My daughters enjoy anything science or geology related. I love to find projects for them to try that involve learning. Using some allowance money, my oldest daughter, bought the Discovery Crystal Growing Aquarium STEM science experiment kit. It was a wonderful rainy day project and basically provided her with instant gratification as the crystals immediately started to grow.
The kit contained an aquarium with decorations, four different colored crystals, a poster and the sodium silicate solution that is used for growing the crystals. The instructions have you break up the crystals into pea sized pieces. This wasn’t easy but we did our best. I used a butter knife to break them apart. We then lined the bottom of the aquarium with tin foil cut to size. Once you add the solution, the crystals began to grow instantly with bright vibrant colors. The instructions claim that they will grow as high as four inches. Unfortunately, ours didn’t achieve quite that height but my daughter was happy with the results.
My only complaint with the aquarium is that after the crystals have completed their growing, they recommend dumping the liquid out and replacing it with water so you can enjoy it. There is no lid, so there is a risk of it spilling or leaking. I kept imagining the entire aquarium spilling all over my daughter’s floor. We decided to not place water in it and after a few days the crystals dried out. I attempted to add some water and to my dismay, the tallest crystal snapped in half and my daughter was upset with me. However, it still looks nice and we haven’t had any spilling or leaking disasters. My daughter also loved the poster.
I would recommend this fun project to anyone. It does require parental supervision and help. It’s relatively inexpensive, fun to watch and does make a cool display to have in your room, as long as you are okay with the water!
