The children in School-age 2 at RisingOaks Early Learning | John Sweeney have made many new learning discoveries and had many new learning opportunities. Sometimes in order to have discoveries, we need to experiment! However, sometimes our experiments don’t work out the way we would like them to, and that’s okay. It then becomes a learning experience.
School Age 2 Educators at Rising Oaks | John Sweeney have observed that the children have been excited and very curious when we do STEM science experiments. The children enjoyed learning and asking questions about what the ingredients are used for in our borax crystal experiment.
For this experiment, we used; a mason jar, a pipe cleaner, a popsicle stick, water, a kettle, and borax solution (to be handled by educators only) Educator Amber explained to the children that once the borax solution is mixed with the hot water, the hot water has molecules that will start moving really fast, this allows more of the borax powder to be dissolved into the hot water. Once the water mixture has begun to cool down, the water molecules start to slow down and move closer together. Once the borax separates from the water mixture, it connects with the other borax particles and starts to crystallize around the pipe cleaner. It will continue to crystallize until the pipe cleaner is removed from the jar.
After the Educator completed the first part of this activity, she asked the group surrounding the table if there were any questions. Mateo raised his hand and asked “Why does the water need to be hot?” Educator Amber explained to Mateo how we need the borax solution powder to mix into the water, and it mixes more efficiently when the water is hot instead of cold.
The next day, after our crystals had formed, the children had the opportunity to finally see the results and feel the texture of the crystals. After the reveal, the Educator asked, “What do you guys think?” Jeremiah asked, “How are they green and blue?” The Educator explained how the tiny crystals magnify the colour of the pipe cleaner that they are growing on, making the clear crystals appear to be blue and green. Overall, the children seemed to be very intrigued by this activity, and we look forward to exploring another chemistry experiment together.
