Science and snowflakes

Had I thought this through a little more, I would have had a copy of the book "Snowflake Bentley" on hand.  We would have read this book first, then proceeded to make our snowflakes.  But I didn't.  It doesn't matter, the project was simple enough that we can surely repeat it in the future (with book included) and the results alone were worth the small effort.

We used pipe cleaners that were cut into three pieces and then twisted together to form snowflake shapes (or in Sophie's case, a bug).  Then I boiled some water and made the solution of 3T borax per cup of boiling water.  Stir together to dissolve the borax then suspend the pipecleaner snowflake in the solution using string and a pencil or popcicle stick.  The pipecleaner and solution needs to be left undisturbed for 24 hours - then voila!  It's the coolest thing.  Basically, hot water holds more borax than cold water.  So, as the water cools, the excess borax is released and attaches itself to a rough surface (the pipecleaner) in the form of crystals.  This info was hard to find (why it happens), so I really needed to note it here for future reference.  Anyhow, we love this project.  Oh, the blue one was made using a blue pipecleaner, but you can also use food coloring the solution for a cool effect.