Winter break Science Fun

We decided to do a science experiment during winter break this year. Growing Sugar crystals sounded like fun. The night before we started I washed and sterilized 3 canning jars and then dipped 3 cotton strings in some sugar water, tied them to Popsicle sticks and hung them to dry. This gave us some seed crystals and a better chance at getting good crystals on the string. The next morning we put 2 C water and 6 C sugar in a sauce pan. As we heated the water I told the boys to watch for it to turn clear. As soon as it boiled the solution turned clear. The boys were amazed. We added lemon flavoring and food coloring of each boys choice to each jar, then filled them with the sugar solution. We put the strings down into the solution suspended by the Popsicle sticks. If we do this again I will add a weight of some sort to the bottom, we had trouble getting the strings in strait. One website I read suggested using a lifesaver. The jars were very hot, but we wanted them to cool slowly, so we put them in a quiet place, and draped a towel over the top. within a few hours the solution had cooled and we began to see crystals forming on the string. Riley and Erik had trouble leaving theirs alone, and after a few days we began to see crystals forming on the sides of their jars. Tian on the other hand did not touch his and a few crystals formed on the sides of his jar, but not many. After 5 days we could wait no more, so we pulled them out. Riley and Erik's strings were covered in tiny crystals, and their jars looked like geodes. Tian's grew much larger crystals, both on the jar and on his string. Science Rules!