Crystal Gardens
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Before You Start:
Materials
• 3 clean, dry sponges
• Aluminum pie plate or cake pan
• Glass measuring cup
• 1/4 cup table salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup laundry bluing (You can buy bluing at the grocery store
under the brand name of Mrs. Stewart’s Liquid Bluing.)
• 2 tablespoons household ammonia
• Mixing bowl
• Metal spoon
• Blue and green food colouring
Instructions
1. Arrange the sponges in the pie plate. (You can cut the sponges
to fit in the pie plate if needed.)
2. Pour the salt, water, bluing, and ammonia into the mixing bowl
and stir well to mix.
3. Pour this mixture over the sponges and then spoon out the rest
of the thick portion, spreading it out
evenly over the sponges.
4. Sprinkle drops of food colouring randomly on the sponges.
5. Let the pan sit. It may take hours or even days to see the results.
What’s Happening
In a crystal, atoms or molecules join together in a pattern that
repeats itself over and over to create a certain shape. A crystal
grows by adding atoms or molecules to all its sides in the exact
same pattern as the atoms and molecules that were added before.
Special Thanks
Thanks to the Canadian Society for Chemistry which allowed us to
reproduce Crystal Gardens from their publication “Discovering
Chemistry”.
Materials
• 3 clean, dry sponges
• Aluminum pie plate or cake pan
• Glass measuring cup
• 1/4 cup table salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup laundry bluing (You can buy bluing at the grocery store
under the brand name of Mrs. Stewart’s Liquid Bluing.)
• 2 tablespoons household ammonia
• Mixing bowl
• Metal spoon
• Blue and green food colouring
Instructions
1. Arrange the sponges in the pie plate. (You can cut the sponges
to fit in the pie plate if needed.)
2. Pour the salt, water, bluing, and ammonia into the mixing bowl
and stir well to mix.
3. Pour this mixture over the sponges and then spoon out the rest
of the thick portion, spreading it out
evenly over the sponges.
4. Sprinkle drops of food colouring randomly on the sponges.
5. Let the pan sit. It may take hours or even days to see the results.
What’s Happening
In a crystal, atoms or molecules join together in a pattern that
repeats itself over and over to create a certain shape. A crystal
grows by adding atoms or molecules to all its sides in the exact
same pattern as the atoms and molecules that were added before.
Special Thanks
Thanks to the Canadian Society for Chemistry which allowed us to
reproduce Crystal Gardens from their publication “Discovering
Chemistry”.