Quick Experiment “Does Temperature affect rate of reaction?”

Watching the tree grow its crystals is COOL, but having a few of them and doing a science experiment (changing one variable) is even better!

Materials needed:

• 3 x Magic Flower packs
• Adult help
• 3 x Larger plastic containers
• Warm / hot water
• Ice cubes

• Hot water: should only be handled by an adult. Do not use boiling water. Water temp should not exceed 50 degrees Celsius.

Background:

Chemical reactions generally get faster as temperature increases. After all, that is why we place food inside an oven. The oven temperature increases the rate of reaction. Another factor in this experiment that increases with temperature is evaporation. BUT, does this together with crystal formation increase with temperature?

Method:

1. Place the 3 larger dishes next to each other.
2. Construct the three Magic Flowers. BEFORE you add the solutions to each tree, make sure you soak the plastic tubes (containing the solution) in three different temperatures (ice water, room temp and hot water).This makes the temperature of the starting solutions different.
3. Place the three temperature solutions into larger dishes. Into each dish, place the      smaller plastic dish for your flower.
4. Once the plastic base is in the temperature dishes, add the flower and then pour the temperature solutions over each flower.
5. Examine how much crystal growth is occurring every hour and compare which dish shows the fastest crystal growth.

This activity provides many opportunities to discuss:

– how temperature affects reaction rates? Why do you think this may be so?

– does evaporation happen in colder or hotter temperatures?

Our Homeschool Connection Series is designed to provide homeschooling parents the support they need in a VERY specialist area.

The kits are designed by a teacher with 19yrs teaching experience of engaging kids of all ages. They contain many activities that can be used to teach or review essential content around the kit theme. They of course can be used a ‘springboard’ from which further investigations can be used.

They contain a selection of our products (with activity guides) on how they can be used to illustrate the science concepts in that theme. They often explore the science concepts from many learning modalities / learning styles which re-enforce the content.

Our ‘Crazy Chemistry Homeschool Theme Pack’ is great for teaching many concepts involved in the Chemistry such as: evaporation, chemical changes, sublimation, heat transfer, types of chemical reactions and MORE!

Great Info:

• Crystallization

Great Video:

• Growing Crystals