How many of these items do you already have? We’ve tried to keep it simple for you by making the majority of the items things most people have within reach (both physically and budget-wise), and even have broken down the materials by experiment category so you can decide if those are ones you want to do.
Here’s an easy way to decide which materials to get: look over the list, and if the group of materials seems to difficult to obtain, just skip it for now and go onto the next group within the unit. Most items are obtainable from the grocery store, hardware store, and places like that. You do not need to do ALL the experiments – just pick the ones you want to do!
Shopping List for Unit 3: Matter (Density & Solids) Click here for Shopping List for Unit 3.
Shaping Matter
Piece of bread
Scale
Pennies
Marbles
Cereal (about 20 pieces of anything)
States of Matter
Microwave
Grape (green, red, and/or black)
Ivory soap bar
Water bottle
Cooking oil (about ½ cup)
Two water or empty 2L soda bottles
Food coloring/dye (two colors: red, blue, etc.)
Crystals
10 cups of granulated sugar (any cheap brand)
Wooden skewer
Black construction paper
1 cup vinegar (distilled white)
Paper towel or coffee filter
Cleaned pickle, jam, or mayo glass jar
20-50 pennies
2 cups cornstarch
2 cups sand (yes, from the playground is fine)
Clean egg shell
1 full box of Borax
4-6 cups Epsom salts
10’ string or yarn
3-6 pipe cleaners
Optional: Nylon fishing line
Optional: Alum (check spice section or gardening aisle)
Additional Items for Advanced Students:
Electrolysis
2 test tubes or something clear and closed at one end
2 two wires, one needs to be copper (12 inches long)
1 cup
9 volt battery
Long match or a long thin piece of wood
Rubber bands
Masking tape
Salt (table salt is fine)
NOTE: KEEP CHEMICALS OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. **STORE THE AMMONIA SEPARATE FROM EVERYTHING ELSE.**
BBQ Crystals
Uniodized salt (sodium chloride)
Ammonia (clear, no additives)
Laundry bluing (you can find it at Amazon, WalMart, and some drug stores)
Charcoal briquette, sponge, brick, cork, or porous rock
Non-metal pie plate (an old glass pan works great)
Food (dye) coloring
This next experiment is completely optional!
Optional Additional for Advanced Students: Advanced Crystals
Sodium silicate
Select one (or more) of the following for the Advanced Crystals Experiment (the colors indicated are the colors your experiment will grow…)
Calcium Chloride (white crystals)
Iron Chloride (yellow crystals)
Cobalt Chloride (red crystals)
Copper Sulfate (blue crystals)
Store these chemicals out of reach of children and in a dry, cool location. We’ll be using these for the rest of the year in different experiments. DO NOT mix these chemicals with anything other than what we indicate, as you can generate lethal gases such as HCN.