science experiments cold water

37 Water Science Experiments: Fun & Easy

We’ve curated a diverse selection of water related science experiments suitable for all ages, covering topics such as density, surface tension, water purification, and much more.

These hands-on, educational activities will not only deepen your understanding of water’s remarkable properties but also ignite a passion for scientific inquiry.

So, grab your lab coat and let’s dive into the fascinating world of water-based science experiments!

Water Science Experiments

1. walking water science experiment.

This experiment is a simple yet fascinating science experiment that involves observing the capillary action of water. Children can learn a lot from this experiment about the characteristics of water and the capillary action phenomenon. It is also a great approach to promote scientific curiosity and enthusiasm.

Learn more: Walking Water Science Experiment

2. Water Filtration Experiment

A water filtering experiment explains how to purify contaminated water using economical supplies. The experiment’s goal is to educate people about the procedure of water filtration, which is crucial in clearing water of impurities and contaminants so that it is safe to drink.

Learn more: Water Filtration Experiment

3. Water Cycle in a Bag

The water cycle in a bag experiment became to be an enjoyable and useful instructional exercise that helps students understand this idea. Participants in the experiment can observe the many water cycle processes by building a model of the water cycle within a Ziplock bag.

4. Cloud in a Jar

The rain cloud in a jar experiment is a popular instructional project that explains the water cycle and precipitation creation. This experiment is best done as a water experiment since it includes monitoring and understanding how water changes state from a gas (water vapor) to a liquid (rain) and back to a gas.

Learn more: Cloud in a Jar

5. The Rising Water

The rising water using a candle experiment is a wonderful way to teach both adults and children the fundamentals of physics while also giving them an exciting look at the properties of gases and how they interact with liquids.

6. Leak Proof Bag Science Experiment

In the experiment, a plastic bag will be filled with water, and after that, pencils will be inserted through the bag without causing it to leak.

The experiments explain how the plastic bag’s polymer chains stretch and form a barrier that keeps water from dripping through the holes the pencils have produced.

Learn more: Leak Proof Bag Science Experiment

7. Keep Paper Dry Under Water Science Experiment

The experiment is an enjoyable way for demonstrating air pressure and surface tension for both adults and children. It’s an entertaining and engaging technique to increase scientific curiosity and learn about scientific fundamentals.

Learn more: Keep Paper Dry Under Water Science Experiment

8. Frozen Water Science Experiment

The Frozen Water Science Experiment is a fun and engaging project that teaches about the qualities of water and how it behaves when frozen.

You can gain a better knowledge of the science behind the freezing process and investigate how different variables can affect the outcome by carrying out this experiment.

9. Make Ice Stalagmites

10. Bending of Light

A fascinating scientific activity that explores visual principles and how light behaves in different surfaces is the “bending of light” water experiment. This experiment has applications in physics, engineering, and technology in addition to being a fun and interesting method to learn about the characteristics of light.

11. Salt on a Stick

This experiment is an excellent way to catch interest, engage in practical learning, and gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics of water and how they relate to other substances. So the “Salt on Stick” water experiment is definitely worth trying if you’re looking for a fun and educational activity to try!

Learn More: Water Cycle Experiment Salt and Stick

12. Separating Mixture by Evaporation

This method has practical applications in fields like water processing and is employed in a wide range of scientific disciplines, from chemistry to environmental science.

You will better understand the principles determining the behavior of mixtures and the scientific procedures used to separate them by performing this experiment at home.

13. Dancing Spaghetti

Have you ever heard of the dancing spaghetti experiment? It’s a fascinating science experiment that combines simple materials to create a mesmerizing visual display.

The dancing spaghetti experiment is not only entertaining, but it also helps you understand the scientific concepts of chemical reactions, gas production, and acidity levels.

14. Magic Color Changing Potion

The magic color-changing potion experiment with water, vinegar, and baking soda must be tried since it’s an easy home-based scientific experiment that’s entertaining and educational.

This experiment is an excellent way to teach kids about chemical reactions and the characteristics of acids and bases while providing them an interesting and satisfying activity.

15. Traveling Water Experiment

In this experiment, you will use simple objects like straws or strings to make a path for water to pass between two or more containers.

Learn more: Rookie Parenting

16. Dry Erase and Water “Floating Ink” Experiment

The dry-erase and water “floating ink” experiment offers an interesting look at the characteristics of liquids and the laws of buoyancy while also being a great method to educate kids and adults to the fundamentals of science.

Learn more: Dry Erase and Water Floating Ink Experiment

17. Underwater Candle

In this experiment, we will investigate a connection between fire and water and learn about the remarkable factors of an underwater candle.

18. Static Electricity and Water

19. Tornado in a Glass

This captivating experiment will demonstrate how the forces of air and water can combine to create a miniature vortex, resembling a tornado.

Learn more: Tornado in a Glass

20. Make Underwater Magic Sand

Be ready to build a captivating underwater world with the magic sand experiment. This experiment will examine the fascinating characteristics of hydrophobic sand, sometimes referred to as magic sand.

21. Candy Science Experiment

Get ready to taste the rainbow and learn about the science behind it with the Skittles and water experiment! In this fun and colorful experiment, we will explore the concept of solubility and observe how it affects the diffusion of color.

Density Experiments

Density experiments are a useful and instructive approach to learn about the characteristics of matter and the fundamentals of science, and they can serve as a starting point for further exploration into the fascinating world of science.

Density experiments may be carried out with simple materials that can be found in most homes.

This experiment can be a great hands-on learning experience for kids and science lovers of all ages.

22. Super Cool Lava Lamp Experiment

The awesome lava lamp experiment is an entertaining and educational activity that illustrates the concepts of density and chemical reactions. With the help of common household items, this experiment involves making a handmade lava lamp.

Learn more: Lava Lamp Science Experiment

23. Denser Than you Think

Welcome to the fascinating world of density science! The amount of matter in a particular space or volume is known as density, and it is a fundamental concept in science that can be seen everywhere around us.

Understanding density can help us figure out why some objects float while others sink in water, or why certain compounds do not mix.

24. Egg Salt and Water

Learn about the characteristics of water, including its density and buoyancy, and how the addition of salt affects these characteristics through performing this experiment.

25. Hot Water and Cold-Water Density

In this experiment, hot and cold water are put into a container to see how they react to one other’s temperatures and how they interact.

Sound and Water Experiments

Have you ever wondered how sound travels through different mediums? Take a look at these interesting sound and water experiments and learn how sounds and water can affect each other.

26. Home Made Water Xylophone

You can do this simple scientific experiment at home using a few inexpensive ingredients to create a handmade water xylophone.

The experiment demonstrates the science of sound and vibration and demonstrates how changing water concentrations can result in a range of tones and pitches.

Learn more: Home Made Water Xylophone

27. Create Water Forms Using Sound!

A remarkable experiment that exhibits the ability of sound waves to influence and impact the physical world around us is the creation of water formations using sound.

In this experiment, sound waves are used to generate patterns and shapes, resulting in amazing, intricate designs that are fascinating to observe.

28. Sound Makes Water Come Alive 

These experiments consist of using sound waves to create water vibrations, which can result in a variety of dynamic and captivating phenomena.

29. Water Whistle

The water whistle experiment includes blowing air through a straw that is submerged in water to produce a whistle.

This experiment is an excellent way to learn about the characteristics of sound waves and how water can affect them.

Water Surface Tension Experiments

You can observe the effects of surface tension on the behavior of liquids by conducting a surface tension experiment.

By trying these experiments, you can gain a better understanding of the properties of liquids and their behavior and how surface tension affects their behavior.

30. Floating Paperclip

In this experiment, you will put a paper clip on the top of the water and observe it float because of the water’s surface tension.

31. Water Glass Surface Tension

Have you ever noticed how, on some surfaces, water drops may form perfect spheres? The surface tension, which is a characteristic of water and the cohesive force that holds a liquid’s molecules together at its surface, is to blame for this.

32. Camphor Powered Boat

The camphor-powered boat experiment is a fun and fascinating way to explore the principles of chemistry, physics, and fluid mechanics. In this experiment, a miniature boat is used to travel across the water’s surface using camphor tablets.

33. Pepper and Soap Experiment

The pepper in a cloud experiment is a simple and interesting activity that explains the concept of surface tension. This experiment includes adding pepper to a bowl of water and then pouring soap to the mixture, causing the pepper to move away from the soap.

Learn more: Pepper and Soap Experiment

Boiling Water Experiments

Experiments with boiling water are an engaging and informative way to learn about physics, chemistry, and water’s characteristics.

These investigations, which include examining how water behaves when it changes temperature and pressure, can shed light on a variety of scientific phenomena.

It’s important to take the proper safety measures when performing experiments with hot water. Boiling water can produce steam and hot particles that are dangerous to inhale in and can result in severe burns if it comes into contact with skin.

34. Make It Rain

This experiment can be accomplished using basic supplies that can be found in most homes, make it an excellent opportunity for hands-on learning for both kids and science lovers.

Learn more: Make it Rain

35. Fire Water Balloons

Learning about the fundamentals of thermodynamics, the behavior of gases, and the effects of heat on objects are all made possible by this experiment.

36. Boil Water with Ice

The Boiling Water with Ice experiment is an engaging and beneficial approach to learn about temperature and the behavior of water. It can also serve as an introduction for further discovery into the wonderful world of science.

37. Boil Water in a Paper Cup

The “boil water in a cup” experiment is an easier but powerful approach to illustrate the idea of heat transmission by conduction. This experiment is often used in science classes to teach students about thermal conductivity and the physics of heat transfer.

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Water Experiments for Kids That Are a Big Hit in the Classroom

Written by Cassie (Teach Starter)

Are you teaching your students about water in your science classes? It’s time to pull out the water activities for kids that will wow them … while also helping your students learn about density, salinity, mass, and a whole lot more.

The teachers on the Teach Starter team have put together some water experiments for kids that can easily be done in a classroom with little prep — and without a ton of expensive items to buy. These water science activities are also easy for kids to recreate at home if they want to show off their newfound knowledge.

Water Experiments for Kids

Let me add, it’s always a great idea to try these experiments at home before you do them with your class for the first time. Just to make sure you know any little tweaks that are needed to illustrate the concepts you are exploring!

Understanding the Effects of Water Temperature

Use this water experiment for kids to explore the concept of temperature and its effect on the speed that molecules move. This science experiment for kids will quickly illustrate how molecules move faster in hot temperatures and slower in cold temperatures.

You will need:

• Room temperature water
• 3 stopwatches (or phones)

How to do this water science activity:

• Fill one glass with cold water, one with room temperature water, and one with hot water. (It is best to prepare the cold water and room temperature water earlier. Leave one glass in the refrigerator for at least an hour prior to the experiment. Leave another glass sitting out for at least an hour too, as if the water in your pipes is a bit cold this will reduce the efficacy of the experiment.)
• Place a stopwatch in front of each glass.
• Fill the dropper with food dye.
• Drop 2-3 drops of food dye in each of the glasses and observe how the food dye behaves in each different water temperature.
• Start the stopwatches when the food dye is dropped.
• Stop each watch as the food dye has mixed completely with the water.

Your students will be able to see how the food dye mixes quickly with the hot water because the molecules are moving quickly. It takes longer to mix in the room temperature water as the molecules move slower, and in the cold water, the food dye will take the longest to mix as the molecules move at the slowest speed of all three samples.

Eventually, the food dye will mix through the water in all three glasses. Students can predict how long each will take and then record the final times on each of the stopwatches.

Salt Water Density Experiments

Use this experiment to introduce the concepts of density, mass, salinity, and buoyancy.

In this experiment, you and your students will use one bowl of fresh water and one bowl of salt water to explore how salinity affects the buoyancy of different foods. For example, what happens when you put eggs in a bowl of fresh water and a bowl of salt water?

To get started, download and print the Salt Water Density Experiment resource , and prepare the materials described.

Challenge your students to guess whether they will have the same or different results if they try this same experiment using potatoes in place of the eggs.

This experiment also uses food dye to explore how liquid molecules behave differently in fresh water and saltwater.

When your students understand how water behaves differently depending on its density, they can begin to understand more about topics such as:

• the effects of freshwater runoff from melted sea ice in the Antarctic
• how different parts of the ocean have different levels of salinity
• why objects that would normally sink (like people) can float in bodies of water with high salinity like the Dead Sea in the Middle East and the Great Salt Lake in the United States
• how salinity affects the different layers of the ocean and the types of marine life that can live in each layer.

Refraction of Light Science Activity

This water experiment for kids is incredibly simple to set up, and it will help your students better understand refraction, the change of direction of light waves, when they hit water.

All you need is:

• A Glass of water

Draw something on a piece of paper. An arrow is a great visual to start this science activity as it is obvious what happens when you put the glass of water in front of the drawn arrow. But you don’t have to limit it to arrows. Get creative and draw anything you would like to see through the glass.

When the light is passing through the glass of water, it refracts or bends. The glass of water acts as a cylindrical convex lens and produces an inverted image.

Create a fair test by changing one variable. What happens if you change the size of the glass? Or what if you change the liquid variable? Does it change the result?

Teach your students more about reflection and refraction with these resources:

[resource:4701421][resource:2674282]

Create a Lava Lamp Science Activity

No need to head out to buy a lava lamp. You can make your own “lamp” with this fun water activity for kids that teaches about the changes of density as gas is added to or taken away from the water.

• Two glasses
• Vegetable oil
• Food coloring
• Alka-Seltzer tablets

Firstly, mix half a cup of water with some drops of food coloring. You can make two different batches with different colors if you wish to make more than one lava lamp.

Then, fill a glass with vegetable oil (3/4 full). Pour some of the colored mixture into the oil, being careful not to fill the glass too much.

Add one Alka-Seltzer tablet, and watch the chemical reaction…

The Alka-seltzer tablets react with the water to produce carbon dioxide gas bubbles in this fun water activity! These stick to the water droplets. The water/gas combo is less dense than the oil, so they rise to the top of the glass!

Make this a fair test by changing the amount of Alka-seltzer added. In one glass you can add one tablet, another can have two tablets, and another can have three. What happens when you change up the water experiment?

For more water density fun, try these resources:

[resource:1872818][resource:640196][resource:4680428]

Moving Water Experiment

This water activity for kids explores water movement and helps kids understand capillary action. It does take a couple of hours for the results to finalize, so it’s best an experiment that you set and forget, checking back in throughout the day with your class. Perhaps take a picture every half hour to monitor your progress!

Aim: To investigate the movement of water when it has paper towel placed in it.

• A measuring cup
• 4 pieces of paper towel
• Red, blue and yellow food dye
• 5  clear drinking cups/glasses (jars work well too!)
• water – enough to pour equal amounts into 3 of the cups
• 3  mixing spoons
• Line up 5 cups. Fill cups number 1, 3, and 5 with equal amounts of water.
• Place equal drops of food dye into each cup of water – place blue into one cup, red into another, and yellow into the final cup. Mix each cup thoroughly with a new spoon to prevent cross-contamination.
• Place a scrunched piece of paper towel so that it creates a bridge between each cup in the line. The paper towel must be quite deep in the water in each cup.
• Watch what happens over the next few hours and record your results!

This is similar to the way that the roots of a tree pull water up and out of the ground. You can observe the movement and direction of the water by watching the water move up the paper towel, and observing the empty cups filling with a ‘new’ colored water as the two primary colors on either side mix together.

Possible questions to ask:

• What will the food dye from one cup do when it mixes with the dye from another cup?
• Why do you think the water didn’t move backward once the empty cups started to fill up?
• Why do you think the water stopped moving once the cups leveled out?

Check out this fun capillary action water activity for kids using flowers or this one using paper towels and capillary action to make roses that the kids can bring home to gift to someone they love.

For more science experiments for kids and more ways to teach science to elementary schoolers, check out our full array of science teaching resources !

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Frozen Family Fun: Try These Cold-Weather Science Experiments

Record-cold temperatures sweeping across parts of the Midwest, East Coast and Southeast likely have many shuttered indoors with the heat cranked up. Lengthy stints inside can be a recipe for cabin fever.

For those looking to keep their kiddos occupied and have chill family time, there's a way to use the extreme cold for some entertainment (and sneak in a little science education, too). Here, LiveScience has rounded up a few fun experiments that can be done with just a little time outdoors (make sure to bundle up!), from making frozen soap bubbles to creating your own colorful snow. (There are also some experiments to make sure the little ones  don't  try.) 

Frozen bubbles

Kids love bubbles. And while summer is typically the time to crack open a bottle of bubbles, there's a way to make them work in the winter. If it's cold enough outside ( Steve Spangler Science  recommends temperatures below freezing, though he says the colder it is the better), you can make the bubbles freeze. The trick is to blow them up in the air so that they have time to freeze before hitting the ground or another surface. The bubbles will form crystalline patterns and some might break, looking a bit like the shell of a cracked egg. Don't have any bubble solution handy? The post also has a simple homemade recipe. [ See More Science Experiments for Kids ]

Maple syrup candy

Do just like Half Pint did in the "Little House on the Prairie" books and make your own maple syrup candy. Just heat butter and syrup together, according to this recipe , and after it cools, you can pour it onto fresh snow and it will harden into something like maple taffy. Yum!

Magic balloons

Okay, so maybe they're not magic, but they will seem that way to the kids, and this one is quite easy. Just inflate a balloon and and tie the end, then stick it outside and watch it deflate. Bring it back inside to warm up and watch it re-inflate. (This is a nice lesson in how the volume of a gas, in this case, air, changes with temperature, shrinking in the cold, as its density increases, and expanding in the heat, as its density decreases.)

Make your own snow

This one is for those of you experiencing really cold temperatures. Meteorologist Eric Holthaus demonstrates it nicely in a video posted to Youtube : If it's cold enough outside, you can take some boiling water throw it up in the air (make sure it will blow away from you), and it will freeze into snow. When Holthaus did his experiment in Viroqua, Wisconsin, it was minus 21 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 29 degrees Celsius) with a wind chill of minus 51 degrees F (minus 46 degrees C).

Don't run outside with a bowl of super-hot water just yet. Yes, the water will surely freeze into snow (temperatures are in the single digits and below in many spots), but before it does so some of the scalding water could burn your kid's skin.

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In a YouTube video posted Jan. 6, 2014, a Chicago man threw a pot of boiling water off his balcony, with some of the hot water landing on his girlfriend and him. In that same year, news reports suggest that some 50 people burned themselves with the icy experiment. 

How does water turn into snow  in the first place? Colder air holds less water vapor than warmer air, while the boiling water is giving off lots of water vapor (that's the steam you see rising from the pot). When the hot water is thrown into the cold air, the air gets more water vapor than it can hold, Mark Seeley, a climatologist at the University of Minnesota, explained previously to Live Science, so the water vapor clings to tiny particles in the air, crystallizing into snow. Seeley said the air must be quite cold to attempt this one, somewhere in the region of minus 30 degrees F (minus 34 degrees C) or lower.

On Dec. 28, 2017, atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire, where temperatures dropped to minus 31 degrees F (minus 35 degrees C), weather observer Adam Gill, of Mount Washington Observatory, carried out the snow-making trick, with the boiling water immediately freezing into crystals and rushing away in hurricane-force winds, according to a video of the experiment on Facebook .  

Do NOT try this at home

One "experiment" to make sure the kids don't attempt is triple-dog daring anyone into sticking their tongue to that frozen flagpole. Maddie Gilmartin, 12, of East Kingston, N.H., gave this one a try and, sure enough, her tongue was frozen to the pole, as the New York Daily News notes . Her parents tried to blow warm air on her tongue and douse it with warm water to get it unstuck, but to no avail. Eventually the paramedics were able to free her; and her tongue is expected to recover, though it could take up to six months for the swelling to go down.

Why does this happen? The tongue is warm, and when it touches the frigid pole , the pole saps that warmth and cools the tongue, causing the body to send more heat to the cooled area. But the high thermal conductivity of the metal pole means it sucks up that warmth faster than the body can resupply it to the tongue. The upshot: The moisture on the tongue freezes in the pores of the tongue and the metal and, voila, you're stuck.

Editor's Note: This article was first published in 2014 and updated in 2017.

Original article on LiveScience .

Andrea Thompson is an associate editor at Scientific American, where she covers sustainability, energy and the environment. Prior to that, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered Earth science and the environment. She holds a graduate degree in science health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a bachelor of science and and masters of science in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Hot and Cold Water Density - Teach Kids How Temperature Effects Water Density

Posted by Admin / in Matter Experiments

An experiment to teach kids about the difference in density between hot and cold water and the natural flow of warmer or cooler water.

Materials Needed

• Two clear cups of equal size
• Index card or wax paper
• Food coloring (2 colors-blue and red)
• Casserole pan

EXPERIMENT STEPS Have an adult help with this experiment since hot water will need to be handled.

Step 1. Place a full cup of water in the freezer or refrigerator and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.

Step 2. Remove the water from the freezer and mix with a few drops of blue food coloring.

Step 3. Heat up a full cup of water. Have an adult help heat the water either in a microwave oven or on the stove. Hot tap water will work it if is very hot. Handle the hot water very carefully.

Step 4. Mix the hot water with a few drops of red food coloring.

Step 5. Place the cold (blue) water cup in the bottom of the casserole pan.

Step 6. Carefully hold the index card on top of the hot (red) water and flip it upside down, resting the cup on top of the cold (blue) water cup. If the cup opening size is larger than an index card, a piece of wax paper will also work for this step, however, if the wax paper stays in contact with hot water too long it will quickly start to stick to the cup.

Step 7. Quickly remove the index card allowing the cold water and hot water to mix. Observe what happens to the different temperature water.

SCIENCE LEARNED

Different temperature water has different density. The normal density of water is 62.4 pounds per cubic foot. Warmer water is less dense and will have a lower weight per cubic foot of space. Colder water is more dense and will weight more for each cubic foot of space. When the index card is removed between the hot and cold water, nothing really happens. The hot water stays elevated above the colder (blue) water. The cold water is more dense than the hot water. The red and blue coloring will stay separated until the water temperatures start to even out. This will actually take quite a while if the very hot and reasonably cold water is used for the experiment. The experiment cannot really be performed with the hot water starting on the bottom. The hot water will rise, but in the process the red food coloring will mix with the blue food coloring in the cold water and result in purple water.

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in Matter Experiments

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Learn about Hot and Cold Temperature: Easy Science Experiments for Kids

Teach kids about temperature as they perform easy science experiments with hot and cold water and the our free printable.Thank you for visiting. This post…

Teach kids about temperature as they perform easy science experiments with hot and cold water and the our free printable.

Thank you for visiting. This post may contain affiliate links to recommended products at no extra cost to you. Read our Disclosures and Terms of Use . Don't miss out again, become a  Reader here <--it's FREE. 

We did 6 different science activities to learn about temperature and the difference between hot and cold. We have a free printable activity to go along with all the hands-on activities so your little scientists can have fun understanding temperature while learning more about the world around them. Each of the activities are super simple to set up, mainly because most of the supplies come straight from your kitchen faucet.

I loved watching my kids try out these science experiments. They were so eager to check everything out and best of all their understanding of temperature grew. I think that my favorite activity was watching the food coloring disperse in hot and cold water–such a simple activity and yet so pretty to watch! If you enjoy watching your kids do science as much as I do, check out this free homeschool science curriculum . 

More Science Experiments:

• Grow a Rainbow Science Experiment
• Snowflake Symmetry Activity
• How to Make Crystal Balls

Learn about Hot and Cold Temperature Science Experiments

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• Voss Water bottle (or plastic bottle)
• Red and blue food coloring
• Thermometer (We used a candy thermometer)
• Water balloons
• Ice Cube tray
• Glass measuring cups

DIRECTIONS:

Frozen Water

Fill containers half full with water. Mark the water line with a marker or I used a rubber band because we use our water bottles a lot. Put them in the freezer until they are completely frozen. Have children look at the new water lever (ice level). The frozen line should be above the water line because when water freezes it expands because the hydrogen bonds in the water that form are more spread out then when it is in liquid state.

Red and Blue Food Coloring Race

Fill one tall container with ice cold water and another tall container with hot water (not boiling). Have child drop a few drops of red food coloring in the hot bottle and blue food coloring in the cold water and watch (this experiment is very fast so don’t look away). Technically you could use whatever color food coloring you have but since red and blue help to reinforce the difference in temperatures we used those colors. The blue food coloring should move slower through the water compared to the red food coloring because the water molecules in the hot water have more energy and move faster then the water molecules in the cold water.

Blue Ice Melt

Fill a pitcher with water and add drops of blue food coloring. Fill an ice tray with the blue water and put it in the freezer until the ice is solid. Fill a container with room temperature water and place the blue ice inside. The ice should float and the blue water that melts from the ice cube should sink. This is because cold water (and air) is more dense compared to regular temperature water and will sink in warmer water. They may have heard before that hot air rises and cold air sinks, now they can visualize it.

Hot & Cold Balloons

Fill small balloons with some air. We used water balloons. Make them relatively the same size. Place one in cold water and one in hot water. We used a pink balloon for the hot water and the blue balloon for the cold water. The hot water balloon should get larger as the air expands as it gets warm and the cold water balloon should shrink as the air inside condenses.

Thermometer Reading

After the balloon test we used our thermometer to measure the water temperatures and then we wrote the temperature on our Hot and Cold Molucule Craft (See below).

Hot and Cold Molecule Craft (Available to download for free below)

Have children glue molecules in the hot and cold cups showing their understanding of hot and cold. The hot molecules should be spread out and moving around while the cold molecules should be condensed and slow moving.

DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE HERE:

Print the directions here:.

Hot and Cold Temperature Science Experiments

• Thermometer

Instructions

• Frozen Water Fill containers half full with water. Mark the water line with a marker or I used a rubber band because we use our water bottles a lot. Put them in the freezer until they are completely frozen. Have children look at the new water lever (ice level). The frozen line should be above the water line because when water freezes it expands because the hydrogen bonds in the water that form are more spread out then when it is in liquid state. Red and Blue Food Coloring Race Fill one tall container with ice cold water and another tall container with hot water (not boiling). Have child drop a few drops of red food coloring in the hot bottle and blue food coloring in the cold water and watch (this experiment is very fast so don't look away). Technically you could use whatever color food coloring you have but since red and blue help to reinforce the difference in temperatures we used those colors. The blue food coloring should move slower through the water compared to the red food coloring because the water molecules in the hot water have more energy and move faster then the water molecules in the cold water. Blue Ice Melt Fill a pitcher with water and add drops of blue food coloring. Fill an ice tray with the blue water and put it in the freezer until the ice is solid. Fill a container with room temperature water and place the blue ice inside. The ice should float and the blue water that melts from the ice cube should sink. This is because cold water (and air) is more dense compared to regular temperature water and will sink in warmer water. They may have heard before that hot air rises and cold air sinks, now they can visualize it. Hot & Cold Balloons Fill small balloons with some air. We used water balloons. Make them relatively the same size. Place one in cold water and one in hot water. We used a pink balloon for the hot water and the blue balloon for the cold water. The hot water balloon should get larger as the air expands as it gets warm and the cold water balloon should shrink as the air inside condenses. Thermometer Reading After the balloon test we used our thermometer to measure the water temperatures and then we wrote the temperature on our Hot and Cold Molucule Craft Hot and Cold Molecule Craft Have children glue molecules in the hot and cold cups showing their understanding of hot and cold. The hot molecules should be spread out and moving around while the cold molecules should be condensed and slow moving. We used marshmallows. Available here: https://alittlepinchofperfect.com/learn-hot-cold-temperature-science-experiments-kids/

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Home » Articles » STEM » STEM Science » How to Demonstrate Diffusion with Hot and Cold Water

How to Demonstrate Diffusion with Hot and Cold Water

We all need some space sometimes, right that’s true down to a molecular level. molecules don’t like to stay too close together and will try to move to less crowded areas. that process is called diffusion and we will explore all about it in this simple but revealing experiment., article contents.

What is Diffusion?

Have you ever smelled your neighbor’s lunch on your way home? Or smelled someone’s perfume minutes after that person was gone? You experienced the diffusion!

Diffusion is a movement of particles from the area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. It usually occurs in liquids and gases.

Let’s get some complex-sounding terminology out of the way. When talking about diffusion, we often hear something about the concentration gradient (or electrical gradient if looking at electrons). Gradient just means a change in the quantity of a variable over some distance. In the case of concentration gradient, a variable that changes is the concentration of a substance. So we can define the concentration gradient as space over which the concentration of our substance changes.

For example, think of the situation when we spray the air freshener in the room. There is one spot where the concentration of our substance is very high (where we sprayed it initially) and in the rest of the room it is very low (nothing initially). Slowly concentration gradient is diffusing – our freshener is moving through the air. When the concentration gradient is diffused, we reach equilibrium – the state at which a substance is equally distributed throughout a space.

It’s important to note that particles never stop moving , even after the equilibrium is reached. Imagine two parts of the room divided by a line. It may seem like nothing is happening, but particles from both sides are moving back and forth. It’s just that it is an equal probability of them moving from left to right as it’s from right to left. So we can’t notice any net change.

Diffusion is a type of passive transport . That means it doesn’t require energy to start. It happens naturally, without any shaking or stirring.

There is also a facilitated diffusion which happens in the cell membranes when molecules are transported with the help of the proteins.

You may remember hearing about Osmosis and think about how is this different from it. It is actually a very similar concept. Osmosis is just a diffusion through the partially permeable membrane. We talked about it more in our Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment so definitely check it out.

What causes Diffusion?

Do particles really want to move somewhere less crowded? Well, no, not in the way we would think of it. There is no planning around, just the probability.

All fluids are bound to the same physical laws – studied by Fluid mechanics , part of the physics. We usually think of fluids as liquids, but in fact, air and other types of gas are also fluids ! By definition , fluid is a substance that has no fixed shape and yields easily to external pressure.

Another property of the fluids is that they flow or move around. Molecules in fluids move around randomly and that causes collisions between them and makes them bounce off in different directions.

This random motion of particles in a fluid is called Brownian motion . It was named by the biologist Robert Brown who observed and described the phenomenon in 1827. While doing some experiments with pollen under the microscope, he noticed it wiggles in the water. He concluded that pollen must be alive. Even though his theory was far off, his observation was important in proving the existence of atoms and molecules.

Factors that influence Diffusion

There are several factors that influence the speed of diffusion. The first is the extent of the concentration gradient . The bigger the difference in concentration over the gradient, the faster diffusion occurs.

Another important factor is the distance over which our particles are moving. We can look at it as the size of a container. As you may imagine, with the bigger distance, diffusion is slower, since particles need to move further.

Then we have characteristics of the solvent and substance. The most notable is the mass of the substance and density of the solvent . Heavier molecules move more slowly; therefore, they diffuse more slowly. And it’s a similar case with the density of the solvent. As density increases, the rate of diffusion decreases. It’s harder to move through the denser solvent, therefore our molecules slow down.

And the last factor we will discuss is the temperature . Both heating and cooling change the kinetic energy of the particles in our substance. In the case of heating, we are increasing the kinetic energy of our particles and that makes them move a lot quicker. So the higher the temperature, the higher the diffusion rate.

We will demonstrate the diffusion of food coloring in water and observe how it’s affected by the difference in temperature. Onwards to the experiment!

Materials needed for demonstrating Diffusion

• 2 transparent glasses – Common clear glasses will do the trick. You probably have more than needed around the house. We need one for warm water and one for cold water so we can observe the difference in diffusion.
• Hot and cold water – The bigger the difference in temperature in two glasses, the bigger difference in diffusion will be observed. You can heat the water to near boiling or boiling state and use it as hot water. Use regular water from the pipe as “cold water”. That is enough difference to observe the effects of temperature on diffusion.
• Food coloring – Regular food coloring or some other colors like tempera (poster paint) will do the trick. Color is required to observe the diffusion in our solvent (water). To make it more fun, you can use 2 different colors. Like red for hot and blue for cold.

Instructions for demonstrating diffusion

We have a video on how to demonstrate diffusion at the start of the article so you can check it out if you prefer a video guide more. Or continue reading instructions below if you prefer step by step text guide.

• Take 2 transparent glasses and fill them with the water . In one glass, pour the cold water and in the other hot water. As we mentioned, near-boiling water for hot and regular temperature water from the pipe will be good to demonstrate the diffusion.
• Drop a few drops of food coloring in each cup . 3-4 drops are enough and you should not put too much food color. If you put too much, the concentration of food color will be too large and it will defuse too fast in both glasses. 
• Watch closely how the color spreads . You will notice how color diffuses faster in hot water. It will take longer to diffuse if there is more water, less food color and if the water is cooler.

What will you develop and learn

• What is diffusion and how it relates to osmosis
• Factors that influence diffusion
• What is Brownian motion
• How to conduct a science experiment
• That science is fun! 😊

If you liked this activity and are interested in more simple fun experiments, we recommend exploring all about the heat conduction . For more cool visuals made by chemistry, check out Lava lamp and Milk polarity experiment . And if you, like us, find the water fascinating, definitely read our article about many interesting properties of water .

If you’re searching for some great STEM Activities for Kids and Child development tips, you’re in the right place! Check the Categories below to find the right activity for you.

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Videos, guides and explanations about STEM Science in a step-by-step way with materials you probably already have at your home. Find new Science ideas.

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Videos, guides and explanations about STEM Math in a step-by-step way with materials you probably already have at your home. Find new Mathematics ideas.

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Water Science Experiments

Water science experiments you can do at home! Click on the experiment image or the view experiment link below for each experiment on this page to see the materials needed and procedure. Have fun trying these experiments at home or use them for SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT IDEAS.

Catch An Ice Cube:

Frozen Water Is A Lot Of Fun

Make A Rainbow:

Refract Water And Make A Mini Rainbow

Which Water Leaks Faster?:

See If Hot Or Cold Water Drips Faster

Make A Water Filter:

Can You Make Clean Water With Sand And Pebbles? 

Jumbo Water Bead Balloon:

Make A Strange And Unique Item

DIY Hydrophobic Sand:

Make Sand That Is Scared Of Water

Fabulous Floating Rocks:

Can Rocks Really Float?

Storm in a Glass:

Model of Rainstorm in a Glass

How to Do the Hot and Cold Water Density Experiment

Categories Science Experiments

One of my favorite things to do are STEM activities and ocean science experiments ! I love seeing the reaction on a child’s face when they see science work before their eyes.

A lot of science experiments take a long time, but not the hot and cold water density experiment !

In this temperature density experiment, kids will experience water density, color mixing, molecule science, and a whole lot more with just one experiment that takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

Try it out at home or in the classroom!

Hot and Cold Water Density Experiment

If you love doing quick science experiments that wow, try this amazing hot and cold water experiment.

Kids will ask to do this one over and over again!

Why STEM Activities are Important for Kids

Today, science experiments for kids are more important than ever. Science and technology are huge parts of our world today, and the future will be even more science and tech-focused.

Kids who aren’t immersed in the world of science and STEM exploration from a young age will be left behind their peers, and may struggle to find work in the fast-changing landscape of future careers.

Science experiments are usually basic, but they can help spark a love of science and discovery in a child that will follow them throughout their life.

The simple science experiment that a child does today may spark their desire to discover something that will change the world in the future.

Every day, young children are using science experiments to solve real-world problems in medicine and technology that have never been uncovered before.

And all these scientific discoveries start with a firm foundation in science and STEM.

The Scientific Method for Kids

Every science experiment contains four elements:

Kids should start every science experiment with a question, even if that question is just “what will happen?”

A Hypothesis

Before doing any experiment, children should record what they believe will happen.

An Experiment

This is where the fun part comes into play. Test the hypothesis to determine if it answers the question fully.

A Recording and Analysis

As the test is completed, record what happened and analyze why.

Try different variables and try a new test to see if the original answer is confirmed or disproved.

Water Density Experiment Explanation

Here is the hot and cold water density experiment explanation.

The hot and cold water science experiment works because of the different density of hot and cold water.

Certain liquids are less dense than others. If you’ve ever made a density jar, it’s easy to see this in action.

But… water has the same density as other water, right? So why does it stay separated?

The secret is in the temperature of the water.

The molecules in hot water move faster than those in cold water. Hot water molecules bounce around and leave gaps. This makes hot water slightly less dense than cold water.

So when you put the cold water on the bottom, the denser cold water stays there.

But when you put the cold water on the top, heat molecules rise. So the colors mix right away.

Because you’re mixing primary colors, they mix into secondary colors when the hot water is on the bottom.

Supplies for the Temperature Density Experimemnt

Here are some essential supplies for the hot and cold water density experiment.

• Food coloring
• Cardstock paper

Our Favorite Water Science Kits

Here are some of our favorite water science kits that you can turn into ice science too!

• Water science kit for early elementary
• Water filtration science experiment
• Air and water power science kit
• Clean water science kit
• Water rocket kit

Water Density Experiment Set-Up

Before starting this experiment, you’ll need to laminate a small card slightly larger than the mouth of your mason jar.

Boil a pot of hot water and fill a large pitcher with ice water.

Fill three jars all the way to the top with ice water.

Fill three more jars up to the top with hot water (but don’t make it so hot that you can’t touch the sides of the jar).

Dye one cold jar yellow, one blue, and one red. Repeat for the hot jars.

More Water Experiments for Kids

• How to Make Water Slime that Looks Just Like Fresh Water!
• Fortnite Slurp Drink Water Density Experiment
• How to Make an Instant Ice Tower
• Milk jug water wheel

How to Do the Water Density Experiment

Learn how hot and cold water have different densities with this hands-on, colorful, and fun water science experiment! It's the perfect "wow" science experiment that gets strong reactions every time!

• Plastic mason jars

Instructions

First, do the experiment with the cold water on the bottom.

• Place the index card over the mouth of the hot water jar. Press slightly to make a seal.
• Flip the jar over and place it on top of the cold water jar (make sure it's a color combo that will make a secondary color).
• Line up the lip of the jars and carefully pull the card out. The water will stay separated!
• Repeat for the other four jars.
• Carefully grip the center of the jars and flip them. They will mix into secondary colors right away!
• Because cold water is denser than hot water, the colors do not mix until gravity pulls the cold water down into the hot water.

If you don't want the mess risk of flipping the jars, you can simply put the hot water jar on the top and use the index card over the cold water. Then, when you move the card out of the way the colors will mix and you won't have to flip any jars.

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Balloon In Hot and Cold Water – Experiment

• March 30, 2021
• 7-9 Year Olds , Household Items , Physics

Let’s discuss about ‘Balloon in hot and cold water experiment’ in this article. This interesting balloon experiment helps children to learn about density , surface tension , and air pressure .

Balloon in hot and cold water experiment

• The volume of air changes based on the temperature surrounding it.
• Air expands or contracts based on increase or decrease in surrounding temperature.

Things you need to do Balloon Experiment

1) Two plastic/ glass container (bottles)

2) Balloons

3) Hot Water

4) Ice cubes as a cold water source

5) Containers to place hot and cold water

Preparation Steps

1) You can prepare your children or students by asking “How can you inflate the Balloon without touching it?”.

2) Note down their expected answers. But discuss their solutions only after performing the experiment to catch the science concepts behind it easily.

Step by Step Directions

Let’s start with the hot air experiment.

Step-1: 

Take a glass container and add cold water. Then, add few ice cubes to it to keep it cold.

Step-2: 

Pick another glass container and add some amount of hot water into it. Ensure the hot water’s hotness need not to be sizzling.

As step 3, bring our Balloon over the neck or mouth of the crystal clear plastic bottle in an upside-down position. And fix the mouth of the Balloon to the mouth of the bottle as shown in the picture.

Make sure the bottle is empty before you attach the Balloon to it.

Repeat the same method and prepare another set of water bottle and Balloon using the other empty bottle.

In this step, keep the ballon attached bottle inside the container, which consists of hot water. Let the bottle sit in hot water for some time.

You will observe the Balloon starts inflating itself without any external force. Amazing, isn’t it!?

Step-5: 

And then bring the same and another set of water bottle into the container which consists of cold water. And allow it to sit for some time to see the results.

You will observe the Balloon starts shrinking itself by deflating the air inside it.

Note:  If you feel the hot water is becoming cool, replace it with another hot water cup. In the same way, if you feel the cold water is becoming hot due to outside temperature impact, add some more ice cubes and make it cool. In this way, you can maintain the temperatures of the water while repeating the experiments.

Science Behind Expanding Balloon on Hot Water

The quantity of air occupied in a particular space, i.e., an open or closed container, denotes ‘Volume.’ 

Well, an empty water bottle is also populated with a certain amount of air molecules inside it—the air molecules inside and outside the bottle move with equal pressures at normal surrounding conditions.

In this activity, when we attach a balloon over the bottle’s mouth and place it in a hot water container, the Balloon starts inflating. It is because the hot air molecules enter into the Balloon from the bottle, which is in a hot water container.

These hot air molecules move faster inside the Balloon and occupy more space as they become less dense than usual. When they become less dense, it requires more space to settle, and that is why the Balloon starts inflating to provide more space for hot air molecules.

And when the Balloon inflates in hot water, bring it into the container containing cold water. Here, the cold air molecules replace the hot air molecules because hot air molecules cool down due to cold water.

When the air molecules become colder, air molecules’ density gets back to a denser state and requires less space to occupy. That is why the inflated Balloon deflates when the bottle is placed inside a cold water container.

This is how the volume of air calculated:

Volume= Mass x Density

Safety Tips

Have adult supervision at all times during the experiment to avoid any unforeseen incidents.

Suggested to wear gloves and safety glasses while doing experiments with hot water.

Avoid handling hot water by small kids.

Learning for Elementary, Middle School, and High School Students

The same experiment can be used differently based on the level /grade of the students.

Elementary Students

When kids are in elementary school, it is the best time to learn about different states of matter, i.e., solids, liquids, and gases. Solids and liquids are visible to the naked eye, and hence students can easily catch up with the properties and characteristics. And it is easy for them to compare various objects and liquid things and determine the state of matter properties.

But when coming to gases, it is difficult for them to determine their properties because gases won’t appear to the naked eye, and children go confused. That is why we need to explain them clearly by concentrating much on performing various science experiments that involve gases. One such experiment is the ‘Balloon in a bottle’ experiment.

Through this experiment, students can quickly learn about gases and their properties.

Middle School Students

In middle school, students focus on macroscopic particles and determine the objects around them and tell whether they have solid or liquid or gaseous properties. Because at this level, they will get to learn about states of matter in regards to their arrangement, position, and movement. Also, they can explore that all forms of matter are made of atoms and molecules that consist of weight, especially gases. As the air is invisible, they think that gases do not have mass, but they learn about gases containing mass with this experiment.

Besides, they can explain the conservation of matter with a good reason using the concept of closed systems.

High School Students

At this level, as the name suggests, students become sharp and can apply their knowledge on gases. This knowledge helps in understanding even the difficult context of gases, i.e., ‘Gas Laws.’ Also, they can apply Charles Law and explain Gas Law. And using conservation of matter principles and laws, they will make out the differences in temperatures and their relation to the volume of gas.

In this way, students at different school grades learn the gaseous properties by performing this super classic experiment of ‘Balloon in a Bottle.’

Laws Behind the Experiment

Gas Law or Gas Laws is/are a collection of laws which include Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, Gay-Lussac’s Law, Ideal Gas Law, and Avogadro’s Law. These laws combine to state how an amount of gas reacts to changes in temperature, pressure, and temperature. The following are such statements these combined laws work on:

1) The complete temperature of a gas

2) The amount of volume working with a gas

3) The amount of pressure experienced between the walls of a container and a gas

4) The mass of a gas

The above-mentioned combination laws were a great invention during the 18th century, and here are the definitions of each law:

    Boyle’s Law:  The law which states the kith and kin between the volume and pressure of a given amount of gas is nothing but Boyle’s Law.

    Charles’s Law:  Charles’s Law is the law that tells about the absolute temperature of a gas and its association with the volume employed by it. 

    Avogadro’s Law:  The type of law which states the correlation between the number of moles of a gas and the amount of volume occupied by it refers to Avogadro’s Law. 

    Gay-Lussac’s Law:  Gay-Lussac’s Law tells that the relation between the absolute temperature and its pressure is directly proportional at constant volume. 

    Ideal Gas Law:  Ideal gas law is a combination of three laws, i.e., Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, Avogadro’s Law, and hence refers to the term ‘combined gas law.’ This law states the differential behavior of gases at different conditions and concludes that a gas’s pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature. 

Pressure, volume, and temperature are the three significant physical factors that determine the behavior of gases. When these parameters are at standard conditions, the activities of all types of gases remain the same. The states of gases can vary based on the condition. 

So, the gas law and all other five laws state all gases’ behavior is associating with all three physical parameters.

Boyle’s Law Formula: P∝1/V

Charles’s Law Formula: V∝T

Avogadro’s Law Formula: V ∝ n

Ideal Gas Law Formula: PV= nRT

Gay-Lussac’s Law Formula: P ∝ T

Here, P= Pressure of the gas, V= Volume of the gas, T= Absolute Temperature of a gas, n= Number of moles, R= Equilibrium Constant.

Here are some worksheets that would complement the science experiment. Attempting these worksheets might help studnets to sustain the knowledge gained through the experiment. On the other hand, teachers use these worksheets to understand and monitor student’s previous and current knowledge.

https://scied.ucar.edu/sites/default/files/files/activity_files/BalloonOnBottle_0.pdf

https://www.flinnsci.com/api/library/Download/e2dfff9fc2324f51889429583a51ac63

https://ps21pd.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/0/6/12065719/kinetic_theory_-_hot_and_cold_balloons.pdf

https://www.sciencenorth.ca/sites/default/files/2020/June%202%20Grade%207%20Particle%20Theory%20Offline%20ENG.pdf

Practical Applications

Let’s learn how to apply these science concepts in real life applications happening around us.

Hot air balloon:  Yes, the science behind hot air balloon and Balloon in the bottle activities is similar, i.e., hot air rises, sending the cool air to replace the space created by it. When you provide heat flames in the hot air balloon set up, the heat energy enters into the Balloon.

Generally, the hot air consists of less dense air molecules, which tend to rise. That’s why and the hot air balloon rises in the sky until they provide enough heat.

Not only air, any substance that exhibits less dense molecules than the surrounding gaseous or liquid matters float . Forex: Wood floats on top of the water because wood consists of less dense molecules than water. This phenomenon of increasing the molecules’ speed regarding the increase in temperature of a gas refers to ‘Thermal Expansion.’ And the wonder of floating objects due to the pressure or force exerted is ‘Buoyancy.’

Sun Producing Wind on Earth:  The winds produced by Sun on the Earth also exhibit the same phenomenon, i.e., thermal expansion and buoyancy.

Earth’s temperature is uncertain, so we cannot predict its long-term weather and climatic conditions. It is because different parts of Earth receive heat from Sunlight at different times as Earth is round and rotating.

So, the Sun can’t provide Sunlight to all parts of the Earth at the same time. Hence, Earth receives different air temperatures at places closer to the surface of the Earth. Besides, the Sun’s angle is focussing its Sunlight on the Earth also plays a significant role in changing the temperatures of Earth.

According to the above concepts, several continents on Earth receive more heat than other continents. Comparing land and water, land absorbs more heat faster than water, and therefore we see continents with more land exhibits high temperatures.

But during nights land releases heat more quickly than air and hence we feel cooler climates at night time. In this way, Earth reveals different climatic conditions and atmospheric temperatures during the day and night times.

Let us discuss these concepts in detail with a practical example, i.e., Off-shore and On-shore Winds. During nights, the oceans’ surface gets warmer so quickly because the surrounding land cools down and shows lesser temperatures.

As a result, the warmer air becomes less dense and rises upwards, leaving the space on the surface occupied by the cold air from the land. Thus, creating the off-shore winds that produce renewable and pure energy.

And at daytime, we experience on-shore winds that mean the land absorbs more heat from the Sun and exhibits warmer air. This hot air does not remain on the land surface; instead, it rises into the air because it consists of less dense air molecules.

Simultaneously, the temperature at the ocean level exhibits less heat than the land surface temperature. So, the cold air from the ocean surface replaces the hot air molecules’ space creating on-shore winds.

Lesson Plan

Here is the best lesson plan on the ‘Balloon in hot and cold water’ experiment.

Preparations

1) Ask the students whether they can inflate the Balloon without touching it. Note down their answers and discuss their solutions after the experiment.

2) First, invite your student’s answers and discuss their solutions with a scientific reason.

3) You can encourage and inspire students by telling them that they are upcoming engineers, chemists, and other respectable designations. Forex: if a student predicts the answer would be ‘by adding baking soda and vinegar,’ explain why his response went wrong. Then, encourage him by saying he/she is thinking smartly like a chemist. In this way, depending on their predictions, a teacher can inspire them with specific designations.  

4) If a student does not respond to your challenge of inflating a balloon without touching it, then give him an example and ask him/her to compare. Let the student come up with his/her answer with a bit of explanation.

Guide your students on the instructions of the ‘Balloon in hot and cold water’ experiment step by step, clearly as mentioned at the top of this post. You can also ask and discuss a few questions related to the subject while experimenting. Such that students feel more encouraged and involved in the topic rather than feeling bored.

Here are the basic questions you can discuss with students:

1) Why does the Balloon inflated on itself?

2) What is the difference between hot and cold water changes and their impact on the Balloon?

3) How long the Balloon takes time to inflate itself in hot water?

Explain about Misconceptions

Students think that hot air blows up the Balloon as the hot air rises upwards. But prove it as a misconception by reversing the bottle with an inflated balloon. Still, the Balloon remains inflated without deflating. It is because hot air rises when there is cold air beside it.

Finally, explain the background science involved in this experiment and discuss students’ predicted answers with a scientific reason. Tell them clearly that their answers may not apply in this science activity, but they may use them in another way of experimenting.

In hot water, the Balloon inflated because of hot air molecules, and in cold water, the Balloon deflated because of cold air molecules. The hot air molecules are less dense in weight and tend to rise and occupy more space. That’s the reason the hot air molecules travel inside the Balloon and make it expand. In contrast, the cold air molecules are denser in weight and require less space, causing the Balloon to deflate.

Take an empty plastic water bottle. Attach a balloon (make sure it is not leaking anywhere on its surface) to the bottle’s mouth using its neck part by placing it upside down. That means the mouth of the Balloon and the bottle gets attached in opposite directions using their mouthparts. Now place the bottle set up in a container that consists of hot water in it. Leave it for some time. The Balloon starts inflating by filling its inside part with hot air molecules.

Bring the Balloon’s mouth part in an upside-down position over the neck part of the bottle. And then stretch the Balloon’s opening around the neck part of the bottle. But before that, you need to uncap the bottle. That’s it! Your Balloon’s opening nicely sits over the bottleneck part.

Boyle’s Law is valid at very high temperatures until or unless the gas remains as a gaseous matter. Because at high temperatures, the gases may change their state of mass, for which Boyle’s law is not applicable. Boyle’s law tells that the volume and pressure of a gas-related each other quite the opposite.

When you squeeze the bottle, the Balloon begins inflating itself because we squeeze some air molecules into it while squeezing the bottle. And due to more air occupying inside the Balloon, the Balloon starts expanding and inflates itself to fit the air molecules coming inside. When you stop squeezing the bottle, the balloon deflates.

When you let the Balloon warm up again, it starts inflating itself because of warmer air molecules. The warmer air molecules rise and enter into the Balloon, making it expand. Hot air molecules are less dense in weight and tend to travel upwards. And they require more space since they like to scatter in larger areas.

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This educational resource is part of the Cool As Ice spotlight

Make Supercool Fruit Pops

Grade level, 15 min - 1 hr, activity type:, crystallization , ice , nucleation , molecules , heat.

These Aha! resources are also available in Spanish !

When you cool water down below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), it should freeze, right?

Well, that’s not always what happens.

Most of the time, when water dips below its freezing point, it transitions from a liquid state to a solid state, which you know as ice. However, under the right conditions, pure water can remain a liquid even when cooled to well below its freezing point. When water remains a liquid below its freezing point, it is called supercooled water .

How do you supercool water, and what causes it to finally freeze solid? To find out, let’s make supercool fruit pops. Here’s how:

Wooden skewers or toothpicks

Chunks of fruit, like bananas, strawberries, peaches, or pineapple

Ice and access to a freezer

Distilled water

Large glass or metal bowl

Small glass bowl or jar

Make supercooled water

• Freeze fruit on a skewer in the freezer for at least two hours.
• Fill a small glass jar one-third of the way with distilled water.
• Place the jar in the center of a large bowl and surround the jar with ice, making sure the ice comes up past the height of the water on the sides of the jar.
• Sprinkle a dusting of salt over the ice, being careful not to get any salt in the water in the jar.
• Rest a kitchen thermometer in the jar. Leave the jar in the bowl full of ice until the thermometer reads 30 F or below.
• When the water is below 30 F, carefully remove the thermometer from the jar. If your water is still liquid at this temperature, congrats! You’ve created supercooled water! If not, dump the ice that has formed in the jar and try again.
• Remove a frozen fruit skewer from the freezer and gently place it in the supercooled water in the jar. You should see ice crystals form around the fruit pop. Once the ice crystals have formed, remove the fruit skewer and observe (and eat) your frozen water masterpiece!

Be curious, ask questions, mess with stuff

• Does supercooled water look any different from room-temperature water? If the thermometer hadn’t been in the water as it cooled, would you have been able to tell from its appearance that it was supercooled?
• What happened when you put the frozen fruit into the supercooled water? Be as specific as possible.
• How did the water change? Did ice crystals form? If so, where did they begin to form? How did they grow?
• Did all the water in the jar turn into ice crystals, or did some water remain? Try putting more frozen fruit in whatever water remained in the jar. Did that fruit instantly freeze, too? Why or why not? Use a kitchen thermometer to test your prediction.
• Examine the ice crystals that formed on your fruit pop. What do they look like? Are they smooth and glassy, or are they spikey? Is the ice that formed thick or thin?

AHA! Ice crystals help supercooled water freeze!

In order to get an idea of what just happened in your glass jar, you have to picture water at the molecular level. Each water molecule consists of a pair of hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. In a warm liquid state, water molecules bounce around and collide with one another constantly and randomly, propelled by energy in the form of heat.

But when water is frozen solid, water molecules don’t really move around. Instead, they’re arranged in a rigid, highly organized, three-dimensional grid called a crystal, where they vibrate in place. If you’ve ever noticed frost on a window, peered into an ice cube, or seen a snowflake, you’ve observed the results of this molecular organization process, called crystallization.

So, how do you get water molecules in a liquid state to arrange themselves into crystals? First you have to slow them down—and to do that, you have to drop the temperature, just like you did when you chilled the water in an ice bath. Second, you have to give those chilled water molecules something to crystallize around, called a “ seed .”

In your experiment, the seed you provided was in the form of tiny ice crystals on the outside of your frozen fruit pop! Those tiny crystals acted like a pattern, or template, for water crystal formation, providing a guide to help water molecules arrange themselves into a crystal lattice. The initial formation of crystals around a seed crystal is called nucleation , and is an essential first step in the process of crystallization.

Many substances can seed crystallization in supercooled water, even impurities like dust, other minerals, and tiny air bubbles. That’s why it’s best to use purified water like distilled or filtered water when making supercooled water!

Experiment more, make predictions. It’s what scientists do.

• Ask questions: What other things could you use as a seed crystal for water crystallization?
• Modify the experiment : Repeat this experiment, but instead of putting the fruit pop into the supercooled jar of water, hold your frozen fruit pop over the sink and pour the supercooled water over the top of it. How does the ice formed with this method differ from the ice that was formed when you dipped the fruit into the supercooled water?
• Make a prediction: What other substances besides frozen fruit would cause crystal formation in supercooled water? Can you make ice crystals form on a non-frozen fruit pop? What about on a jellybean or a plain ice cube? Repeat the experiment using different substances to seed crystallization, adding the ice in your bowl as needed to keep your experiment cool.
• Document your results : Write down all the different versions of this experiment that you try, snapping pictures of the ice that you create, and describing differences in ice crystals between experiments.

Aha!  by Science Friday, is a series of short science experiments that you can do in 15 minutes or less, with materials you can find at home.

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Ariel Zych is Science Friday’s director of audience. She is a former teacher and scientist who spends her free time making food, watching arthropods, and being outside.

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Hot and Cold Water Science EXPERIMENT

Are you looking for a science experiment to do with your kids at home? Then, wow your preschoolers or kindergarteners with a science experiment that teaches them how the density of water changes when it is heated. After all, who doesn’t enjoy science activities for kindergarten that only require common household items?

SUPPLIES FOR THE WATER SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

You will need an adult to supervise this activity as it involves hot water.

• Two identical wide mouthed small clear glass jars
• Food Coloring – Red and Blue
• Index or plastic card ( Old playing card can be used if it covers the mouth of the jar )
• Shallow Dish/Plate or baking pan
• Hot and Cold Water

How do you do hot and cold water density experiment?

Fill one jar with cold water and the other with hot water.

Pour blue food coloring into the cold water and red food coloring into the hot water.

Make sure both jars are completely filled with water. To avoid spills, place them in the shallow plate.

Tap the card gently on top of the hot water jar. The card should completely cover the jar’s mouth. It will aid in the formation of a seal between the water and the jar.

Pick up the hot water jar with care (you’ll need an adult for this part) and turn it completely upside-down.

If the jar is tilted but not completely turned over, the water will gush out and make a mess. So, without hesitation, flip the jar over.

You may not need to place your hand on the card because the vacuum created inside the jar keeps it on the surface.

Before attempting it with hot water, it is best to practice turning the jar upside down with an index card placed on top of it under the sink using tap water.

Place the red jar upside down on top of the blue jar. Check that the edges of both jars are perfectly aligned all around.

Allow someone to hold both jars while you slowly and patiently pull out the card from between the jars.

RELATED POST : HOW DOES WATER WORK AS A MAGNIFYING GLASS

DENSITY EXPERIMENT : THE SCIENCE OF Hot and Cold Water

Why does hot and cold water not mix?

Empty and clean both jars. Carry out the previous experiment, but this time turn the blue jar upside down and place it on top of the red jar. What happens next? Why does the water mix this time?

The reason for this is that when two liquids of different densities are combined, the liquid with lower density floats on top of the denser liquid.

Hot water has a lower density than cold water.

When water is heated, the water molecules begin to bounce off each other, causing them to move farther apart and thus create more space between the molecules.

Eventually, a volume of hot water contains fewer molecules and weighs less than a volume of cold water.

As a result, hot water is less dense than cold water.

RELATED POST : WHAT IS WATER COHESION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT

When you place the jar containing hot water on top of the jar containing cold water, the cold water does not have to rise because it is denser than the hot water and thus remains at the bottom.

When you place the jar with cold water on top of the jar with hot water, the hot water rises to the top because it is less dense, mixing with the cold water along the way and creating purple water.

FURTHER EXTENSION ON Water Density

Try the same experiment with a jar of salted water and a jar of plain water. And let us know in the comments section which one is more dense.

Check out some of these great books on science experiments that are simple and fun to do at home if you want to stir up your children’s scientific curiosity.

(Disclosure : Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase)

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed this post on hot and cold water science experiments. Be sure to check out our other posts for more fun and interesting STEM activities you can do at home with your kids. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy experimenting!

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February 14, 2021 at 2:30 pm

Oh love a bit of easy STEM! maybe this is a good one for half term, if I have jars….

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Which solids dissolve in water?

November 17, 2011 By Emma Vanstone 21 Comments

Today’s experiment is very simple but hopefully fascinating for even very young children. We’re going to investigate which solids dissolve in water .

When a substance  dissolves in water, you can’t see it anymore; it’s still there but has mixed with the water to make a transparent liquid called a  solution.

We call substances that dissolve in water  soluble . Sugar and salt are examples of soluble substances.

Substances that do not dissolve in water are called  insoluble . Sand and flour are examples of insoluble substances.

You’ll need

• Transparent containers – test tubes or beakers
• Water ( warm and cold )
• Substances to try to dissolve, e.g. sugar, coffee, pepper, sand, flour, salt.

Instructions

Add a teaspoon of whichever solid you are testing to a glass of cold water and a glass of warm water. Stir and observe the difference.

Watch to see if the solid dissolves in warm and cold water and if one is better than the other.

Remember to use the same amount of each solid and the same amount of cold and warm water to make the investigation a fair test .

Can you design a chart for recording your observations?

Which solids dissolve in water

Things like salt, sugar and coffee dissolve in water. They are soluble . They usually dissolve faster and better in warm or hot water.

Pepper and sand are insoluble; they will not dissolve even in hot water.

Dissolving for older children

Everything is made of particles which are constantly moving. When a soluble solid ( solute ) is mixed with a suitable liquid (solvent), it forms a solution . This process is called dissolving .

Two things that affect the speed at which a solid dissolves are temperature and the size of the grains of the solid .

Caster sugar, made of fine particles, will dissolve quickly, but bigger sugar particles will take longer.

Solids dissolve faster in hot water; in hot water, molecules move more quickly, so they bump into each other more often, increasing the rate of reaction.

An example of a physical change

Dissolving is an example of a physical change. The particles involved are rearranged, but no chemical bonds are changed.

In a physical change, there is no change in mass. If you dissolved 10g of salt in 100g of water, you’d have 110g of solution.

More Dissolving Experiments

Make a naked egg and watch as vinegar dissolves the calcium carbonate of the eggshell.

Lava lamps work because the effervescent tablet dissolves in water releasing carbon dioxide.

Handy definitions

Solute – the solid being dissolved

Solvent – the liquid the solid is dissolving into.

Solution – the solute and the solvent

Soluble – solute that does dissolve

Solubility – how much of a solute will dissolve

Insoluble – does not dissolve

Saturated – a solution that won’t dissolve any more solute at that temperature.

More Science for Kids

Don’t forget we have lots more easy science experiments for kids at home that you can try too!

You might also like our science books ! This IS Rocket Science contains 70 fun space experiments for kids, including bottle rockets, film canister rockets, space marble runs and shadow puppets.

Snackable Science contains 60 tasty and edible science snacks!!

Contains affiliate links

Last Updated on April 9, 2024 by Emma Vanstone

Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

Reader Interactions

November 17, 2011 at 2:07 pm

For some reason, I struggled to understand solids dissolving in liquids. It was probably until I was in high school and taking Chemistry before I really got it. 😉 I like the little experiment.

November 23, 2011 at 10:34 pm

Glad you like it, we aim to please. xx

November 18, 2011 at 12:16 am

what simple experiments, my little one will be fascinated by this.

November 18, 2011 at 9:17 am

Thanks, My 4 year old loved trying all the different things! x

December 15, 2019 at 6:51 pm

I just needed to get this information for my butterfly garden but after Reading this i will try to do this when i have a science project

November 20, 2011 at 8:32 pm

Very fun & simple enough for my little ones! Welcome to TGIF LInky Party. Thanks for linking up. Don’t forget to grab the TGIF button for your post or sidebar so others can find the party & link up too. Thanks & see you next week, Beth =-)

November 23, 2011 at 10:33 pm

Thanks Beth. x

November 23, 2011 at 7:46 pm

You do really come up with fabulous experiments to do at home 🙂

Thank you for joining Kids Get Crafty!

November 23, 2011 at 10:31 pm

Thanks Maggy, glad you liked it. x

November 29, 2011 at 3:00 am

I am fascinated by this & want to try it! Thanks for linking your idea to the Sunday Showcase last week. Hope to see you this week!

Bern http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase

November 29, 2011 at 2:40 pm

Yay, so glad you like it, let us know how you get on. x

February 19, 2013 at 5:59 pm

simple but effective

February 23, 2013 at 3:35 pm

Had so much fun doing this for homework, you basically saved me in a desperate situation, simple but very effective ;0)

February 26, 2013 at 4:36 pm

do all solids dissolve in water?

April 26, 2017 at 8:52 am

not all of them

April 30, 2016 at 2:43 pm

what other solids dissolve?

February 12, 2017 at 9:12 am

Loved this experiment – My daughter is nearly 5 and she loved setting up and carrying out the experiment 🙂 We wrote about it first a nd then after we wrote our findings down and then the sciency part too – She has to practise her sentence writing for school (she is in YR R) and it’s not a secret that my daughter loves to write. I wanted to give her a reason to write so experiments are a great way so I don’t have to pluck a random sentence out of the air on demand – THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

August 30, 2017 at 7:15 pm

So cool! most coolest thing i have ever seen

May 08, 2018 at 3:23 pm

September 04, 2019 at 3:50 pm

Was a very fun experiment and also very fun to do…

Had a fun learning experience with the simple ,little experiment… during theory classes I wasn’t able to understand until I got to do this experiment..the for coming up with the idea.

Wish u luck for upcoming experiments. Love .MELLOW

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Cool Science Experiments Headquarters

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Science Experiments

35 Easy Science Experiments You Can Do Today!

Looking for easy science experiments to do at home or in the classroom? You’re in luck because we’ve got over 35 easy science activities for kids that will help you make science fun for all ages. 

Most of these simple science experiments for kids are easy to prepare, quick to perform, and use household items or inexpensive materials you can find almost anywhere. To connect the fun to the “why it works” you’ll find an easy to teach explanation with every experiment!

Musical Jars Science Experiment 

This super easy experiment is simple as it is fun! Kids make their own musical instruments with clear jars and water then investigate sound waves, pitch, and more.

When the experiment is complete, use the colorful new “instrument” for a fun music lesson. Kids can play and take turns to “name that tune”!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Musical Jars Science Experiment

Viscosity of Liquids Science Experiment

Viscosity may be a confusing term for kids at first, but this super easy experiment can help them see viscosity in action!

With marbles, clear jars, and a few household materials, kids will make predictions, record data, and compare the results while they test high and low density liquids.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Viscosity Science Experiment

Floating Egg Science Experiment

Can a solid egg float? Kids can find the answer and understand why with this quick science experiment. 

Discover just how easy it can be to make a raw egg float while testing the laws of density. We’ve included additional ideas to try so kids can make predictions and test the concept further.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Floating Egg Science Experiment

Paper Towel Dry Under Water Experiment

Is it possible to keep a paper towel dry even when submerging it under water? The answer is a surprising “yes,” if you use science to help!

Start with the properties of your materials, make a prediction, then explore matter, density, volume, and more.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Paper Towel Dry Under Water Experiment

Mixing Oil & Water Science Experiment

This simple experiment for kids helps them better understand density and the changes that happen when adding an emulsifier to the mix. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Mixing Oil & Water Experiment

Will it Float or Sink Science Experiment

Will it sink or will it float? This fun experiment challenges what students think they know about household items!

Students record their hypothesis for each item then test it to compare what they think will happen against their observations.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Float or Sink Science Experiment

Water Temperature Science Experiment

What does thermal energy look like? In this easy science experiment, kids are able to see thermal energy as they explore the concept in action.

With clear jars and food coloring, students can quickly see how molecules move differently through hot and cold water.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Water Temperature Science Experiment

Balloon Blow-up Science Experiment

Kids will discover how matter reacts when heated and cooled as they watch with surprise as baking soda and vinegar blow the balloon up before their eyes.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Balloon Blow-up Science Experiment

Floating Ping Pong Ball Science Experiment

Kids will giggle with joy with this super easy experiment. With only a ping pong ball and a hair dryer, students will have a great time while exploring Bernoulli’s Principle in action. 

We’ve included additional ideas to further explore the concept with different objects and observe the change in results.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Floating Ping Pong Ball Science Experiment

Hair Stand on End Science Experiment

It’s especially fun for those who’ve never seen static electricity in action before!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Hair Stand on End Science Experiment

Oil Bubbles in Water Science Experiment

Kids explore density and experience some chemistry when creating oil bubbles in water with everyday household items.

This experiment is particularly fun when kids see that they’ve made what looks like a lava lamp!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Oil Bubbles in Water Science Experiment

Color Changing Water Science Experiment

Kids will be surprised as they watch a new color being “created” without mixing! Using only a clear bowl and glass, some food coloring, and water, this super easy science experiment is quick and easy with a huge wow factor. 

Try it with yellow and blue to follow along with our demonstration video then try different primary color combinations and explore the results.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Color Changing Water Science Experiment

Magnetic Paper Clip Chain Science Experiment

It may seem a bit like magic but it’s actually science! It’s not hard to capture your kids’ attention with this quick and easy science experiment as they watch paper clips “stick” together and form a chain!

Perfect for younger children, the experiment only takes a few minutes and is a fun way to explore the concept of magnetic transference.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Magnetic Paper Clip Chain Science Experiment

Is it Magnetic Science Experiment

With only a magnet and a few household items, kids will make and record their predictions, test and observe, then compare what they think is magnetic against the results.

Simple and quick, but some of the results may surprise your students!

Cloud in a Jar Experiment

This simple experiment only requires a few materials but really holds student attention as a cloud forms before their eyes!

Kids will learn new weather vocabulary as they explore how physical changes and reactions happen as clouds begin to take form. We’ve also included a helpful chart on the types of clouds.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Cloud in a Jar Science Experiment

Magic Milk Science Experiment

Create a dancing rainbow of colors with this easy science experiment for kids!

Using only a few ordinary kitchen items, your students can create a color explosion in ordinary milk when they add our special ingredient. (Hint: The special ingredient (soap!) includes hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules that make the magic happen!)

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Magic Milk Science Experiment

Walking Water Science Experiment

Water can’t really walk upwards against gravity, but this cool science experiment makes it seem like it can! 

Kids are able to see the capillary action process and learn how attraction and adhesive forces in action allow water to move out of one glass into another. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Walking Water Science Experiment

Light Refraction Science Experiment

The results of this easy science experiment are so amazing, it makes kids (and adults) think it must be magic!

Young scientists watch in surprise while they see an arrow change directions instantly. Investigating refraction couldn’t be more fun!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Light Refraction Science Experiment

Dancing Raisins Experiment

Learn about the reactions of buoyancy and density in this simple science activity for kids. 

They may not need dancing shoes, but give them a glass of soda pop and the raisins in this fun experiment love to dance!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Dancing Raisins Science Experiment

See Sound Experiment

Kids love this experiment because they are encouraged to drum loudly so they can “see” sound waves in action!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> See Sound Science Experiment

Elephant Toothpaste Science Experiment

Grab some giant brushes and get ready to make elephant toothpaste! Although you might not be able to get an elephant excited by this super easy experiment, kids love it!

The impressive and quick results created by the chemical reaction and the heat released in the process makes an abundant amount of fun and colorful foam!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Elephant Toothpaste Science Experiment

Upside Down Glass of Water Science Experiment

We all know what happens when we turn a glass of water upside down, but what if I told you you can do it without the water spilling out?

The experiment only requires a few common items and you’ll be amazed by the results of air pressure in action!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Upside Down Glass of Water Science Experiment

Pick up Ball with a Jar Science Experiment

It almost seems like magic but with the help of science, you can pick up a ball with an open jar!

Instead of magic, this easy science activity uses centripetal force and practice to do what seems like the impossible. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Pick up Ball with a Jar Experiment

Will It Melt Science Experiment

Can you guess which items will melt? This easy outside experiment challenges what students think they know about the effects of the sun.

Pepper Move Science Experiment

Can you make pepper move and zoom away with just a light touch of your finger? With science you can!

This experiment only takes a few quick minutes from beginning to end, but the reaction caused by surface tension makes kids want to do it over and over. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Pepper Move Science Experiment

Crush a Plastic Bottle Science Experiment

Go for it, crush that bottle, but don’t touch it! Although it usually can’t be seen or touched, air pressure is pushing against all surfaces at all times.

With this easy science activity kids can see air pressure at work when they watch a bottle crushes itself!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Crush a Plastic Bottle Science Experiment

Egg in Vinegar Science Experiment

This vinegar science experiment will have your eggs and kids bouncing (with excitement!) before you know it!

Kids can watch and explore the results of chemical reactions as the egg changes from something that seems solid into what feels like something bouncy!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Egg in Vinegar Science Experiment

Straw Through a Potato Science Experiment

Can you make a normal plastic straw go into a raw, solid potato? It seems like something impossible, but science can easily make it possible!

Pick your potatoes then let kids try their strength as they explore air pressure with this super easy experiment.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Straw Through a Potato Science Experiment

Rainbow in a Jar Science Experiment

With only a few household items, they’ll explore mass, volume, and density with every color layer!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Rainbow in a Jar Experiment

Tornado in a Bottle Science Experiment

Kids can have fun while learning more about centripetal force with this fun experiment.

With a little muscle and science, kids watch with amazement as they create their own glitter cyclone in a bottle as the centripetal force vortex appears.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Tornado in a Bottle Science Experiment

Why Doesn’t the Water Leak Science Experiment

Can you poke holes in a plastic bag full of water without the water leaking out? With this super easy science activity you can!

Kids are stunned as they learn about polymers and how they can do what seems to be impossible.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Why Doesn’t the Water Leak Science Experiment

Use a Bottle to Blow-up a Balloon Experiment

Is it possible to blow up a balloon with only water and science? 

In this super easy experiment, kids learn more about how matter behaves as they watch a balloon inflate and deflate as a result of matter being heated and cooled.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Use a Bottle to Blow-up a Balloon Experiment

Orange Float Science Experiment

Kids explore buoyancy as they learn about and test density in this sink or float science activity.

While it only takes a few minutes, this super easy experiment invites kids to predict what they think will happen then discuss why the heavier orange floats!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Orange Float Science Experiment

Pick up Ice with String Science Experiment

With only a few household items, kids learn about freezing temperatures and the results they create in saltwater versus freshwater.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Pick Up Ice with String Science Experiment

Color Changing Walking Water Experiment

Using the concepts explored in our popular Walking Water Science Experiment, kids will see color walk from one glass to another and change colors as it goes!

The quick experiment seems to defy gravity like magic, but don’t worry, kids can find out how science makes it work!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Color Changing Walking Water Experiment

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50 of the Coolest Winter Science Experiments and Activities

The weather outside may be frightful, but these projects are so delightful.

Winter means shorter days, colder temperatures, and lots of ice and snow. That means it’s time for experiments that you can only do in winter! These experiments and activities are perfect for keeping kids busy and learning all winter long. No snow where you live? No worries! You can still do most of these winter science experiments and activities with a freezer or some fake snow instead.

1. Study the science of snowflakes

Did you know that every snowflake has six sides? Or that snowflakes form from water vapor, not raindrops? There’s lots to learn about the science of snowflakes.

Learn more: What Is Snow? How Does It Form? (Free Google Slides Lesson + Printable Worksheets)

2. Grow the Grinch’s heart

To begin, grab a green balloon and use a red Sharpie to make a heart on it, then fill the balloon with a few teaspoons of baking soda. Then, fill a water bottle with vinegar. Finally, put the end of your balloon over the water bottle and watch the Grinch’s heart grow!

Learn more: Grow the Grinch’s Heart activity at Creative Family Fun

3. Weigh and compare snow

This is a simple but effective way to get kids thinking. Scoop up two cups of snow and weigh them. Are they the same? If not, why? Allow the snow to melt. Does it weigh the same? So many questions from such a simple experiment!

Learn more: Weighing Snow activity at Inspiration Laboratories

4. Determine how weather affects snow textures

Anyone who sees a lot of snow every winter knows there are many different kinds—heavy wet snow, dry powdery snow, and so on. Older students will enjoy this winter science project that tracks atmospheric conditions to find out how we get different types of snow.

Learn more: Snow Science activity at Science Buddies

5. Make candy cane slime!

A little bit of everything, including glue and shaving cream, goes into this fun, candy cane–colored slime. We especially love the idea of adding a little bit of peppermint extract or candy cane fragrance oil for a pleasant scent! ADVERTISEMENT

Learn more: Candy Cane slime at Kimspired DIY

6. Discover the beauty of frozen bubbles

Bubble experiments are always fun, but frozen bubbles add a whole new dimension of beauty. Take your class outside to blow bubbles when the temps are below freezing, and watch the magic happen! (No freezing temperatures where you live? The link below offers tips for trying this with dry ice.)

Learn more: Frozen Bubbles at ThoughtCo

7. Find out how penguins stay dry

It seems like penguins should freeze solid when they get out of the water, right? So what protects their feathers and keeps them dry? Find out with this fun experiment using wax crayons.

Learn more: Penguin activity at ABCs of Literacy

8. Make a beautiful watercolor ice painting

This is a fairly simple experiment that yields really big results! Grab some watercolor paint and paper, an ice tray, and some small metal objects, then get started.

Learn more: Magnetic ice painting at Sparkling Buds

9. Waterproof a boot

Now that you know how penguins stay dry, can you apply that knowledge to a boot? Ask kids to select various materials and tape them over the free boot printable. Then, test their hypotheses and see which ones work best.

Learn more: Waterproof a boot at Science Sparks

10. Learn about condensation and frost

Use snow or ice cubes for this winter science experiment that explores condensation and the formation of frost. All you need are some metal cans and salt.

Learn more: Condensation experiment at STEAMsational

11. Crush a can with air

Scoop up some snow and bring it inside to use for this air-pressure experiment. (Use caution, because you’ll need boiling water too.)

Learn more: Crushing cans at Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

12. Erupt a snow volcano

Take the classic baking soda volcano experiment and add snow! Kids learn about acids and bases with this popular winter science project.

Learn more: Snow volcano at Science Sparks

13. Grow your own polar bear

This is such a fun and easy winter science experiment that will certainly be a hit in your classroom. All you need is a cup of fresh water, a cup of salt water, a cup of vinegar, a cup of baking soda, and some gummy bears. (Be sure to have extra gummy bears on hand in case your little scientists get hungry.)

Learn more: Grow Your Own Polar Bear activity at The Sprinkle Topped Teacher

14. Explore how mittens keep you warm

Ask little ones if mittens are warm, and they’ll likely answer “yes!” But when they measure the temperature inside an empty mitten, they’ll be surprised by what they find. Learn about body heat and insulation with this easy experiment.

Learn more: Mitten experiment at Classroom Magic

15. Don’t melt the ice

We spend a lot of time in winter trying to get rid of ice, but what about when you don’t want the ice to melt? Experiment with different forms of insulation to see which keeps ice frozen the longest.

Learn more: Ice insulation experiment at Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

16. String up some sticky ice

Can you lift an ice cube using just a piece of string? This experiment teaches you how, using a little salt to melt and then refreeze the ice with the string attached. Bonus project: Use this process to make a garland of colored ice stars (or other shapes) and hang them outside for decoration.

Learn more: Ice cube string activity at Playdough to Plato

17. Construct an igloo

Calling all future engineers! Freeze blocks of ice (milk cartons work well) and create a life-size igloo with your class. If this seems too ambitious, try a smaller version with ice cubes instead.

Learn more: Build an igloo at Science Buddies

18. Light up some snowmen with a simple circuit

Create a simple parallel circuit using a couple of play-dough snowmen, a few LEDs, and a battery pack. Kids will get a thrill out of seeing their snowmen light up!

Learn more: Light-Up Snowman experiment at Science Sparks

19. Measure the water content of snow

Two inches of snow is not the same as two inches of rain. This easy winter science experiment measures the amount of water actually found in an inch of snow.

Learn more: Snow measurement at KC Edventures With Kids

20. Experiment with candy canes

Experiment with how quickly candy canes dissolve in different temperatures of water. Keep some extras on hand since the temptation will likely be too much for your favorite scientists.

Learn more: Candy cane science at Inspirational Laboratories

21. Have fun with hockey science

A hockey puck slides effortlessly across the ice, but what about other objects? Gather up some classroom items and take them out to a frozen puddle to see which slide best.

Learn more: Hockey Science at Creative Family Fun

22. Determine the best way to melt ice

Conventional wisdom says we sprinkle salt on ice to melt it faster. But why? Is that really the best method? Try this winter science experiment and find out.

Learn more: Ice-Melting Experiment at The Chaos and the Clutter

23. Freeze oobleck

Kids love to play with the mysterious oobleck, a non-Newtonian liquid that becomes firm under pressure. Try freezing it to increase the fun factor and see how it reacts as it melts.

Learn more: Frozen Oobleck at Inspiration Laboratories

24. Make an ice lantern

We love that this STEM project also combines art and creativity since kids can freeze almost anything into their lanterns, from sequins to dried flowers.

Learn more: Ice Lantern activity at What I Have Learned Teaching

25. Watch wintertime birds

Winter is a great time to set up a bird feeder and observe our feathered friends. Learn to identify common backyard birds in your area and discover which foods they prefer. Take this winter science activity even further by signing up your class for Project FeederWatch , a citizen science project all about winter bird-watching.

Learn more: Winter bird-watching guide at The Lead Learner Mom

26. Play around with pine cones

Head out to the snowy woods and gather up some pine cones, then bring them inside and experiment to see what makes them open and release their seeds.

Learn more: Pine Cone Experiment at Lemon Lime Adventures

27. Conduct a winter nature study

There are so many natural wonders to study during the winter months! Measure temperatures, track the snowfall, look for animal prints—and that’s just a few ideas. Make winter nature study even easier with free printables at the link below.

Learn more: Winter nature study at Jimmie’s Collage

28. Find out how arctic animals stay warm

Grab some rubber gloves, zipper bags, and a can of shortening to learn how layers of fat help to insulate animals and keep them warm. Do this winter science experiment outside in the snow or inside with a bowl of cold water and ice cubes.

Learn more: Arctic animal experiment at Forgetful Momma

29. Add color to melting ice

In this colorful winter science activity, you’ll use salt to start the ice melting (it lowers the freezing point of water). Then, add pretty watercolors to see the ravines and crevices that form as the ice melts.

Learn more: How to make colorful ice at Artful Parent

30. Melt ice with pressure

There are plenty of experiments that melt ice with salt, but this one is a little different. Instead, it uses the heat produced by pressure to move a piece of wire through a block of ice.

Learn more: Ice-melting experimen t at KiwiCo

31. Melt a snowman

First, make a snowman out of baking soda and shaving cream. Then, fill droppers with vinegar. Finally, let your scientists take turns squirting the snowman and watching them fizz and melt.

Learn more: How To Make a Fizzy Snowman at 7 Days of Play

32. Make instant ice

Here’s a winter science experiment that seems more like a magic trick. Place a bottle of water in a bowl of ice (or snow) and rock salt. When you take it out, the water is still liquid—until you slam it against the counter and it freezes instantly! Find out how it works at the link below.

Learn more: Rock Salt Experiment at STEAMsational

33. Create rainbow ice towers

Once you master the instant ice trick, add some food coloring and see if you can create instant rainbow ice towers! The video above walks you through the process.

34. Paint salt snowflakes to learn about absorption

Salt painting is a cool way to learn about the process of absorption as well as color mixing. Simply mix salt with glue and make your snowflakes. Then drop colored water onto the salt and see it spread, drop by drop.

Learn more: Salt painting at Little Bins for Little Hands

35. Experiment with fake snow recipes

No snow where you live? You’ll just have to make your own! Try a variety of fake snow recipes and determine which makes the best batch.

Learn more: Fake Snow activity at The Homeschool Scientist

36. Build a crystal snowman

It wouldn’t be a winter science list without at least one crystal project, right? This adorable snowman version is a unique twist on the popular supersaturated solutions experiment. Get the how-to at the link below.

Learn more: Crystal snowman activity at The Science Kiddo

37. Cook up hot ice

Tired of frozen toes in the name of science? This experiment has ice in the name but will keep you warm and toasty. It’s essentially another kind of crystal project, but this one forms the crystals instantly, due to the way you cook up the solution.

Learn more: Hot ice experiment at Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

38. Savor the sweetness of hot cocoa science

After all these ice-and-snow winter science projects, you deserve a reward. This hot cocoa experiment aims to find the optimal temperature for dissolving hot cocoa mix. Once you’ve found the answer, you get to sip on the delicious results!

Learn more: Hot Chocolate Science at Creative Family Fun

39. Excavate LEGO bricks from blocks of ice

Tell your students to imagine they are archaeologists, then have them freeze a favorite LEGO figure, or “fossil,” into a block of ice. Finally, ask them to carefully excavate the fossil from the glacier while keeping in mind the fragility of the fossil.

Learn more: LEGO ice block activity at Lemon Lime Adventures

40. Explode a snowman!

This is such a fun introduction to chemistry for preschoolers or early elementary-age students. Have your students decorate a ziplock bag to resemble a snowman’s face and then put 3 teaspoons of baking soda in a paper towel inside the bag. Finally, put 1 to 2 cups of distilled vinegar into the bag and have fun watching the reaction!

Learn more: Exploding Snowman experiment at 123 Homeschool 4 Me

41. Winter solstice challenge

The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, provides a lot to teach in terms of the sun, shadows, the rotation of the Earth, and how humans celebrate. Teach students about the winter solstice with books like The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper, then have them create a model Stonehenge. Then, use a flashlight or other light to re-create what the structure looks like on the winter solstice and other days.

Check out Winter Solstice lessons at Little Bins for Little Hands

Buy it: The Shortest Day at Amazon

42. Catapult a snowman

This one starts out as fun and ends with serious science. Create a catapult using Popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Then, create a snowman out of a Ping-Pong ball and see how far you can catapult him. If you have snow, use the catapults to see how large of a snowball students can toss and how far each one goes.

Learn more: Snowman Catapult at Science Sparks

43. Construct a ski lift

In this engineering experiment, students create a ski lift using the concept of a pulley.

44. Discover why skis are as long as they are

In this activity, students will explore why skis are so long and how they work in snow. You’ll create a skier using an action figure and cardboard “skis.” Then you’ll place them into a plate full of snow.

Learn more: Why are skis so long? activity at Science Buddies

45. Make a thermometer

Figure out just how cold it is outside with a homemade thermometer. Make a few thermometers and take measurements in different areas—in the sun and in the shade, inside your garage or by the street. How does the temperature change and what factors influence the temperature?

46. Create a snowstorm in a jar

Combine things you probably already have around your classroom or house—baby oil, white paint, glitter, Alka-Seltzer, and food coloring—to create a snowstorm in a jar.

47. Discover how snowshoes work

Use a pan of “snow,” animal toys, and snowshoes that you create to show how snowshoes keep us above the snow. This teaches the concepts of resistance and weight distribution. When weight is distributed across a larger area, the snow holds you up. This experiment will be even better if you have enough snow on the ground to try this out yourself.

Learn more: How Snowshoes Work activity at Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

48. Find out what causes an avalanche

Learn what creates avalanches and re-create an avalanche with this activity.

49. Learn about animal hibernation

Read a book like Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and talk about hibernation. What do bears need to hibernate? Then, challenge students to create a cave using materials that you have in the classroom or at home.

Buy it: Bear Snores On at Amazon

50. Build an igloo

Use marshmallows and other materials to build an igloo. Talk about what shapes make a good igloo and why those shapes provide solid structures.

Stay safe while you’re learning outdoors! Get our best Tips, Tricks, and Lesson Ideas for Winter Outdoor Learning .

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50 Fantastic 5th Grade Science Projects, Experiments, and Activities

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Summer holiday science: turn your home into a lab with these three easy experiments

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Audrey O'Grady receives funding from Science Foundation Ireland. She is affiliated with Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick.

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Many people think science is difficult and needs special equipment, but that’s not true.

Science can be explored at home using everyday materials. Everyone, especially children, naturally ask questions about the world around them, and science offers a structured way to find answers.

Misconceptions about the difficulty of science often stem from a lack of exposure to its fun and engaging side. Science can be as simple as observing nature, mixing ingredients or exploring the properties of objects. It’s not just for experts in white coats, but for everyone.

Don’t take my word for it. Below are three experiments that can be done at home with children who are primary school age and older.

Extract DNA from bananas

DNA is all the genetic information inside cells. Every living thing has DNA, including bananas.

Did you know you can extract DNA from banana cells?

What you need: ¼ ripe banana, Ziploc bag, salt, water, washing-up liquid, rubbing alcohol (from a pharmacy), coffee filter paper, stirrer.

What you do:

Place a pinch of salt into about 20ml of water in a cup.

Add the salty water to the Ziploc bag with a quarter of a banana and mash the banana up with the salty water inside the bag, using your hands. Mashing the banana separates out the banana cells. The salty water helps clump the DNA together.

Once the banana is mashed up well, pour the banana and salty water into a coffee filter (you can lay the filter in the cup you used to make the salty water). Filtering removes the big clumps of banana cells.

Once a few ml have filtered out, add a drop of washing-up liquid and swirl gently. Washing-up liquid breaks down the fats in the cell membranes which makes the DNA separate from the other parts of the cell.

Slowly add some rubbing alcohol (about 10ml) to the filtered solution. DNA is insoluble in alcohol, therefore the DNA will clump together away from the alcohol and float, making it easy to see.

DNA will start to precipitate out looking slightly cloudy and stringy. What you’re seeing is thousands of DNA strands – the strands are too small to be seen even with a normal microscope. Scientists use powerful equipment to see individual strands.

Learn how plants ‘drink’ water

What you need: celery stalks (with their leaves), glass or clear cup, water, food dye, camera.

• Fill the glass ¾ full with water and add 10 drops of food dye.
• Place a celery stalk into the glass of coloured water. Take a photograph of the celery.
• For two to three days, photograph the celery at the same time every day. Make sure you take a photograph at the very start of the experiment.

What happens and why?

All plants, such as celery, have vertical tubes that act like a transport system. These narrow tubes draw up water using a phenomenon known as capillarity.

Imagine you have a thin straw and you dip it into a glass of water. Have you ever noticed how the water climbs up the straw a little bit, even though you didn’t suck on it? This is because of capillarity.

In plants, capillarity helps move water from the roots to the leaves. Plants have tiny tubes inside them, like thin straws, called capillaries. The water sticks to the sides of these tubes and climbs up. In your experiment, you will see the food dye in the water make its way to the leaves.

Build a balloon-powered racecar

What you need: tape, scissors, two skewers, cardboard, four bottle caps, one straw, one balloon.

• Cut the cardboard to about 10cm long and 5cm wide. This will form the base of your car.
• Make holes in the centre of four bottle caps. These are your wheels.
• To make the axles insert the wooden skewers through the holes in the cap. You will need to cut the skewers to fit the width of the cardboard base, but leave room for the wheels.
• Secure the wheels to the skewers with tape.
• Attach the axles to the underside of the car base with tape, ensuring the wheels can spin freely.
• Insert a straw into the opening of a balloon and secure it with tape, ensuring there are no air leaks.
• Attach the other end of the straw to the top of the car base, positioning it so the balloon can inflate and deflate towards the back of the car. Secure the straw with tape.
• Inflate the balloon through the straw, pinch the straw to hold the air, place the car on a flat surface, then release the straw.

The inflated balloon stores potential energy when blown up. When the air is released, Newton’s third law of motion kicks into gear: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As the air rushes out of the balloon (action), it pushes the car in the opposite direction (reaction). The escaping air propels the car forward, making it move across the surface.

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NASA Demonstrates ‘Ultra-Cool’ Quantum Sensor for First Time in Space

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, shown where it’s installed aboard the International Space Station, recently demonstrated the use of a tool called an atom interferometer that can precisely measure gravity and other forces — and has many potential applications in space.

Future space missions could use quantum technology to track water on Earth, explore the composition of moons and other planets, or probe mysterious cosmic phenomena.

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another step toward revolutionizing how quantum science can be used in space. Members of the science team measured subtle vibrations of the space station with one of the lab’s onboard tools — the first time ultra-cold atoms have been employed to detect changes in the surrounding environment in space.

The study , which appeared in Nature Communications on Aug. 13, also reports the longest demonstration of the wave-like nature of atoms in freefall in space.

The Cold Atom Lab science team made their measurements with a quantum tool called an atom interferometer, which can precisely measure gravity, magnetic fields, and other forces. Scientists and engineers on Earth use this tool to study the fundamental nature of gravity and advance technologies that aid aircraft and ship navigation. (Cell phones, transistors, and GPS are just a few other major technologies based on quantum science but do not involve atom interferometry.)

Physicists have been eager to apply atom interferometry in space because the microgravity there allows longer measurement times and greater instrument sensitivity, but the exquisitely sensitive equipment has been considered too fragile to function for extended periods without hands-on assistance. The Cold Atom Lab, which is operated remotely from Earth, has now shown it’s possible.

“Reaching this milestone was incredibly challenging, and our success was not always a given,” said Jason Williams, the Cold Atom Lab project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It took dedication and a sense of adventure by the team to make this happen.”

Power of Precision

Space-based sensors that can measure gravity with high precision have a wide range of potential applications. For instance, they could reveal the composition of planets and moons in our solar system, because different materials have different densities that create subtle variations in gravity.

This type of measurement is already being performed by the U.S.-German collaboration GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on), which detects slight changes in gravity to track the movement of water and ice on Earth. An atom interferometer could provide additional precision and stability, revealing more detail about surface mass changes.

Precise measurements of gravity could also offer insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two major cosmological mysteries. Dark matter is an invisible substance five times more common in the universe than the “regular” matter that composes planets, stars, and everything else we can see. Dark energy is the name given to the unknown driver of the universe’s accelerating expansion.

“Atom interferometry could also be used to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity in new ways,” said University of Virginia professor Cass Sackett, a Cold Atom Lab principal investigator and co-author of the new study. “This is the basic theory explaining the large-scale structure of our universe, and we know that there are aspects of the theory that we don’t understand correctly. This technology may help us fill in those gaps and give us a more complete picture of the reality we inhabit.”

A Portable Lab

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab studies the quantum nature of atoms, the building blocks of our universe, in a place that is out of this world – the International Space Station. This animated explainer explores what quantum science is and why NASA wants to do it in space.

About the size of a minifridge, the Cold Atom Lab launched to the space station in 2018 with the goal of advancing quantum science by putting a long-term facility in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit. The lab cools atoms to almost absolute zero, or minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273 degrees Celsius). At this temperature, some atoms can form a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which all atoms essentially share the same quantum identity. As a result, some of the atoms’ typically microscopic quantum properties become macroscopic, making them easier to study.

Quantum properties include sometimes acting like solid particles and sometimes like waves. Scientists don’t know how these building blocks of all matter can transition between such different physical behaviors, but they’re using quantum technology like what’s available on the Cold Atom Lab to seek answers.

In microgravity, Bose-Einstein condensates can reach colder temperatures and exist for longer, giving scientists more opportunities to study them. The atom interferometer is among several tools in the facility enabling precision measurements by harnessing the quantum nature of atoms.

We've Got Some Space For You

Due to its wave-like behavior, a single atom can simultaneously travel two physically separate paths. If gravity or other forces are acting on those waves, scientists can measure that influence by observing how the waves recombine and interact.

“I expect that space-based atom interferometry will lead to exciting new discoveries and fantastic quantum technologies impacting everyday life, and will transport us into a quantum future,” said Nick Bigelow, a professor at University of Rochester in New York and Cold Atom Lab principal investigator for a consortium of U.S. and German scientists who co-authored the study.

More About the Mission

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL designed and built Cold Atom Lab, which is sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. BPS pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations that are not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth. 

To learn more about Cold Atom Lab, visit:

https://coldatomlab.jpl.nasa.gov/

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

[email protected]

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The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine .

Once upon a time, long ago, the world was encased in ice. That’s the tale told by sedimentary rock in the tropics, many geologists believe. Hundreds of millions of years ago, glaciers and sea ice covered the globe. The most extreme scenarios suggest a layer of ice several meters thick even at the equator.

This event has been called Snowball Earth, and you’d think it would be a terrible time to be alive—and maybe, for some organisms, it was. However, in a warmer period between glaciations, the first evidence of multicellular animals appears, according to some interpretations of the geological record. Life had taken a leap. How could the seeming desolation of a Snowball Earth line up with this burst of biological innovation?

A series of papers from the lab of Carl Simpson proposes an answer linked to a fundamental physical fact: As seawater gets colder, it gets more viscous, and therefore more difficult for very small organisms to navigate. Imagine swimming through honey rather than water. If microscopic organisms struggled to get enough food to survive under these conditions, as Simpson’s modeling work has implied, they would be placed under pressure to change—perhaps by developing ways to hang on to each other, form larger groups, and move through the water with greater force. Maybe some of these changes contributed to the beginning of multicellular animal life.

To test the idea, Simpson, a paleobiologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his team conducted an experiment designed to see what a modern single-celled organism does when confronted with higher viscosity. Over the course of a month, he and his graduate student Andrea Halling watched how a type of green algae—members of a lab-friendly species that swims with a tail-like flagellum—formed larger, more coordinated groups as they encountered thicker gel. The algae collectively motored through the fluid to keep up their feeding pace. And, intriguingly, the groups of cells remained stuck together for 100 generations after the experiment ended.

The research offers a novel take on the emergence of multicellular life, said Phoebe Cohen , a paleontologist at Williams College who has spoken with Simpson about his idea over the years but was otherwise uninvolved with the work. The field is overflowing with papers about triggers for the evolution of animal multicellularity that draw on geochemical measurements, she said, but few consider the biology of individual organisms.

To re-create Snowball Earth conditions in the lab, biologists placed swimming algal cells into gel of varying viscosity. The cells that made it to the thickest, outer layer displayed signs of collective behavior—a potential step toward multicellularity.

“I’m very charmed by the idea, by the experimental setup as well,” Cohen said. “It’s really wonderful to see work saying: What’s actually going on here? How are these early organisms actually experiencing their environment?”

The experiment comes with a few caveats, and the paper has yet to be peer-reviewed; Simpson posted a preprint on biorxiv.org earlier this year. But it suggests that if Snowball Earth did act as a trigger for the evolution of complex life, it might be due to the physics of cold water.

A Frozen Paradox

“Snowball Earth” was on everyone’s lips when Simpson was an undergraduate in the late 1990s. In 1992, the geochemist Joseph Kirschvink had pointed out that there was good geological evidence for a global glaciation event in the ancient past; crucially, he provided a model for how all that ice might have been coerced to melt again. Then, in 1998, the Harvard geologist Paul Hoffman and colleagues published a landmark paper that applied these ideas to observations of sedimentary deposits in Namibia. They agreed: The rocks indicated the presence of glaciers in the warmest parts of the world around 700 million years ago.

Even back then, the timing of Snowball Earth troubled Simpson. “That was a total paradox for me,” he said. “There’s no way Snowball Earth was real, given how much interesting evolution was happening at the time.” Before Snowball Earth, fossils are tiny, he said. Afterward, they are big and complicated.

It is difficult to precisely date when animals arose, but an estimate from molecular clocks—which use mutation rates to estimate the passage of time—suggests that the last common ancestor of multicellular animals emerged during the era known as the Sturtian Snowball Earth, sometime between 717 million and 660 million years ago. Large, unmistakably multicellular animals appear in the fossil record tens of millions of years after the Earth melted following another, shorter Snowball Earth period around 635 million years ago.

The paradox—a planet seemingly hostile to life giving evolution a major push—continued to perplex Simpson throughout his schooling and into his professional life. In 2018, as an assistant professor, he had an insight: As seawater gets colder, it grows thicker. It’s basic physics—the density and viscosity of water molecules rises as the temperature drops. Under the conditions of Snowball Earth, the ocean would have been twice or even four times as viscous as it was before the planet froze over.

Simpson wondered what it would have been like to be a microscopic organism in the ocean during Snowball Earth. Maybe the whole thing wasn’t so paradoxical after all.

To very small single-celled creatures, thick seawater would have posed some big problems. Bacteria feed by diffusion—the movement of nutrients through water from areas of high concentration to low concentration—and tend to wait for food to come to them. However, at low temperatures, diffusion slows down. Nutrients don’t travel as quickly or as far. For cells, living in a cold and more viscous fluid means getting less to eat. Even very small organisms that can propel themselves, such as cells with flagella, move more slowly in cold water. As a result, they encounter food less frequently.

A bigger organism, on the other hand, can navigate thicker waters without much trouble. A cluster of cells has the benefit of inertia: Their combined mass is large enough to allow them to build up steam and barrel through thicker fluid. “At some point, you are too big for this to matter,” Simpson said.

In 2021, he published his hypothesis that Snowball Earth viscosities would have put a significant strain on organisms’ ability to feed themselves and could have spurred some to evolve multicellularity. Then, with collaborators at the Santa Fe Institute, he designed mathematical models of small creatures—single cells that fed by diffusion and self-propelling cells that fed by moving around—living in thicker and thicker fluids. In the models, posted to biorxiv.org at the end of 2023 and recently published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Royal Society B , the diffusion feeders responded to thicker fluids by shrinking in size. The self-propelling cells, equipped by the equations with the ability to cling together if needed, formed larger and larger multicellular groups. This suggested that if there were already multicellular organisms when Snowball Earth occurred—or at least organisms with the ability to take on multicellular forms—the thicker fluid could have given them a reason to get bigger.

Paleobiologist Carl Simpson has led a body of work—computer modeling and experiments with living organisms—to study whether the physics of cold water causes cells to act collectively like a multicellular creature.

The results were intriguing, but they were only computer models. Simpson thought: Well, what if they did this with real organisms?

The geologist Boswell Wing, a colleague at the University of Colorado, Boulder, had a colony of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in his lab. These algae have twirling flagella that allow them to move under their own power. They are usually unicellular. But they can switch into a multicellular form under certain stressful conditions. Would higher viscosity, like that of the oceans during Snowball Earth, prove to be one of them?

Life in Thick Water

There’s no way for biologists to travel back in time to test the real conditions of Snowball Earth, but they can try to re-create aspects of them in the lab. In an enormous, custom-made petri dish, Halling and Simpson created a bull’s-eye target of agar gel—their own experimental gauntlet of viscosity. At the center, it was the standard viscosity used for growing these algae in the lab. Moving outward, each concentric ring had higher and higher viscosity, finally reaching a medium with four times the standard level. The scientists placed the algae in the middle, turned on a camera, and left them alone for 30 days—enough time for about 70 generations of algae to live, swim around for nutrients and die.

Andrea Halling led experiments with living creatures to see how life might have responded to evolutionary pressures 600 million years ago.

Halling and Simpson suspected that as the algae reproduced and crowded the center circle of normal viscosity, any algal cells that could handle the thicker medium would spread outward. Perhaps those that reached the outermost ring would look and behave differently from those that remained in the center.

Simpson was particularly curious as to whether algae that made it into the highest viscosity ring would find ways to increase their swimming speed. The algae are photosynthetic, so they get energy from the sun. But they need to pick up nutrients such as phosphorus from the environment, so movement is still important to their survival. Maintaining the same level of nutrients in high-viscosity surroundings would require them to find a way to keep up their speed.

After 30 days, the algae in the middle were still unicellular. As the scientists put algae from thicker and thicker rings under the microscope, however, they found larger clumps of cells. The very largest were wads of hundreds. But what interested Simpson the most were mobile clusters of four to 16 cells, arranged so that their flagella were all on the outside. These clusters moved around by coordinating the movement of their flagella, the ones at the back of the cluster holding still, the ones at the front wriggling.

Comparing the speed of these clusters to the single cells in the middle revealed something interesting. “They all swim at the same speed,” Simpson said. By working together as a collective, the algae could preserve their mobility. “I was really pleased,” he said. “With the coarse mathematical framework, there were a few predictions I could make. To actually see it empirically means there’s something to this idea.”

Intriguingly, when the scientists took these little clusters from the high-viscosity gel and put them back at low viscosity, the cells stuck together. They remained this way, in fact, for as long as the scientists continued to watch them, about 100 more generations. Clearly, whatever changes they underwent to survive at high viscosity were hard to reverse, Simpson said—perhaps a move toward evolution rather than a short-term shift.

ILLUSTRATION Caption: In gel as viscous as ancient oceans, algal cells began working together. They clumped up and coordinated the movements of their tail-like flagella to swim more quickly. When placed back in normal viscosity, they remained together. Credit: Andrea Halling

Modern-day algae are not early animals. But the fact that these physical pressures forced a unicellular creature into an alternate way of life that was hard to reverse feels quite powerful, Simpson said. He suspects that if scientists explore the idea that when organisms are very small, viscosity dominates their existence, we could learn something about conditions that might have led to the explosion of large forms of life.

A Cell’s Perspective

As large creatures, we don’t think much about the thickness of the fluids around us. It’s not a part of our daily lived experience, and we are so big that viscosity doesn’t impinge on us very much. The ability to move easily—relatively speaking—is something we take for granted. From the time Simpson first realized that such limits on movement could be a monumental obstacle to microscopic life, he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it. Viscosity may have mattered quite a lot in the origins of complex life, whenever that was.

“[This perspective] allows us to think about the deep-time history of this transition,” Simpson said, “and what was going on in Earth’s history when all the obligately complicated multicellular groups evolved, which is relatively close to each other, we think.”

Other researchers find Simpson’s ideas quite novel. Before Simpson, no one seems to have thought very much about organisms’ physical experience of being in the ocean during Snowball Earth, said Nick Butterfield of the University of Cambridge, who studies the evolution of early life. He cheerfully noted, however, that “Carl’s idea is fringe.” That’s because the vast majority of theories about Snowball Earth’s influence on the evolution of multicellular animals, plants, and algae focus on how levels of oxygen, inferred from isotope levels in rocks, could have tipped the scales in one way or another, he said.

That novelty is a strength, said the geobiologist Jochen Brocks of the Australian National University. However, in his assessment, Simpson’s hypothesis makes a few logical leaps that don’t hold up. It’s not clear that the earliest animals would have been swimming freely in water, Brocks said. Some of the first fossils that can be confidently called “animals” were anchored on the ocean floor.

Perhaps more importantly, the timeline of animal origins is very uncertain. Some estimates suggest that the Snowball Earth period might line up with the last common ancestor of animals. But these are based on molecular inferences from DNA that are hard to confirm, Brocks said. In his opinion, it’s difficult to say how much importance to assign to this era. Butterfield also remarked on this uncertainty: “There’s no evidence of anything getting large until quite a bit after [Snowball Earth].”

That said, Brocks found Simpson’s experiment quite clever and beautiful. The fact that organisms might respond to high viscosity by developing collective behavior deserves to be better understood, he said—whether Snowball Earth led to the evolution of complex animal life or not.

“Putting this into our repertoire of thinking about why these things evolved—that is the value of the entire thing,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it was Snowball Earth. It doesn’t matter if it happened before or after. Just the idea that it can happen, and happen quickly.”

Brocks is curious about what would happen if a similar experiment were performed with choanoflagellates, little creatures that are more closely related to animals than algae are. They rely entirely on hunting to get food—they can’t photosynthesize—so they would be especially vulnerable to slowdowns caused by high viscosity. If they started to take on multicellular forms under those conditions, that would suggest that Simpson’s results represent a more general truth about how life responds to its environment. “It would be absolutely ultra-exciting,” he said.

Simpson is, in fact, currently working with choanoflagellates. Right now, he is trying to understand how they live .

“They’re really beautiful and complicated creatures,” he said. They can take on many different forms: There are fast swimmers with long flagella, slow swimmers that meander, ones that stick to a surface to grow. “They can grow these little tendrils off the tip and walk around like on stilts; they have sex, and they fuse, and they form chain colonies and rosette colonies … and if you squeeze them, apparently they’ll lose their flagella and turn into an amoeba,” he said. When it comes to responding to the challenges of a radical new environment, he reflected, “they’ve got a lot to work with.”

Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine , an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.

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Future space missions could use quantum technology to track water on Earth, explore the composition of moons and other planets, or probe mysterious cosmic phenomena.

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another step toward revolutionizing how quantum science can be used in space. Members of the science team measured subtle vibrations of the space station with one of the lab’s onboard tools — the first time ultra-cold atoms have been employed to detect changes in the surrounding environment in space.

The study , which appeared in Nature Communications on Aug. 13, also reports the longest demonstration of the wave-like nature of atoms in freefall in space.

The Cold Atom Lab science team made their measurements with a quantum tool called an atom interferometer, which can precisely measure gravity, magnetic fields, and other forces. Scientists and engineers on Earth use this tool to study the fundamental nature of gravity and advance technologies that aid aircraft and ship navigation. (Cell phones, transistors, and GPS are just a few other major technologies based on quantum science but do not involve atom interferometry.)

Physicists have been eager to apply atom interferometry in space because the microgravity there allows longer measurement times and greater instrument sensitivity, but the exquisitely sensitive equipment has been considered too fragile to function for extended periods without hands-on assistance. The Cold Atom Lab, which is operated remotely from Earth, has now shown it’s possible.  

“Reaching this milestone was incredibly challenging, and our success was not always a given,” said Jason Williams, the Cold Atom Lab project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It took dedication and a sense of adventure by the team to make this happen.”

Space-based sensors that can measure gravity with high precision have a wide range of potential applications. For instance, they could reveal the composition of planets and moons in our solar system, because different materials have different densities that create subtle variations in gravity.

This type of measurement is already being performed by the U.S.-German collaboration GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on), which detects slight changes in gravity to track the movement of water and ice on Earth. An atom interferometer could provide additional precision and stability, revealing more detail about surface mass changes.

Precise measurements of gravity could also offer insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two major cosmological mysteries. Dark matter is an invisible substance five times more common in the universe than the “regular” matter that composes planets, stars, and everything else we can see. Dark energy is the name given to the unknown driver of the universe’s accelerating expansion.

“Atom interferometry could also be used to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity in new ways,” said University of Virginia professor Cass Sackett, a Cold Atom Lab principal investigator and co-author of the new study. “This is the basic theory explaining the large-scale structure of our universe, and we know that there are aspects of the theory that we don’t understand correctly. This technology may help us fill in those gaps and give us a more complete picture of the reality we inhabit.”

About the size of a minifridge, the Cold Atom Lab launched to the space station in 2018 with the goal of advancing quantum science by putting a long-term facility in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit. The lab cools atoms to almost absolute zero, or minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273 degrees Celsius). At this temperature, some atoms can form a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which all atoms essentially share the same quantum identity. As a result, some of the atoms’ typically microscopic quantum properties become macroscopic, making them easier to study.

Quantum properties include sometimes acting like solid particles and sometimes like waves. Scientists don’t know how these building blocks of all matter can transition between such different physical behaviors, but they’re using quantum technology like what’s available on the Cold Atom Lab to seek answers.

In microgravity, Bose-Einstein condensates can reach colder temperatures and exist for longer, giving scientists more opportunities to study them. The atom interferometer is among several tools in the facility enabling precision measurements by harnessing the quantum nature of atoms.

Due to its wave-like behavior, a single atom can simultaneously travel two physically separate paths. If gravity or other forces are acting on those waves, scientists can measure that influence by observing how the waves recombine and interact.

“I expect that space-based atom interferometry will lead to exciting new discoveries and fantastic quantum technologies impacting everyday life, and will transport us into a quantum future,” said Nick Bigelow, a professor at University of Rochester in New York and Cold Atom Lab principal investigator for a consortium of U.S. and German scientists who co-authored the study.

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL designed and built Cold Atom Lab, which is sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. BPS pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations that are not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth. 

To learn more about Cold Atom Lab, visit:

https://coldatomlab.jpl.nasa.gov/

Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 [email protected]

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James Webb Telescope uncovers possible water on Psyche’s surface

by Andrey Feldman | Aug 19, 2024

Data gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled new insights into the surface composition of the asteroid Psyche, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter,  revealing that it is much more complex than previously thought. 

Scientists found that it contains molecules containing hydroxyl groups (OH – ), whose presence may be an indicator of water-related chemistry. This discovery could enhance our knowledge  of our solar system’s evolution and the distribution of water within it, which is crucial for understanding potential origins of life.

Psyche is a metallic (M-class) asteroid about 200 km across, making it one of the largest bodies in our solar system’s main asteroid belt — the vast toroid-shaped region of space located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter . 

M-class asteroids are thought to be the cores of planets that never fully formed (also called planetesimals) due to some catastrophic external impact, such as a collision with another asteroid. This makes these asteroids invaluable targets for studying planetary formation, as they provide a rare glimpse into what lies deep within planets, including Earth, whose core remains inaccessible to direct observation.

“Our understanding of solar system evolution is closely tied to interpretations of asteroid composition, particularly the M-class asteroids that contain higher concentrations of metal,” said Stephanie Jarmak, project scientist for Planetary Science NASA Astrophysics Data System and the lead author of the study, in a press release .

“These asteroids were initially thought to be the exposed cores of […] planetesimals, a hypothesis based on their spectral similarity to iron meteorites,” she continued.

However, there’s more to Psyche’s story.

Challenging earlier assumptions

By analyzing its gravitational influence on nearby celestial bodies, scientists determined that Psyche’s average density is less than 4 g per cubic centimeter. This density is unexpectedly low for an asteroid thought to be primarily metallic, raising questions about its true origin and composition.

To better understand Psyche’s makeup, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute used observations from JWST’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Their findings, published in the Planetary Science Journal , revealed significant infrared absorption at wavelengths around 3 μm on Psyche’s surface, which is typical of hydroxyls.

This suggests that Psyche’s surface, and potentially its interior, is not entirely metallic, challenging the earlier assumption that it represents an unaltered planetary core.

The presence of hydroxyls on Psyche’s surface could have either exogenous (external) or endogenous (internal) origins. Exogenous hydration might result from exposure to the solar wind — charged particles streaming from the Sun — or from impacts with other asteroids.

This possibility suggests that M-class asteroids like Psyche might have a more complex geological history than previously thought. However, the idea of an endogenous origin is even more intriguing.

“Asteroids are leftovers from the planetary formation process, so their compositions vary depending on where they formed in the solar nebula,” said Anicia Arredondo of Southwest Research Institute, and another author of the study.

“Hydration that is endogenous could suggest that Psyche is not the remnant core of a protoplanet. Instead, it could suggest that Psyche originated beyond the ‘snow line,’ the minimum distance from the sun where protoplanetary disk temperatures are low enough for volatile compounds to condense into solids, before migrating to the outer main belt.”

What does water on Psyche mean for future experiments?

If Psyche’s hydration is indeed endogenous, it could mean that other M-class asteroids share this characteristic, potentially reshaping our understanding of their origins and the evolution of the solar system.

Even if the hydroxyls are of exogenous origin, this discovery would indicate that water distribution in the solar system is more complex than previously thought. Since water is essential for life, understanding its distribution is crucial for exploring how life might arise both in our solar system and beyond.

These questions might be answered with future, more detailed observations or by the Psyche spacecraft, which launched in October 2023 and is expected to reach the asteroid in 2029. This mission could provide critical answers about Psyche’s structure, composition, and origins, offering new insights into the history of our solar system.

Reference: Stephanie G. Jarmak et al, Estimate of water and hydroxyl abundance on asteroid (16) Psyche from JWST data , The Planetary Science Journal (2024). DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ad66b9

Feature image credit: BENG-ART on Pixabay

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Evaluating Strategies to Produce Compact Vegetable Plants and Identifying Gardening Preferences and Behaviors Using a Citizen-Science Approach

New cultivars of compact tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) and pepper ( Capsicum annuum ) plants are available to consumers, creating niche market opportunities for greenhouse growers who produce vegetable bedding plants for spring sale. However, production guidelines for these crops are limited. We conducted two experiments to evaluate non-chemical means of height control for these plants. In the first experiment, we treated ‘Siam’ tomato and ‘Basket of Fire’ pepper plants with 0, 50, 100, 150, or 200 mg·L –1 nitrogen (N) during the “production” phase and used a similar or higher N concentration during the “fruiting” phase. Our results show that although height of these plants can be controlled with lower fertilizer concentration, their yield will likely be affected by limiting fertilizer availability. In addition, our findings suggest that these plants can be grown without the addition of fertilizer during production, provided that the substrate has a starter fertilizer charge, and that sufficient fertilizer is applied during the fruiting phase. In the second experiment, we characterized the effects of fertilizer use and substrate volumetric water content (VWC) during production using the same compact plants, and evaluated post-production carryover effects on growth and yield. Plants either received water-soluble fertilizer (100 mg·L –1 N) once a week, or were irrigated with tap water only, relying on the starter fertilizer charge in the substrate. In addition, plants were irrigated when the substrate VWC reached 0.15, 0.30, 0.45, or 0.60 m 3 ·m –3 . Overall, our results show that substrate VWC had minimal effects on growth and yield, but plants that were not fertilized were shorter, had less biomass, and produced less fruit than those treated with fertilizer. These findings suggest that growth and yield of these compact tomato and pepper plants are affected to a larger extent by fertilizer use than by substrate VWC.

In effort to better understand consumer preferences for these new compact plants, we used a citizen-science approach in another experiment. Approx. 300 participants from three states in the USA (IN, IA, and TN) compared three compact tomato cultivars (Red Robin, Cocoa, and Micro Tom) started from seed or as transplants. In addition, we compared pre- and post-experiment survey responses to assess potential changes in behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes towards gardening as a result of the experiment. Cocoa was the preferred cultivar, closely followed by Red Robin. Our results indicate participants valued plant appearance, fruit yield, and fruit taste when making these preference choices. Approximately 70% of participants preferred plants started as transplants compared to those from seed, regardless of cultivar. Most participants reported they would be willing to pay between $1.00 to $7.49 more for a transplant of their favorite cultivar compared to tomato plants available at local nurseries. Results for dietary behaviors show that participants increased their consumption frequency of fruit, lettuce salad, vegetables, and food mixed with vegetables at the end of the experiment, but few differences were measured for beliefs and attitudes towards gardening, likely due to previous positive biases towards gardening among project participants. In conclusion, results from our experiments show that growth and yield of compact tomato and pepper plants can be controlled by adjusting fertilizer management practices. In addition, citizen science was shown to be an effective research method to assess plant-performance and consumer-preference data, and to measure potential changes in behavior of project participants.

Degree Type

• Master of Science
• Horticulture

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• West Lafayette

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Additional committee member 2, additional committee member 3, additional committee member 4, usage metrics.

• Horticultural crop growth and development
• Educational psychology