Rock Candy Science Experiment. What you’ll learn: Crystallization

What you’ll need: - 5 cups white granulated sugar - 2 cups water - Cake pop sticks or wooden skewers - Food coloring - 4 8oz mason jars or other containers - Clothespins Instructions: 1. Dip one end of each cake pop or wooden skewer in water and then roll it in the sugar. About 3 inches of each stick should be covered with sugar. Set them aside to dry. These will be the seeds for growing your sugar crystals. 2. Boil 2 cups of water. Add 5 cups of sugar. Stir continuously over medium heat until the sugar is fully dissolved and has the consistency of syrup. This is your supersaturated sugar solution. 3. Let the syrup cool completely. Then, pour the syrup into each mason jar. Add a couple drops of food coloring to each jar and stir. 4. Clip a clothespin onto the bare end of each stick and then suspend the sugary end of each stick in the syrup. The clothespins should rest on the rims of the mason jars, holding the sticks up so they don’t get stuck to the bottom. 5. Set the jars aside for one week, gently moving the sticks around occasionally. Once each stick is covered with a thick layer of sugar crystals, drain the excess syrup, let them dry, and enjoy! The science: Sugar molecules, when connected to each other, create a repeating pattern that extends in all three dimensions. That’s why they form into crystals. In water, the sugar molecules break apart from each other because they are attracted to the water molecules. But when the water evaporates, the molecules pull themselves back together like magnets. In this experiment, the sugar on the sticks act as extra strong magnets that pull a lot of sugar molecules toward them. Meanwhile, since the syrup contains more sugar molecules than water molecules, there’s less force pulling the sugar molecules apart and more force pulling them together, allowing the crystals to form bigger and more quickly.

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