Unit 3 Growing A Crystal Garden

In Science we stated a new unit called " Growing a Crystal Garden". We all had to make our own garden out of materials such as cardboard, plastic and so on. Then, in school Mrs. Medenica gave us the solutions to put into our gardens.

Day 1- January 26, 2011
Today I noticed that my crystals started growing. ( Mostly the salt crystals). I added more salt crystals on my garden, and I noticed that my map mostly shows that I used salt and Epsom salt crystals. I updated my map with the salt and sugar crystals and can hardly wait to see what will happen tomorrow!

Day 2- January 27, 2011
Today I noticed that even more Epsom salt crystals grew on my garden. I evidently lost my map too, but I drew another one! I also noticed that even though I didn't add solution to some places it grew bigger and more colorful! On my garden I have everything pored with salt and Epsom salt solution, except for one little bit which is sugar crystal!

Day 5-  January 31, 2011
Today I started using a solution called Borax. I hope that it grows as fats as the salt crystals! Which I cant say for my sugar crystallized spots. Anyway tons of crystals started growing their way of the ground and they look amazing! My garden is very colorful and I cant wait to see the end product!

Day 6- February 21, 2011
It is right after the break and I had TONS of fun. Well today, when I came into Science class I saw my garden and................ OMG! It looked soooo beautiful! I noticed that the sugar crystals woke up and started growing! My garden looks..........I don't have any words to describe it! It is colorful, and it is finally starting to get the real shape. By shape I mean its real look! The Epsom salt is growing the fastest, but the normal salt is not far behind. Now the sugar solution finally started growing and I think it was worth waiting and adding more of the solution on it because in my opinion those crystals are the nicest ones ever! It is still not the end product for me, but I hope to get more crystals every day!

Conclusion-
This unit was fun and I really enjoyed it. To grow a crystal garden you need a lot of patience. First, when you need to design a garden and then the fun part comes. The fun part is spilling all those different solutions on it! But then when you are done, you need to keep the journal entry! Man can it be more boring?? I mean yes its fun LOOKING at your garden but then writing about it? Well its not that bad cause you get to tell your opinion and compare your garden with the rest of them, that your classmates have! On my garden there are 3 different solutions. Epsom salt, salt and sugar. I have seen Clare's garden and I noticed that we both used Epsom salt but that mine grew faster. Then I thought that maybe I used better materials, but then I remembered that Ms. M. said that the material doesn't really matter. So what can it be? Maybe I put more solution on it? Did I? I also noticed that when Ms. M. left some crystal solution in a normal cup over the weekend it grew really big, and by really big I mean bigger then mine! And I put it on a stick! I have learned that it doesn't really matter on what the crystal grows, but that it meters how much of the solution you put on i OR what solution do you put on! My new hypothesis is this---- I think that it doesn't matter on what the crystal solution is growing on, but it matters how it grows and where it grows! Because if you grow it outside, on the snow where it is icy cold, you are not going to be very happy!

Further Inquiry-
The errors that have occurred in my garden are......well there really wasn't any ERRORS but I noticed that if you put 2 solutions on the same stick that it will grow faster and that it looks cooler! If we did the experiment all over again I would try and get more different solutions and try and research more about the topic myself, not only let the teacher do all the work. While researching one of the things would be finding out which materials are the most appropriate for this experiment. I have a few questions about this unit or experiment. Can you make even more crystal solutions then we had? What is the recipe for the solutions? What are the appropriate materials for growing crystals? And last.....If we where to add more solution every day and let it be there for a year how much would it change? Would it start smelling bad? If you leave it on the heater will the heat melt the crystals? Will it? Will it? There is more questions that I can fit on here and that I feel like writing but what I am trying to say is that if you go deeper and deeper into inquiry you can discover more and more things about it!

This is my Crystal garden on day 5. It has improved a lot since I've seen it on day 2. I am really proud to say that its my garden. I am very sure that it is going to look better on day 6 (and 7, if 6 is not my last  day).

This is my garden on day 6. It looked better then day 5, not only because it had more crystals but because of the color it had. It really isn't day 6 but I call it that, because it was winter break after day 5 so really like 10 days past!



This what I wanted to make my garden look like, but obviously i didn't seceded that much. I am proud of what I made but I am sure that when I make the solution at home it will improve.

The Dynamic Earth

This week we studied The Dynamic Earth. We visited a few websites and the best one that we found was-
http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/main_frames.html This website tells all about Plate Tectonics, Gems and Minerals and Rocks and Mining. I choose to study Plate Tectonics and Volcano's and Rocks and Mining. In the Plate Tectonics section I studied The Inner Earth and The Unreachable Frontier. In the rocks and Mining section I choose to study Rocks Tell Stories and Water Recycles Rocks. Down below I will show you what I learned.
Plate Tectonics and Volcanoes

The Inner Earth-

• the inner earth is layered
• beneath the surface is a rocky and cold mantle and core
• the inner earth is very very hot
• the earths core is hotter then the surface of the sun
• the inner earth flows
• in the mantle the flowing rocks help the tectonic plates move them
• during Earth’s first 100 million years large particles in the Solar System collided and stuck together making tremendous heat.
•  dense molten iron sank and created the core

Rocks and Minerals

• lighter silicate liquid rose and cooled forming the mantle
• later the melting of the mantle produced the crust a process that continues todayThe Unreachable Frontier
• more than 99 percent of the distance to Earths center still leys beneath the drill bit
• the inner earth is very hot so tahts why we cant reach it
• scientists gather information from meteorites, rocks, diamonds and earthquake waves
• scientists can learn about the inner Earth from special rocks called peridotites
• sulfur, alimumum, calcium, magnesium, sislicon, oxygen and iron are the main 7 elements taht amke up the earth
• the magmas that erupt at earths surface come from partial melting of peritonitis

Rocks Tell Stories

• rocks are solid natural aggregates of minerals
• in each rock they tell a different story
•  within earth water plays a critical role in transforming and melting rocks
• water is hidden in tiny pores between mineral grains in a rock of course
• every rock isn a piece of earths history
• rocks are clues taht help us predict about the nature and timing of the events that formed them

Water Recycles Rocks

• water creates shapes and destroys rocks as it travels among land, sea, and air
• the mississippi river spills into the Gulf of Mexico and transforming loads of sediment
• the ocean water evaporates into the atmosphere

That is all that I learned from this website. It helps a lot and it contains many more interesting facts about the inner earth, minerals, caves and so on. This website answered so many of my questions but while it answered my old questions, new ones popped into my head while responding and writing and reading all the information. Some of my questions are- why is earth layerd? Why is the Inner Earth hotter then the suns surface?  Why are rocks pieces of history and other things like the deserts arent?  There is so many that my head is full of huge ? ? ?  that can be answered only by reading! So visit the website and get some Awesome Knowledge!!!!! I hope that you enjoy the website just like I did!!!!!

What I learned in Science this week

This week we learned a lot about rocks, minerals and caves. We learned about the earth's structure too. We watched some cool videos about caves, rocks and minerals. Some videos were about the earth's structure. We learned that the earth has layers. It has 4 layers. The core, outer core, the mental and the crust. In the video it said that the core is 1,500 degrees Celsius, the mental is 1,200 degrees Celsius and the crust is cold and rocky. Very cold. Here is a picture of it. We learned that there was lots of different small animals living in the dark caves. All of them were blind because it is dark and the eyes wouldn't help in anyway. One of those animals are bets who go looking for food at night, and because they are blind they have a very good sense of hearing. So that is why they hunt really good. ( At least I think that)

I want to learn why the earth's crust is so cold and rocky, and why the inner core is so hot. I would also like to know if the animals that live in the caves are dangerous or poison. Do the bigger animals eat the smaller animals from the caves? Could we, humans travel to the center of the earth (the inner core) and discover what it actually is? Or did we do that already? There is so many things that interest me about the earth, caves or minerals (rocks)!!!! I really like this unit and I hope that we will discuss more about it, because I know that I am not talented for things like science but things like this really interest 
                                                                                          me and make me want to learn more about it.