Water Cycle Experiment
Salt on a Stick
This water cycle experiment combines science and history. Indians living on the Pacific Coast around the San Francisco bay would create shallow ponds of ocean water. They would place sticks in the water and allow the water to evaporate. As the water evaporated salt crystals would form on the sticks.
Indians would then bundle up the sticks and travel to the mountains where they exchanged the stick covered with salt for obsidian needed to make arrowheads. In this experiment you will use a bowl as the shallow pond and clay to stick your toothpicks in to collect the salt.
Materials
- Bowl
- Toothpicks
- Salt
- Modeling clay (non hardening)
- Cup
- Measuring spoons
Directions
- Pour hot water from the faucet into a cup.
- Add a tablespoon of salt and stir until it is dissolved.
- Add more salt one tablespoon at a time.
- Continue adding salt until your solution is supersaturated and no more salt will dissolve.
- Set the cup of salt water aside.
- Make a small round ball with your modeling clay.
- Stick the clay to the bottom of the bowl.
- Continue creating small balls of clay and sticking them on the bowl until you have 8 or 10 on the bottom of the bowl.
- Stick a single toothpick in each ball of clay so them are perpendicular to the bottom of the bowl.
- Set the bowl in a warm area so the water can evaporate.
- Each day look at the crystals forming on the sticks.
More Links to Earth Science Experiments
- Simple Science Experiment, Rubber Band Shoot Have fun shooting rubber bands in this fun and easy experiment.
- Simple Science Experiments, Pressing Layers Discover how bread slices can turn into sedimentary layers in this fun experiment.
- Cool Science Experiments, Funny Bones In these fun experiments find out how you can create "funny bones" that can bend.
- Easy Science Experiments, Pumice & Obsidian Find out the difference between pumice and obsidian and why one will float and the other will sink like a rock.
- Volcano Science Experiment, Cinder Cones Have you ever wondered how volcanoes get their shape? Find out about cinder cones in this fun activity.
- Water Cycle Experiment, Salt on a Stick This experiment combines science and history as it shows how Indians collected salt and exchanged it for obsidian.
- Earth Science The links on this page include information on the Earth, the Rock Cycle, Volcanoes, experiments, activities and much more.
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