Our materials are: 1 plastic container per person to go containers work the best. Several small pieces of porous a sponge or charcoal,Water,Ammonia,Laundry bluing,Salt,1 small paper cup,Food coloring Background information: The plastic containers are not a natural resource, man made. BBQ briquettes (charcoal) are used for BBQ cooking Water is a clear natural resource, Ammonia is poisonous liquid, that you can use to clean, Landry bluing: it stains and it is poisonous.,Salt: a natural resource and it is white. A small paper cup is not a natural resource, but is made from paper. Food coloring is not a natural recourse. Our science fair project is a salt crystal garden. Our question is: will the amount of ammonia affect the growth of the crystal garden? Our hypothesis is: yes, it will affect the growth of the crystal garden because the ammonia has chemicals that have been known to affect growth of crystals. The procedure: Begin mixing 2 tablespoons of salt with 4 tablespoon of water, stirring to dissolve as much salt as possible. Next, add 2 tablespoons of ammonia and laundry bluing. Then put out the BBQ briquettes. Next add mixture onto the BBQ briquette, then add extra salt and mix the mixture on the top until the salt is dissolved. This will help the crystals grow. The crystals will naturally grow white. To create color, add food coloring. Let the container sit in open air overnight. After one night, you will began to see crystals.
We observed that the ones without ammonia shrunk after a couple of days. The ones with ammonia grew, but the ones without have a more crystal effect. When we put in the red food coloring, it turns green , but it will be red on the crystals.
In conclusion, we found that when we didn’t use ammonia the BBQ briquettes shrunk and had a more crystal effect. The ones with ammonia grew, look more like clouds.