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Crystal Candy Cane Experiment

Materials:

  • Piece of string, about 6 inches (kite string works great)
  • A pencil or popsicle stick
  • A paper clip (or large plastic bead)
  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 cups of sugar
  • A glass jar (mason jars works well)

Instructions:

  • Tie one end of the string to the middle of the popsicle stick or pencil.
  • Tie the other end around bead or paper clip.
  • Next, lay the popsicle stick or pencil across the top of a jar so that the string hangs down the middle of the jar. You want to make sure that it is not touching the bottom of the jar, but you do want it close. Also, make sure that it is not touching the sides of the jar either. If it hangs down too far, just roll the string around the pencil a few times to shorten the string. The string will act as a seed for the crystal. Now that the string and pencil are ready to remove them from the jar and set them aside.
  • This next part requires hot water so please get an adult’s help.
  • Pour the water into a pan and bring it to boil.
  • Add 1/4 cup of sugar to the boiling water, stir it until it dissolves.
  • Repeat this step until all of the sugar has been dissolved. This will take time and patience and it will take longer for the sugar to dissolve each time. Be sure you don’t give up too soon. You are making a “supersaturated solution!”
  • Have your adult helper carefully pour the hot sugar solution into the jar and fill it almost all of the way to the top. Go ahead and put your pencil or popsicle back n top and lower the bead or paperclip back inside of the jar, just like you practised before. Allow the jar to cool and put it someplace where it will not be disturbed.
  • Next comes the waiting part. Check on it every day to see the crystals start to grow, but be very careful not to disturb it. The longer you wait the bigger it will get. You can also place a coffee filter or paper towel over the jar so nothing falls in.

How it Works:

When you mixed the water and sugar you made a SUPER SATURATED SOLUTION. This means that the water could only hold sugar if both were very hot. As the water cools the sugar “comes out” of the solution back into sugar crystals on your string. The string and paper clip act as a “seed” that they start to grow on. With some luck and patience, you will have a tasty scientific treat! Enjoy!

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Lava Lamp Experiment

Materials:

  • A clean plastic bottle, try to use one with smooth sides
  • water
  • Vegetable Oil
  • Fizzing tablets (such as Alka Seltzer)
  • Food Coloring

Instructions:

  • Fill the bottle up about 1/4th (1 quarter) with water.
  • Pour the vegetable oil in the bottle until is almost full. You may want to use a measuring cup with a spout or a funnel. You may have to wait a couple of minutes for the oil and water to separate.
  • Add a few drops of your favorite food coloring. Watch as the color sinks through the oil. Did your drops of color mix with the water immediately or float in between for a few minutes?
  • Break your fizzy tablet in half and drop part of it into the bottle. Get ready … here come the bubbly blobs!
  • You can even get a flashlight, turn off the lights and drop in another half tablet. This time shine the flashlight through the lava lamp while the blobs are bubbling!

How it Works:

The oil floats on top of the water because it is less dense or lighter than water. The food coloring has the same density as the water so it sink through the oil and mixes with the water. When you add the tablet it sinks to the bottom then starts to dissolve. As it dissolves it makes gas, carbon dioxide. Gas or air, is lighter than water so it floats to the top. The air bubbles bring some colored water with them to the top. When the air comes out of the colored water blob, the water gets heavy again and sinks. It does this over and over again until the tablet is completely dissolved.

Extra Experiments:

What happens if you put the cap on after dropping the fizzy tablet in?

What if you drop a whole tablet in?

When it stops bubbling, try sprinkling some salt into your lava lamp. What happens?

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Our Mission & The Team behind Little Professors:

Our mission at Little Professors is to make science & stem subjects fun and exciting for young children and help contribute to their understanding of how nature and the world around them works. Given children’s in-born curiosity and enthusiasm towards learning new things, we want to create an environment where they can have fun, experiment and learn facts, which can help them, understand our world!

The concept for Little Professors was developed by Jade in 2016. When looking for classes for her 3 year old son Grayson to attend Jade found a lack of educational extra murals offering the STEM curriculum.

Although she could find sports and creative classes she found nothing that would teach her son about the world around him and nurture skills valuable for him later in life. Thus Little Professors was created and developed to offer fun and exciting classes for kids focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

The subjects are taught in a fun, project-based way following a different theme each week, so that children can connect to science from an early age. Jades vision was to inspire kids to go away with enthusiasm about learning and wanting to know more about nature, the wonderful world and how things work.

Coming from a teaching background with over 10 years experience, Little Professors was a perfect fit for Sheron. Sheron had wanted to be able to spend more time with her 4 year old daughter, but at the same time not give up on doing what she loves and has a passion for, teaching. When Jade approached Sheron with the concept, she sprang at the idea, knowing that this concept is something that will benefit all children immensely, and what better way to learn real life happenings, but in a fun and exciting manner.