded in the table given below.
4. The spoons are then planted inside a pile of garden soil and left there for 30 days to
decompose. Ensure that each spoon is surrounded entirely by soil, and ensure that soil
from the same bag/garden plot is thoroughly mixed, and used to cover all of the
spoons. The soil is watered daily to keep it moist. After the 30 days, the spoons are
removed from the soil and cleaned under tap water. The spoons are then allowed to
dry in the sun for a day.

5. The average weight of the spoons is again calculated as described in procedure 3 and
the results are recorded in the table below.

Observation
The results showed that the weight of the corn starch based spoon and wheat based spoon had
reduced after 30 days in the soil but the weight of the plastic spoon remained the same.

Spoon material

Spoon decomposition after 30 days

Start weight (g)

Finish weight (g)

% decomposition

Corn starch

4.1

3.2

21.95%

Wheat

5.6

4.9

12.50%

Plastic

3.1

3.1

0%

The chart below represents the results of our science project experiment.

Conclusion
The hypothesis that biodegradable spoons lose some of their weight after as little 4 weeks
in the soil, is proven to be correct. At 30 days, it was evident that the corn starch-based
spoons and the wheat-based spoons had begun to decompose, but this was not the case for
the plastic spoons.
More than 20 million tons of plastic materials are produced around the globe every year. Out
of these, only a small percentage are recycled. The difficulty faced in the recycling of plastic
material is that most plastic waste matter comes mixed together with other types organic

wastes. The process of separating the plastic from organic waste is time consuming and
costly. However, in the case of bio-degradable plastics, the presence of organic waste
actually aids the process of decomposition! Bio-degradable plastics may be a good
alternative to regular plastic, in order to prevent the pollution of our environment.

The spectrum of visible light

The spectrum of the sun is hardly ever to be seen without

suitable apparatus "in nature". Today everybody knows the
colours seen on compact discs, and looking at the light of
an incandescent lamp mirrored by a CD, one can see the
mirror image of the lamp and, at different angles, the
spectral decomposition of its light.
In former times, only under very special conditions this could be observed if e.g. in a dark room a
beam of sunlight fell on a piece of cut glass and produced a multicoloured strip at the wall, a (strange)
spectre in the original meaning of the word. First perhaps incidentally observed, the conditions were
then refined by Isaac Newton using glass prisms. Newton described the phenomenon and explained it
by differently strong refraction of the different colours of light. But only William Hyde Wollaston (1804)
and independently Joseph Fraunhofer (1814) developed the experimental assembly so far that they
could see then also unexpectedly fine details in the solar spectrum: Absorption lines, the wavelengths
of which could be measured by Fraunhofer and which afterwards were named after him.
The sun's spectrum with Fraunhofer lines.
Image taken from a postal stamp honouring
Fraunhofer's 200th birthday.
You may find in the internet suppliers of inexpensive kits to build a hand spectroscope; material like
diffraction gratings, prisms, lenses you may find there, as well as advice how to build a spectroscope.

The colours of the rainbow exhibit some

similarity with the spectrum, but they are far
from being spectral colours, not only because
they are not seen before a black background.

Pictures which are to show how the spectrum of light looks, may be found in books and also in the
Internet (an example from many: Dan Bruton's site), rarely it is said that this is to be understood at
best roughly qualitatively, because pure spectral colours cannot be rendered in print and on the screen.
This is shown by the following illustration:
The CIE x y diagram with the
range representable on an sRGBscreen ("gamut") and the line of
spectral colours. Two possibilities
are illustrated, how they can be
projected on the edge of the
triangle. The grey lines connect
spectral colours with points of the
same hue of the gamut, the
arrows point to the colours, which
result, if the negative values of R,
G or B are set equal to zero and
the positive ones are retained.
The results are confronted in the
next picture.
If in the following something is
maintained and illustrated by pictures, caution is required. If a spectroscope is at hand, you should
check whether it is correct what is to be read here (and in other places).

How does a spectrum look?

The representation of the "spectral colours" is a hard test for every method of rendition of coloured
pictures, for printing, colour film, cathode ray tubes (colour television and computer screens) and in
particular also the flat screens. (The reason for the irregularities and stripes seen on some TFT screens
in the following picture, I have up to now not found out. On a cathode ray tube monitor they do not
arise.)
Confrontation of two
illustrations
visible

of

the

spectrum

(corresponding to a
glowing

body

of

6000K). Colour and

relative
were

brightness
adapted

as

exactly as possible in
the upper picture, i.e.
white light was added,
until the edge of the
gamut was reached,
and then the brightness was adjusted to that of the real spectrum. In the lower half of the picture,
negative

values

of

R,

G,

were

set

to

zero

and

the

brightness

readjusted.

Largest R, G or B-values arising in the picture may not exceed the maximum value of 1, thus the
brightness is limited.
Where is the yellow light?
First it is noticed that in both variants there is no real yellow. What is between red and green looks like
greenish orange or orange-green. That sounds strange, but look at it! The correct designation of the
colour is olive.

Looking through a prism at a narrow white strip

on a dark background, the white (light) is seen
decomposed into colours; however, one does
not see seven distinct colours as might be
expected, but rather only three, namely red,
green, and violet-blue, as has already been
noticed by Goethe.
Also with a spectroscope one does not see yellow in a spectrum of low intensity. Indeed, the spectrum
does not appear particularly colourful when it is dim; red, green and violet-blue, with the mentioned
"discoloured" transition between red and green. Only with sufficient brightness finest colour gradations
become visible and the spectrum displays its whole splendour. Then it has also a yellow part. The
dependence of the perceived colour on the brightness is known since the 19th century under the name
of Bezold Brcke shift.
A further, similar effect is the shift of the perceived colour when white (light) is added (Abney effect).
This is not yet disturbing in the small image shown above; but in the large original (you find its
PostScript source code here) the dark "rose-pink" corresponds much less to what one sees at the red
end of the spectrum than the red in the lower part.
The simulation of the spectrum shown in the upper half of the picture is to a certain extent the optimum
of the attainable realism, if as faithful a rendition of colour and brightness as possible is aimed at. The
"absence" of yellow is not to be repaired, as long as the brightness corresponds to reality. The
physiological colour yellow is brighter than red and green, in the continuous spectrum, however, the
brightness at the wavelengths from 570 to 580 nm is always close to those of the neighbouring colours.
There is no really satisfying rendition of the spectrum on the screen or in print.
The simulation shown in the lower half shows more saturated colours, but clear hue falsifications:
unique green, neither blueish nor yellowish, should be seen at the wavelength of 530 nm, but instead
there is the yellowish green of the green phosphor.
The problem addressed here is presented in more detail and carefully discussed by Andrew T. Young.
You find there also a compromise between realism and good appearance of yellow.
Historical
Isaak Newton discovered and described 1666 the decomposability of the sunlight, and he enumerates
the seven colours, which appear then: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. However,
from this enumerating one can already conclude that Newton's experimental assembly was quite

simple: one not too small opening in the blinds used to darken the room, by which a beam of sunlight
came in, a prism and at some distance of it a screen, perhaps a white sheet of paper. The observed
"spectrum" could have looked approximately like the following:

Prism spectrum, computed for an only little or not collimated beam of sunlight, diffracted at a 90 water
prism, in a not completely darkened room. (The lightened background is a trick to at least partly
account for negative values of the primaries.)
If Newton had seen the spectrum as it has been shown further above, then he would have needed only
three colours to describe it: red, green, and indigo, or four colours if he had included orange.
It may appear strange that among the colours of the spectrum indigo is named this sounds like a
doubling of blue. But most likely Newton meant with "blue" a sky-blue, similar to the colour which today
in printing technology is usually called cyan. Synthetic indigo is used for colouring blue jeans
everyone knows their colour, blue, as the name already says. In today's manner of speaking we would
call the seven colours in the light red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet.
The fundamental primary colours
The appearance of a dim spectrum red, green and violet-blue is naturally due to the characteristics
of the receptors in the retina: the fundamental primary colours (or cone primaries) correspond to
stimulation of only one of the three kinds of cones. These colours are seen in the upper field of the
spectrum comparison at 630 nm, 520 nm and 450 nm. The red of modern traffic lights (as seen on a
bright day) corresponds in good approximation to the physiological basic colour, which some authors
like to call orange-red. In the dark the sensitivity of the cones rises, then the green-sensitive are already
noticeably stimulated by the red light, thus the colour perception shifts towards yellowish red (Bezold
Brcke shift). With a digital camera it is by the way similar:

Left: On a bright day and against the

bright sky the red light of a traffic light
appears as a pure, saturated red.
Right: At dawn against a dark
background and at night the same red
light appears yellowish.

Galileo's Inclined Plane Experiment

Main Concept
Galileo Galilei is considered to be one of the fathers of modern science due to his extensive research in
astronomy and physics. One of his greatest contributions involved accurately measuring the effect of
gravity on free falling bodies. Galileo hypothesized that a falling object would gain equal amounts of
velocity in equal amounts of time, which meant that its speed increased at a constant rate as it fell.
There was one problem, however, in testing this hypothesis: Galileo could not observe the object's free
falling motion and at the time, technology was unable to record such high speeds. As a result, Galileo
tried to decelerate its motion by replacing the falling object with a ball rolling down an inclined plane.
Since free falling is essentially equivalent to a completely vertical ramp, he assumed that a ball rolling
down a ramp would speed up in the exact same way as a falling ball would.

The Conclusion
Using a water clock, Galileo measured the time it took for the ball to roll a known distance down the
inclined plane. After many trials, he observed that the amount of time it took for the ball to roll down the
entire length of the ramp was equal to double the amount of time it took for the same ball to only roll a
quarter of the distance. In other words, if you doubled the amount of time that the ball was rolling, it
would travel four times as far.
Through this experiment, Galileo concluded that if an object is released from rest and gains speed at a
steady rate (as it would in free-fall or when rolling down an inclined plane), then the total distance, s,
traveled by the object is proportional to the time squared needed for that travel:
s t2
The proportionality constant is exactly half of the acceleration a. For a ball rolling down an inclined
plane, this acceleration relates to the gravitational acceleration g via
a= g hl,
where h and l are the height and length of the inclined plane. The resulting relationship
s=g h2 lt2

allowed Galileo to determine the value of the gravitational acceleration g.

Using the slider, choose a height for the inclined plane. Click "Roll" to let the ball roll and press "Pause"
to stop it at any point. Using the values you observe for time elapsed and distance traveled after each
roll, use the lower plot to graph several points on the Distance vs. Time graph. What kind of relationship
appears within the data you collected? Does it match the actual relationship shown when you check the
box "See Actual Relationship"? Check "Estimate g" to estimate a value for the gravitational constant, g,
using your data points. Does this value match what you expected?
Choose "Reset Ball" to have the ball placed at the top of the ramp again, and choose "Clear History" to
return the ball to its starting point, as well as erase any points you recorded in the Distance vs. Time
graph below.

Time:

Distance Rolled:

Distance Rolled vs. Time

Electrolysis of Water Experiment

Magnetism & Electricity

Energy is stored in the bonds of molecules. When these bonds split apart, the energy released can be
used to do work. Breaking apart liquid water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gas creates an
enormous amount of energy, which can be turned into useful electricity to power our homes and cars.
To break these bonds, some amount of energy is required to get the atoms in water molecules active
enough to break apart from each other. At home, we can supply this energy with a battery. All batteries
have two terminals, or ends: a positive terminal and a negative terminal. The water then connects
these terminals, so energy can flow between them. As the electricity passes through the water, it splits
the water!
Pure water itself is not a good conductor of electricity, so for this experiment baking soda will be added
to make the solution an electrolyte. An electrolyte is a part of a solution that can be broken up by
electrolysis. Electro refers to energy and electricity and -lysis refers to splitting apart. Electrolytes are
important both in batteries and in our bodies!
Problem
During the electrolysis of water, which electrolyte conducts electricity the best?
Materials

Distilled water

Tap water

2 silver-colored thumb tacks

9V battery

Small, clear plastic container (a plastic

to-go sauce container from a
restaurant would work great)

2 test tubes

Stopwatch

Baking soda

Table salt

Lemon

Dishwashing detergent

Procedure
1. Insert the thumb tacks into the bottom of the plastic container so that the points push up into
the container. Space them so that theyre the same distance apart as the two terminals of the
9V battery. Be careful not to prick yourself!
2. Place the plastic container with the thumb tacks over the terminals of the battery. If the cup is
too large to balance on the battery, find something to stack it on: between two books, a stack of
post-its, etc.
3. Slowly fill the container with distilled water. If the tacks move, go ahead and use this
opportunity to fix them before you proceed. Will distilled water conduct electricity on its own?
Try it!
4. Add a pinch of baking soda.
5. Hold two test tubes above each push pin to collect the gas being formed. Record your
observations. What happens? Does one tube have more gas than the other? What gases do
you think are forming?
6. Discard the solution, and repeat the procedure with a different combination:
o

Distilled water and lemon juice

Distilled water and table salt

Distilled water and dish detergent

Distilled water (no additive)

Tap water (Does tap water work? If so, why?)

Results
Distilled water will not conduct current, while tap water will conduct a small current. The solution with
baking soda will facilitate a good amount of electrolysis. The solution with table salt will facilitate
electrolysis the best.
Why?
Baking soda, known by chemists as sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), isnt an electrolyte on its own.
Rememberit needs to be in a solution! When dissolved in water, it lets current flow through the water
between the terminals of the battery. In the water-baking soda solution, the gases that are produced are
hydrogen (H2), oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), is also a good additive to form electrolytes. In water, salt actually
splits into Na+ and Cl- ions, which are very good at carrying current, or the flow of electric charges. In
the water-salt solution, the gases that are produced are hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine gas (Cl2)you
dont want to inhale this stuff!
Lemon juice is a decent electrolyte because it is an acid. The acid dissociates in water and the current
will be carried by the ions. Distilled water on its own will not carry any current. However, tap water is
often able to conduct current because of minerals and impurities (Dont worry! These things are not bad
for you!).
Different amounts of gas are produced from each reaction because each reaction will carry a different
amount of current. The amount of gas produced is directly proportional to the current that flows in the
system.

How to Make Lightning

Have you ever wanted to be a mad
scientist? Has your lack of control over
lightning disheartened you? Never fear;
this experiment will let you bend
electricity to your will by showing you
how to make lightning!
Materials

Rubber glove

Plastic fork

Tin Foil

Wood or plastic cutting board

Styrofoam

plate

or

rubber

balloon

Head of hair or wool

Cool, low-humidity day (< 45%

humidity, < 75 F temperature)

Procedure
1. Fold tin foil around your plastic fork so that it looks like a big spatula. Make sure its as flat as
possible with no sharp corners.
2. Put on the rubber glove and use your gloved hand to rub the Styrofoam plate or rubber balloon
on your hair or wool.
3. Place the plate or balloon on your cutting board, and use the gloved hand to pick up your tin foil
spatula.
4. Place the tin foil part of your spatula on the balloon or plate. Touch the foil with your other hand.
What happened? How can you explain what you saw?
5. Pull the spatula up from the balloon or plate, and touch it again. What happened this time? Did
you expect that?
6. Experiment with other materials. Recharge your charged object using your hair or wool if
necessary. Does your hand spark when it touches the balloon? Why do you think this is so?
Extra: for even cooler results, conduct this experiment in a room that you can darken as much as
possible!

Results
You should have seen and felt a spark when you touched the foil. When you lifted the foil off and
touched it again, you should have felt another spark. Your hand doesnt spark, and most non-metallic
objects wont spark when you touch the charged object either. All metals insulated by your glove that
touch both your charged object and your hand will spark.
Why?
Youre experimenting with static electricity. The static electricity you see is caused by the movement
of electrons. Electrons carry a negative electrical charge, which causes them to be attracted to
protons and repelled from other electrons. When you rub an object on your hair, it does one of two
things: it either puts electrons onto the balloon, or strips electrons off of the Styrofoam plate. This gives
the balloon or plate a net charge, meaning the object has either more electrons or fewer electrons than
protons. Metals are special materials in that their electrons are free to move almost wherever they like,
instead of being stuck on the materials molecules. When a metal object is placed near something with
a net charge, all of the electrons in the metal will move to be either as far away from a negative charge
as possible or as close to a positive charge as possible. Metals are called conductors. Your plate and
your balloon are both insulatorsthey dont let their electrons move where they want.
When your spatula moves close to the charged object, the electrons either want to get close to or far
away from the object. When you bring your hand up to touch the spatula, the electrons flow to you or
flow onto the spatula, depending on whether the spatula is touching the Styrofoam plate (towards) or
the rubber balloon (away). Your skin is actually quite conductive! After the electrons move, the tin foil
has a good number of electrons for its location (close to the charged object). When you move the tin foil
spatula away from the charged object, it suddenly has a lot more or way fewer electrons than it needs,
and so more will jump from your body to balance it out. You can keep going back and forth like that for
a long time, since the electrons (or lack of electrons) on the charged object doesnt change. Your hand
doesnt spark because your body provides a path to ground.
What that means is that when you bring your hand close to the balloon, all the extra electrons needed
come from or go into the ground youre standing on! Because of the rubber glove youre wearing, the tin
foil spatula has no path to ground, so it cannot equalize its charge. When you touch it, you are
providing it with a path to ground for the electrons to move and balance things out. The earth has plenty
of electrons to spare, and they move all over the place. So what makes lightning? Lightning occurs

when theres a big charge difference between the clouds in the sky and the earth. Lightning is just a
bigger version of the sparks you saw!
CHEMISTRY
Bath Salts & Soft Water
Bath salts do more than simply scent
the water in your tub! Make your bath more
relaxing and learn about salts and osmosis.
(Adult supervision recommended.)

What You Need:

Plastic mixing bowl

Plastic mixing spoon

1 cup Epsom salt

Colorant (craft store)

1 cup sea salt

Liquid soap

1/2 teaspoon glycerin

Jar with lid, baby soda bottles* or other

Fragrance or essential oils (craft or

health store)

airtight container
Note: Epsom salt and glycerin can also be found at drug stores.
What You Do:
1. Mix together the Epsom salt and sea salt in the mixing bowl.
2. Add glycerin to the salt mixture and mix through. The glycerin is not necessary, but it helps the
colorant and oil get dispersed evenly through the salt.
3. Add a few drops of fragrance or essential oils. Fragrance oils smell pleasant, but essential oils
have therapeutic properties. Try using a couple of the following:
Rosemary: stimulating, invigorating, deodorizing
Lavender: deodorizing and antibacterial
Chamomile: calmingCalendula: healing

Peppermint: stimulating
Lime: refreshing

Note: Essential oils have different grades and must never be taken interally or applied directly on the
skin. Use as directed.
4. Add a few drops of colorant. We recommend getting oil-based skin-safe colorant from a craft
store or else leaving out the colorant.
5. Wet your hands with tap water, add a drop of soap to your hands, then rub together to form a
lather. Observe how much lather forms, then rinse off your hands.
6. Fill a sink with water and add about 1/8 cup of salt mixture to it. Use your hands to stir the
water to help the salt dissolve. With your hands still wet from the salt water, add a drop of soap
to your hands and rub them together to form a lather. How much lather formed this time?
7. Store the remaining salts in a jar, keeping the lid on tightly to keep moisture out. Use about 1/4
cup of the salts in your bath.
*Baby soda bottles are ideally sized for storing single use portions of bath salts. If using baby soda
bottles, you may find it easiest to fill them using a funnel.
What Happened:
Most likely you found it easier to form lather (and more of it!) when using the water with salt rather than
the water with no salt. This is because of the difference between hard water and soft water.

Most households in America have hard water. Hard water has a high mineral content, usually with
calcium and magnesium, whereas soft water contains less of these minerals. Calcium and magnesium
ions in the hard water react with the soap, forming insoluble gray flakes called soap scum rather than a
lather. This means you need more soap to get clean and the bathtub gets a grimy ring around it from
the leftover soap scum. One way to soften hard bath water is to add bath salts. The calcium and
magnesium ions in the water are replaced with sodium and potassium ions from the salt, allowing the
soap to lather much more easily. (If your home has soft water, you may not notice too much of a
difference in how well the soap lathers in the water with your bath salts and the water without the bath
salts. However, the salt and essential oils will still have a beneficial effect on your skin.)
Another benefit of adding bath salts to your bath has to do with osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of
water through a membrane (such as your skin) to achieve equilibrium. Your body contains water and
salt, whereas an ordinary bath contains mainly water and very little salt. Therefore, water passes
through your skin in an effort to balance the concentration of water and salt in you and in your bath.
This excess water causes "pruning" (your fingers and toes wrinkle). Adding bath salts to the water
causes a more equal balance of salt and water in both you and in the bath, so less water enters your
skin and less wrinkling occurs. Salt is also thought to draw impurities and toxins out of your skin and
soothes sore muscles!

Crystal Science Projects

Rock Candy Sticks
Get ready to watch some cool
crystals grow! And when you're
done, you can eat them or give
them away as Christmas gifts!
What You Need:

A glass

Wax paper

Saucepan

Stove

Several small clean jars

Cake pop sticks or wooden skewers

Food coloring (optional)

An adult to help you

1/2 cups of white sugar

1 cup of water

Small plate

A spoon

What You Do:

1. Fill a glass with water, pour some sugar on a small plate,
and lay out a sheet of waxed paper. Dip one end of each
stick (cut pointed ends off if you use skewers) into the
water and then roll it in the sugar, tapping it gently to
remove excess. Set each stick to dry on the waxed paper.
2. Pour the water into the saucepan and add the sugar. Stir
it well until no more sugar will dissolve. If it all dissolves,
add more sugar until you cant get any more to dissolve even after stirring for several minutes.
(You now have a saturated sugar solution.)

3. Ask an adult to help you heat the sugar mixture on the stove
until it boils, stirring the whole time. Turn the heat to mediumlow and keep stirring until all the sugar dissolves. (Now you
have made a supersaturated solution!)
4. Keep cooking the liquid and stirring it until it becomes clear,
but not for more than 5 minutes, or it will get too hot and turn
into hard candy! Turn off the stove as soon as it starts to look
clear.
5. Move the pan off the heat and allow it to cool down until the
pan is no longer hot (the sugar solution will still be slightly
warm).
6. Have an adult slowly pour the thick sugar solution into the
jars. Fill each about 2/3 full, or enough so that sugar solution
will cover several inches of your sugar-coated sticks.
7. Add 5-6 drops of food coloring to each jar and stir. (Optional:
Only do this step if you want to make different colors of rock
candy!)
8. Once the solution is cool and the sugar-coated sticks are
completely dry, place several sticks into each jar.
9. Carefully move the jars to a place where they won't be
disturbed. Check them every other day and gently stir the
sticks around in the sugar solution to break up any large
crystals forming on the surface.
10. Within a few days, you should start to see crystals growing on
the sticks. After about one week, you will probably have a lot
of crystals. When your "rock candy" crystals are as big as you
want them to be, take them out of the jars and set each color
of candy in a clean glass to dry.

11. Once they are dry, you can wrap in cellophane food wrap and tie with ribbon for a sweet
Christmas gift!
What Happened:
In step two you made a saturated solution -- there was so much sugar in the water that it couldnt
dissolve any more sugar and some was left in the bottom of the pan. Once the saturated solution
started to heat up, the water was able to dissolve even more sugar and a supersaturated solution was
formed in step three. Then, as the solution cooled, the sugar molecules in it started to join with the
sugar molecules on the sticks. The sugar on the sticks are called seed molecules and the sugar
molecules in the solution attached themselves to the seed molecules. Meanwhile, the water in the
solution started to evaporate or dry up into the air, leaving only sugar molecules behind. More sugar
molecules gradually joined with the ones already on the stick, forming larger crystals. Because all of the
solute molecules are the same (they are all sugar), they all form the same shape of crystals and they all
stick together, making a big chunk of sugar crystals that are pretty to look at and tasty to eat!
Note that this is a special science project that is safe to eat because you only used food products, not
any chemicals, and you used clean dishes from your kitchen. Never eat any experiment unless it is
made entirely out of food and you only used clean dishes to prepare it!