Whether you’ve known for weeks or your little angle didn’t tell you until the night before, coming up with a worthwhile science project with little time available to do it can seem challenging. Just remember that there are plenty of fantastic projects out there that take less than 24 hours to accomplish and many of them use products you would already have at home. Here are 3 easy experiments that can be done in no time at all.

1. Grow Crystals

Although some crystals are difficult to grow or take a lot of time, others are very easy and talk only a few hours. The crystals are large enough to pick up and easy to completely examine for observational findings.

Here is a list of everything you will need:

• Alum (this is a spice you can find in most stores, it is also a non-toxic crystal)
• Hot tap water (hot but not boiling)
• 3 containers that can hold at least 1 cup of liquid

One container will be your ideal environment in this container you should add 2 ½ tablespoons of alum and ½ cup of hot water. This is the best environment to grow the crystals.

In the other two containers you should vary the environment. For example you could put only 1 tablespoon of alum and ½ cup of hot water in one and in the other put 2 ½ tablespoons of alum but make the ½ cup water cold. Then wait a few hours and record your findings. Did the cold water make any crystals? Were the crystals bigger or smaller in the container with less alum in the water? Your experiment is complete.

2. Swirling Milk Colors

We’ve probably all made chocolate milk but these swirling colors are a little different. This will show how the molecules and proteins in milk react to an outside chemical found in dish washing liquid.

Here is your list of supplies:

• Food Coloring
• Whole milk (or you can use 2%)
• Dish washing liquid
• 3 cotton swabs
• 3 plates (I find dessert plates work best)

The first plate will be your control experiment on this plate you will poor enough milk to create a small pool on the bottom of the plate. Add 4 drops of different food coloring to different sections of the milk. Then you will coat the tip of a cotton swab in dishwashing liquid and touch it to the center of the plate. You do not need to mix since the swirling will happen on its own.

On the additional two plates try changing things up a bit. On one plate you might try and see what happens if you use skim milk, and on the other clean cotton swab with no detergent. Then record your findings. Did the color swirl at all with the skim milk? And why do you think this happened? Was there any change to the plate with no dish washing liquid? Or what if you used laundry detergent instead did it create the same affect? These are all great questions.

3. Cleaning Pennies With A Chemical Reaction

Now a penny won’t buy you much of anything these days and there has been much talk about doing away with the penny, but if we did that we wouldn’t be able to do this next experiment.

Here is a list of everything you need:

• $0.25 in pennies
• Paper towels
• White vinegar
• 3 small glass bowls (don’t use metal)
• Salt

First you are going to pour ¼ cup of white vinegar into one of the bowls, add a teaspoon of salt then drop 3 or 4 pennies into the bowl and wait about 10 second (if you are counting count slowly). Remove the pennies and place them on the paper towel. Use another paper towel to wipe them clean. They should now be nice and shiny. The vinegar acts as a natural acid that removes the tarnish on copper. In one of the other bowls try using orange or lemon juice in place of the vinegar and see if it acts the same. In the third bowl try using all the same ingredients but when you remove the pennies don’t wipe them off and see how the effect is different. Why and what happened to the pennies. Record your findings to complete your experiment.

Now that you have a few ideas you and your little scientist should be able to complete that science experiment and still have time to make dinner and get some much needed sleep.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it...
1110101.2k160