Growing Crystal Garden

In my science class we are doing a fun project called "Growing Crystal Garden". It is a project that we make a garden The garden can be a Japanese or English garden and I chose a Japanese garden but a I made it a winter garden. After we make the garden we put crystal solutions on it and wait. This is going to be my observation table I hope you enjoy it.

DAY 1 January 26

So before I put the crystals on my garden it was just a diorama of a garden with one tree, bush, five rocks, and a pond so it was a bit boring. The next two days we put crystal solutions all over the garden. The salt solution I put on my pond and the next day when I looked at my pond it had already started to grow crystals they were in small circles that were sparkling if  you look very close. They were spread out all over the pond and it looked really cool. And mostly the other just had a different color solution on it but they did not look different.

DAY 2 January 28

Now the crystals on my garden are really starting to grow. The crystals on the bush are growing great, they are growing a like little basketballs. The green crystals on my bridge are growing a bit slow but but steady. The crystals on my tree hardened the cotton on it. Because I added a bit more solution on the pond on day one I have a lot of crystals on my pond which makes it look really frozen. 

Day 3 January 31  

At first when I saw my garden I thought it was the same but then I pulled out a microscope and it made it all different. I noticed that the crystals on the rock started to grow it looked really cool but it was small. The crystal solution on the tree the crystals on the pond have gotten a bit bigger. The crystals on the bridge have not changed.

The last day of the two week period

Over this two week period I was observing my garden a lot happened, but now I do not see any differences in this last look. I think all of the crystals have grown as much as they can. 

Now I have noticed where crystals grow the best, and the worst. I saw that on my garden that grew the easiest and the best was the salt solution. The crystal that grew the worst and hardest was the Borax. I also observed that the crystals grow better on denser and more leveled items like my pond. Crystals don't grow good on things like cotton as you can see at the photos at the bottom. I think the way you should put crystals on objects that might be covered or flat and more dense. I have noticed that on others garden the crystals also grow beneath objects. On mine I noticed that they grow on flat surfaces.

In conclusion, I observed that all in all the crystals on my garden grow best on flat and dense conditions, so I think that if a solution is on a flat but dense surface it will grow best. I have seen that on mine because they grew so well on the pond but not on the ball of cotton, and I noticed the same on many others garden. I have learned that crystals also grow when all of the solution is gone, but they don't grow that much they just grow a little bit. Now my hypothesis has changed to '' Crystals need the right conditions to grow like on a flat surface, and also there should not be puddles of it because it does not grow that well, I saw that on some others garden".

I had a few mistakes like, not getting enough solution on the rock, putting solution on cotton, and putting to little solution on my pond, but my crystals on the on the bush did quiet good.Now what I would have changed was made the experiment on something with low sides because I did mine in a shoe box and that was hard to work with. Also I would have dunked the rock into the solution, put more solution on the pond, and not put any on the cotton because it just turned it blue and there were no crystals. After this experiment I still have a few questions about crystals and they are" Does the temperature affect their growth, which crystal solution is of everyone, what solution is easist to make, and how many are their?"

Here is my garden and map

What is written on my map is the crystal solutions I used.

The Dynamic Earth

In my science class we went on this website that you might find interesting
                                                           http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/main_frames.html

And from that we had to  mainly read and take notes on rocks and mining, and the inner Earth.

The Inner Earth

Some things I learned from this website are that there are three main types of layers in Earth and in order from outside to inside they are crust, mantle, and the core. The crust is what we walk on and it changes in looks all around, the mantle is split up into the upper mantle and the mantle and it is just because a few of small details. The mantle is rocky, it moves the plates, it is solid hot and soft, and the lower mantle is really dense. The core is split up into the outer core and the core the main difference is that the core is solid. The outer core is molten hotand the core is even hotter than the suns surface and it is molten iron.

Meteorites

Meteorits give us multiple clues about the inside of the Earth.  Meteorites come from asteroids which were made at the same time of the sun. We learn things about the Earth by meteorites, rocks, diamonds, earthquake waves, and the magnetic field.


Diamonds

Diamonds are made by the hotness and high pressure of the inner Earth and because the rocks they are found in are compressed and turns it partially into a diamond. Magma pushes the diamonds up and it takes about 4-15 hours to get up to us. You find diamonds under cartons and the older parts of some contenints and that is because it is too hot for them in almost all of the upper mantle. Rocks

Rocks 

Rocks have Earths history in them. The also give hints about the creatures that lived in the past and the nature at that time and water shapes, makes, and breaks rocks. All rocks are made deep into the Earth and they are made from minerals and by heat and pressure, the deeper the the rocks are made the hotter and denser it becomes. There are different colors of rocks and kinds because of the way they are made and the minerals in them.

Mining

Mining is when miners go down deep into the crust and they mine for things we need or want. The things the mine are rocks, minerals, gold, diamonds etc.






This project was quite interesting but at times it got boring. But all in all it was interesting.  These are not the only facts I got if you want more you should go to the link on the top of the page. 

What we have learned this week and things I want to learn

In this past week of school in science class we have learned a lot of new information. You might ask your self how can you learn so much in just a week, well that's simple we watched two Bill Nye the science guy and took notes in class on earths structure. For earths structures we learned how land, water, and air interact and that is by force(gravity), tides, natural disasters/resources, and physical features. I also learned about earths structure; round, 3 dimensional, different layers, has magma inside it, 75% water, and natural disasters. I also learned more about the layers of the world like; core is solid iron and it is about 1500 degrees C, outer core is made of iron and other metals, the mantle is gooey and over 1200 degrees C, the crust is made of many things and its temperature varies. I also learned; sometimes volcanoes blow up and other times they just ozze lava, when volcanoes go off it can help nature, geysers blows out boiling water. the core is solid. Other things I learned were; caves can be under water under ice , and under rock, limestone is calcium, when water gets into a cave it dissolves the limestone that it is filled with and when it dissolves it all, it becomes a cave. More things that I have learned are; caves do not change quickly, when water drips off stalactite and it gets on the stalagmite the water will dizzolve and the minerals will stay to make them but it takes a really long time to make them, lava and ice can make caves. And know I hope that you can see that I have learned a lot this week.

There are many things  I would like to learn in science, but I cannot learn them all this year.  The thing I want to learn about the most are the kinds of minerals and what exactly they are. I want to learn about minerals because that has always confused me a bit so I want to learn about it so I can understand it. The things I want to learn about for them are; how many minerals bare there and not just the general ones I want to get deep into them, and I also want to learn the names of all of them and what they do and are. Another thing I want to learn about minerals is how do minerals effect people, animals, and plants.

Lab Reports

In my science class we did two labs and they are called "Cooling Race Lab" and "A Change for the Wetter Lab". I think how I did on the both of them is quite good. However I like how I did on the Cooling Race Lab more than I did on the Change for the Wetter Lab. I still know that I can improve greatly. On the Cooling Race Lab I can try to do the tests more carefully and get correct data because I did not get the best data. Another thing I could have done better was to use better wording and words. I think that on my Change for the Wetter Lab I should have also had better words and wording. Another thing I could have done to improve my lab was to make better conclusions by reading the data two or three times then think about it after that I should write it then reread what I wrote. I did enjoy making part of my Cooling Race Lab because you can think of many different things you can do in it other than following the instructions given. One of the things I liked about how I did the Cooling Race Lab was that I did realize that I might not have gotten all the data correct and that I mentioned that I made the mistake on my lab. One thing I liked about what I did on the Change for the Wetter Lab was that I did not give to much or little information in my answers.