Grow sugar crystals

Crystals of sugar can be grown by allowing a very concentrated (saturated) solution of sugar in water to slowly evaporate. Tiny ‘seed' crystals attached to a stick will grow into much larger crystals. Once you have tried the following experiment, try it again, but this time replace the sugar with table salt. This will give different shaped crystals.

Let's experiment

Note: you will need adult supervision to do this experiment

1. Heat the water in the saucepan until boiling. Add the sugar and heat until all the sugar is dissolved, stirring continually. Keep adding sugar a spoonful at a time until no more sugar will dissolve. This is called a saturated solution.
2. Add a little more water and continue to heat until all the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat.
3. Dip the bamboo sticks into the sugar and water solution, then roll the bamboo in sugar crystals. Leave to dry. This is a ‘seeded' stick.
4. Allow the solution to cool slowly to room temperature.
5. Tip the sugar solution into the jar. Avoid getting any undissolved sugar crystals into the jar as the new sugar crystals will grow on these. Place the bamboo stick into the solution and cover with a paper towel.
6. Check on your crystals after a day: you should see the crystals beginning to grow on the stick.
7. To grow really big crystals, leave the jar undisturbed and loosely covered for a couple of weeks.