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Can you cut through an ice cube with a piece of wire and a couple of weights? Find out with this simple, wintery science experiment! 

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Cut a piece of wire about 18 inches in length. Twist one end of the wire around a a weight. Twist the other end of the wire around the other weight. 

 If using a soda bottle as a weight, make sure the bottle is completely filled with water.

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Place two stools about 6 inches apart from each other. Then, balance the tray across them upside down.

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Lay the felt on top of the tray to collect the water that accumulates as the ice cube melts. Then, place the ice cube on top of the felt.  

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Place the wire on top of the ice cube so that the weights are dangling on either side of the tray. Guess how long it will take the wire to cut through to the bottom of the ice cube!

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If you want to see the wire as it cuts through the ice, place the wire towards one side of the cube. Don’t get too close to the edge though, otherwise your ice cube might fall over! 

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Watch as the wire magically cuts through the ice cube! Time it! Was your guess correct?

Have you ever been to see a glacier? They are gigantic hunks of ice that can be found in the far north and south of the globe, as well as on top of some very high mountains. They are so large and deep that the ice at their bottom melts from the pressure of all the ice above, just like in this experiment. That thin layer of pressure-melted water lets glaciers slide and move, carving huge valleys into the Earth as they go.

A weighted wire is going to cut through an ice cube, but somehow leave the ice cube whole after it passes through. This may sound like that magic trick where the assistant gets sawed in half, but there’s no magic about this! It’s all about the quirky physics of water.
The first quirk of water physics is that, unlike most other solids, ice is less dense than water. When ice gets pressurized, like by a heavy wire pressing down on it, it turns into a denser form. That denser form is liquid water. So when ice gets pressed on too hard, it melts! Bit by bit, the wire melts its way through the ice by turning a small layer into water, sinking through that water, then continuing to press downward.
But when the wire finally gets to the end, you’d hardly know that anything happened — the block of ice will still be solid! This happens because of another quirk of water physics called “regelation.” Ice melts into water because of pressure, but once that pressure is gone, any ice above or around it will cool it back down to freezing. Essentially, the ice refreezes itself shut behind the wire. As you watch this experiment happen, see if you can spot any difference between the ice behind the wire and the rest of the ice block.

ice cubes

thin wire

scissors

2 weights (we used filled 2-liter soda bottles)

thin tray

felt

2 stools

Ice Cube vs. Wire

experiment

chemical reactions

Dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide, is a super fun and accessible way to play around with the physics of cold materials. In this experiment, we use dry ice to create self-filling fog bubbles. See how big you can make your dry ice&nbsp;bubble, then pop it and watch the fog cascade across your table! Follow along with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSizkoEFImc">video tutorial</a>, and learn about some other cool variations as well!Want to learn more about chemistry without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore the science of crystallization with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/crystal-chemistry-garden-project-kit/2640" target="_self">Crystal Chemistry Garden</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

Grownup supervision is required, and make sure to wear insulated gloves!

Make sure to buy your dry ice the same day as your experiment - it will completely evaporate within 24 hours!

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Let's first make our bubble solution. Pour some water into a cup and then squirt in some dish soap or bubble concentrate. Stir these two together with a craft stick or spoon. You won't need very much!

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Next, take your funnel, and press it into the end of your plastic tubing. If you'd like, you can now test your bubble solution. Stick the end of the tubing in your soap solution, and blow into the funnel- a bubble should form.

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We cut off the top of the bottle to make the process of dropping the dry ice in the bottle a little easier. Before you cut, make sure that the funnel can still completely cover the opening of the bottle! Once the bottle is cut, fill it halfway with warm water.

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Use your gloved hand to put a few pieces of dry ice into your bottle. You'll see the water start to bubble and fog start to form!

Remember that dry ice is 109.3 degrees Fahrenheit, so don't touch it with your bare hands!

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Place the funnel over the soda bottle to capture the fog.

We're ready to blow bubbles! Dip the end of the tubing into the soap solution and then place the other end with the funnel on top of the bottle. A foggy bubble should form on the soapy end of the tube!

To catch the bubbles on the plate, just cover it with a thin layer of bubble solution.

This trick works because dry ice isn’t ice — it’s frozen carbon dioxide. The chunks of dry ice are very, very cold (-109° F, or -78° C), which is why you can’t handle it with your bare hands.&nbsp;In warm water, the dry ice turns immediately from a solid into a gas thanks to a neat feature called sublimation. Along with the water, that carbon dioxide gas creates the fog you see. (This is similar to when you can see your breath on a cold day.)After a few minutes, you’ll notice that the bubbles will start to slow down. Just add more chunks of dry ice to the water to keep going! For the best bubbles, you’ll also want to re-fill the warm water from time to time.

2 liter bottle (empty)

plastic tubing

clear cups

funnel

dish soap (or bubble concentrate)

water

dry ice (get this at the grocery store)

insulated gloves

Dry Ice Bubbles

easy craft

3 material crafts

space crafts

astronomy

When learning about what comets are really made of, we decided to make our own! This fun experiment with sand and ice is not only out of this world, but doubles as a fun sensory project.

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After learning that comets are truly large balls of ice and gritty dirt-like sand, we got out our winter gloves and set to work making our own.

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We used a small bin of sand with a scoop.

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Next, we prepared a large bowl of crushed ice. 

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The kids placed a pile of ice, topped by sand on a tray.

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They experimented with adding water to get the mixture to stick together a bit. They moved the mixture around with their gloved hands as well to get it good and mixed up. 

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Next, they scooped the mixture into a small bowl.

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They added more water to make a nice soup. Then we put the bowls in the freezer for a couple of hours. 

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When the mixture had frozen solid, we dipped the bottom of the bowl into warm water to loosen our comet, then flipped it over onto our tray. Here is our finished comet. We took them outside and threw them off our second story deck to demonstrate what happens when a comet crashes onto a planet. Smashing them onto the patio below was a fun sensory experience, too.

sand

crushed ice

small bowl

gloves or mittens 

Frozen Ice and Sand Comets

winter

winter crafts

craft

nature crafts

homemade craft

useful craft project

We make these beautiful winter lanterns every year around the Solstice... they're so simple to make, and so fantastically beautiful to see flickering in winter's landscape.

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Any sort of bowl will do; we make square ones, round ones, tall ones, short ones.  If you use plastic then you won't have to worry about cracking your glass later.  Use something that is a bit wider at the top than the bottom so you can get your lantern out of its container later.

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The first thing we did was venture into the garden to find some wintry treasures... honeysuckle berries, rosehips, and bits of pine all make for lovely additions.  We had some glittered rosehips downstairs that always add beauty to things like this, so we added in a few of those as well.

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We filled our bowls about halfway or a little less with water; this will be the 'shelf' for our candles to sit upon. Then we placed in our pretty bits.   It was cold outside, so we left our bowls here on the patio to freeze overnight.

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The next morning, we had our bottom layer!  Oh, they were so pretty already!  We brought them inside and gathered a few more pretties.

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Maddie put her narrow glass in the middle of her bowl (this will hold a spot for the candle to go),

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and put in her berries and evergreen sprigs.  

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We filled up our bowls with water the rest of the way and froze them again.  If the glass wants to float a bit, just put pebbles or other weights in it to hold it into place while the lantern finishes freezing.

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When they were solid, we brought them in, and put a bit of warm water in the glass, to release them from the surrounding ice.  Then we ran water over the outside of the bowls to release our lanterns.
Absolutely beautiful.

bowl (plastic works well)

bits of nature; pinecones, leaves, berries, sprigs

a small glass (jelly jars work well)

cold temperatures or a freezer

Ice Lanterns

kid-friendly recipes

cooking for kids

food science

Maple syrup – made from maple tree sap – is composed of water and sugar. Boiling the maple syrup removes water by evaporation. This means that the sugar molecules get packed more closely together. Heating up the syrup also makes the molecules move faster. When you pour hot syrup onto a cold pan, the sugar molecules slow down, combine, and then harden into solid maple sugar crystals. If you live in a snowy place, try pouring this mixture over snow! The best part is, you can eat the crystals once you’re done with the experiment! Heads up: A grownup is needed to help operate the stove!

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Put your pie pan or baking sheet in the freezer. Then pour 1/2 cup maple syrup into a small saucepan.

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Place the saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the syrup becomes foamy and thickens, about 10 minutes.

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Remove the cookie sheet from the freezer. Turn off the stove. Then using oven mitts, dribble the hot syrup out of the saucepan and onto the cold pan. Wait about 5 to 10 minutes for the maple syrup crystals to harden. (You can put it back in the freezer to make this process go faster.)

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Use a spatula to pull the crystals off the pan. Examine your creation and then eat them!

1/2 cup maple syrup

metal pie pan or small baking sheet

small saucepan

wooden spoon

oven mitts

Maple Syrup Crystals

science experiment

art-science projects

rainbow science

STEM

indoor project

Primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) are the source of all other colors. Secondary colors (green, purple, and orange) are created when two primary colors mix. If you freeze up colored ice cubes, you can experiment with color mixing as they melt. Combine cubes to make secondary colors, and if you’re feeling really creative, see if you can make tertiary colors (yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green)! Heads up: This project will dye your little ones’ hands. We recommend using gloves or putting the colored ice cubes in plastic bags for mixing.

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Pour water into the ice cube trays.

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Add 1-2 drops of food coloring into each ice cube container. Place the ice cube tray in the freezer and let freeze for at least 1 hour.

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Take the ice cube tray out of the freezer. And separate the cubes by color onto your plates. Then mix and match different colors to see what new colors you create!

food coloring

ice cube tray

white plates, bowls, or plastic sandwich bags

Frozen Color Mixing

weather

What does it take for rain to fall?  Is it possible that we can create the conditions for rain ourselves?  Let's find out!

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How does rain happen?  It comes from vapor, we know.  Vapor rises into the atmosphere; cools in the cooler, higher air; and forms clouds.  Colder air can't hold as much water as warm air does, so when the air cools too much to hang on to the vapor, the water falls as rain or snow.  

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I boiled a pot of water, and turned it off.
We got out another pan, and put several pieces of ice in it, and just a splash of water.

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Maddie grabbed the pot of ice, and held it above the steaming vapor.   She was so surprised that the top pot was staying cool, and not getting hot from the vapor!  But would we create a dewpoint?  Dewpoint means the point when water vapor condenses into liquid, forming raindrops.

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The cold of the pan reacts quickly with the warm vapor below, and water droplets are formed...

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14 awesome ice projects for kids

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