20 Minute Labs: Snow Trees

MAKE YOUR OWN "SNOW"-COVERED TREES!

When you think of winter, you might picture some beautiful, snow-covered trees.

In this month's blog, you'll use the science of capillary action and evaporation to create some "snow"-covered trees of your own. So even if there's no snow where you live, you can make some indoors to set on your windowsill!

NOTE: Setting up the lab will only take about 20 minutes, but you'll have to wait a few hours or overnight to see the final results.

What You'll Need

• flat, non-corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• scissors
• small bowl
• tablespoon
• water
• ammonia
• salt
• bluing agent (we used Mrs. Stewart's brand)
• food coloring (optional)
• fork
• spray bottle of water

WARNING: Ammonia fumes are toxic! Ask an adult for help and work in a ventilated area. (You can choose to omit ammonia from the experiment -  it will just take a bit longer to develop and the results will be a little less dramatic.)

WARNING: Bluing agent can stain your clothes, so be careful! (It will not stain your bowl however, as long as it's nonabsorbant - plastic, glass, or glazed ceramic work great!)

Let's Get Started!

1. Using a pencil, draw a small tree on the piece of cardboard. The tree should be about 2-3 inches tall.
2. Cut out the tree shape, then use it as a template to trace a second tree onto the cardboard. Cut the second tree out as well. You should have two identical tree shapes.
3. Cut a slit halfway up from the bottom center of one tree, then cut a slit halfway down from the top center of the second tree.
4. Fit the two trees together so that they intersect and stand up as one. (We made a few different tree shapes for fun!)
   
5. To the bowl add: 1 tablespoon of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of bluing agent.
6. Add 4 drops of food coloring (optional).
7. With an adult's help, carefully add 1/2 tablespoon of ammonia.
8. Use a fork to stir the mixture until the salt is dissolved.
9. If you'd like, you can color your tree by adding food coloring to the edges of your tree branches. (We made a green tree and an 'autumn' tree with yellow food coloring!)
10. Using a spray bottle, mist your tree all over to dampen the cardboard. It's okay if the food coloring runs.
11. Stand the tree upright in the bowl.
12. Leave overnight. In the morning, check to see what happened!

If you don't see crystals on the outer branches, this may be because the cardboard has dried out. You can use a dropper to draw up some of the liquid from the bowl and squirt it on the drier places on your tree during the evaporation phase.

If you made your tree larger than about 2.5 inches, there may not be enough solution to be effective. Try doubling the solution ingredients, or making a smaller tree.

CONCLUSION

What's going on?

Did you see a bunch of "snow" crystals on your tree? How did that happen? Well, there's a couple different scientific concepts at play - capillary action and evaporation. 

In this experiment, the liquid was pulled up into the cardboard tree by the process of capillary action. Capillary action is the climbing ability of liquids.

For example, water can crawl up tiny tubes that are present in different materials. It does this naturally without any help. Capillary action is how plants deliver water from the soil to their leaves! It's also how water is sucked up into a paper towel. If you are interested in experimenting more with capillary action, check out this capillary action experiment!

Evaporation is also at work here. You may know that water can undergo evaporation, which is the process of changing from a liquid to a gas, (or water vapor). Adding ammonia to the liquid in this experiment speeds up the rate of evaporation.

During the night, the water and ammonia liquid evaporated, leaving behind the salt and the small particles from the bluing agent. Together they created the beautiful  "snow" crystals you see on your tree!

SHARE WITH US!

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