Colorful chemistry with crystal growing. This rainbow crystals project idea is a fun and easy science experiment for kids, perfect for home or school (see hints below). Grow crystals with simple ingredients and watch AMAZING crystals grow overnight.
How To Grow Rainbow Crystals
Did you know you can grow colorful crystals at home? You can create beautiful rainbow crystals on pipe cleaners using just a few household items!
This fun science activity teaches kids about crystallization, a process where particles in a liquid come together to form a solid structure. As the solution cools, the crystals grow on the pipe cleaner, making it look like a sparkly rainbow! It’s a simple and engaging way to explore chemistry and see science in action right before your eyes!
Supplies:
- 9 TBL Borax (found with laundry detergent)
- 3 Cups Water
- Jars or vases
- Popsicle sticks
- Pipe cleaners in rainbow colors
Instructions:
Step 1. Design a rainbow.
Let’s flex those STEAM skills. STEM plus Art = STEAM! Give the kids a handful of colorful pipe cleaners and let them come up with their own version of a rainbow. Include white pipe cleaners if they want to include clouds.
IMPORTANT: Double-check the opening of the jar with the size of your shape! It’s easy to push the pipe cleaner in to start but difficult to pull it out once all the crystals have formed! Make sure you can get your rainbow pipe cleaners in and out easily!
Step 2. Use a Popsicle stick (or pencil) to tie the string around the pipe cleaners. I used a small piece of tape to keep it in place.
Step 3. Make your supersaturated solution by adding boiling water and the borax powder to a bowl. Stir the solution.
NOTE: Since you are dealing with hot water, adult assistance is highly recommended!
Step 4. Carefully pour the hot liquid into the jar.
Step 5. Add a pipe cleaner rainbow to each jar and make sure the rainbow is fully covered by the solution.
Step 6. Place the jar/s in a safe place where they won’t be disturbed.
Shhhh… The crystals are growing!
How Long Does It Take Crystals To Form?
You want to set the jars in a quiet place where they won’t be disturbed. No tugging on the string, stirring the solution, or moving the jar around! They need to sit still to work their magic.
After a couple of hours, you will see some changes. Later on that night, you will see more crystals growing! You want to leave the solution alone for 24 hours.
Make sure to keep checking to see the stage of growth the crystals are in!
The next day, gently lift out your rainbow crystals and let them dry on paper towels for an hour or so…
Tips For Growing Crystals In The Classroom
We made these crystal rainbows in my son’s 2nd-grade classroom. This can be done! We used hot water (not boiling) and plastic party cups. The rainbow pipe cleaners needed to be smaller or fatter to fit in the cup.
Plastic cups are generally not recommended for growing the best crystals, but the kids were still fascinated by the crystal growth. When you use plastic cups, the saturated solution can cool too quickly, leaving impurities in the crystals. The crystals will not be as sturdy or perfectly shaped.
Also, you must ensure the kids don’t touch the cups once they have gotten everything together! The crystals need to remain very still to form properly. Once set up, I recommend making sure you have space away from everything to store the number of cups you have!
How Do Crystals Form?
Crystal growing is a neat chemistry project that is a quick setup involving liquids, solids, and soluble solutions. Because there are still solid particles within the liquid mixture, the particles will settle to form crystals if left untouched.
Water is made up of molecules. When you boil the water, the molecules move away from one another.
When you freeze water, they move closer to one another. Boiling hot water allows for more borax powder to dissolve to create the desired saturated solution.
You are making a super-saturated solution with more powder than the liquid can hold. The hotter the liquid, the more saturated the solution can become. This is because the molecules in the water move farther apart, allowing more of the powder to be dissolved. If the water is colder, its molecules will be closer together.
As the solution cools down, there more particles in the water as the molecules move back together. Some of these particles will start to fall out of the suspended state they were once in, and the particles will start to settle on the pipe cleaners, as well as the container, and form crystals. Once a tiny seed crystal is started, more falling material bonds to form bigger crystals.
Crystals are solid with flat sides and symmetrical shape and will always be that way (unless impurities get in the way). They are made up of molecules and have a perfectly arranged and repeating pattern. Some might be bigger or smaller though.
Let your rainbow crystals work their magic overnight. We were all impressed by what we saw when we woke up in the morning! Go ahead and hang them in the window like a suncatcher!
More Fun Rainbow Theme Science
- Rainbow In A Jar
- How To Make Rainbow Slime
- Rainbow Science Experiments
- Make A Walking Rainbow
- Make Rainbows With A Prism
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