Instant Snow

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Materials

1 Large Blue Sheet

2 Small Plastic Cups

1 Large Plastic Cup

1 Jar of Powder (Orange Label)

1 Jar of Powder (Blue Label)

1 Tube of Colored Pellets

1 Powder Scooper

Instructions

STEP 1

0:00

Pull out the bag that says, Instant Snow. Place everything in front of you, and put the bag back in your box.

STEP 2

0:16

Take the large blue sheet and spread it out in front of you. Then, place one of the smaller plastic cups in the middle.

STEP 3

0:35

Grab the jar of powder that has the orange label. Take one big heaping scoop of this powder and add it to the cup.

STEP 4

1:01

Pour cold water into the other small empty cup. Fill the cup 3/4 of the way full.

STEP 5

1:22

Dump the water into the cup that has the powder in it. Do this as fast as you can without spilling.

STEP 6

1:41

Try turning the cup upside down and you can see it doesn’t come out. It’s turned into a gel!

STEP 7

2:06

Spread some out on the blue mat and play with it. Students don’t need gloves, it’s perfectly safe!

STEP 8

2:47

This time, grab the container that has a blue label on the edge and add two heaping scoops of powder to a small empty cup.

STEP 9

3:17

Fill the empty cup with cold water as high as you can without spilling.

STEP 10

3:36

As quickly as you can, pour the water into the cup of powder. Watch for a few seconds to see the reaction.

STEP 11

4:24

Once it’s down overflowing, shake it out onto your mat and your students can play with it!

STEP 12

5:09

To clean up the snow, grab ahold of each corner and pull them together in the center to prevent spilling all the loose snow.

STEP 13

5:50

For the last experiment, grab the final little tube of tiny colored pellets and pour them into the tall empty cup.

STEP 14

6:54

Fill the cup of pellets with water. Add as much as you can without spilling it. Leave it overnight and check on it tomorrow.

How It Works

This powder is a special type of material called a Polymer. A polymer is a type of chemical that is made of units linked together over and over again. Just like if you took paperclips and linked them together into a long strand. Now, our polymer is special because those long strands get super tangled up and they act like a sponge and they can absorb 100 times their weight in water. That’s why when you added all that water to just a tiny bit of powder the powder sucked up all that water. This material has many uses, one of them being inside a baby's diaper. When a baby has an accident that starts with the letter “p” this material can help suck it all up.

This next effect happened becuase we used the same material, but with a twist. You see this material is also a super absorbent polymer. Sodium Polyacrylate to be exact. But the pieces are larger so they soak up the water to become larger and a bit more fluffy. By coincidence, it looks a lot like snow, which is why we call it fake snow. It can be used in movies and even as decorations.

Instant Snow

Materials

Instructions

How It Works

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Instant Snow

Materials

Instructions

How It Works

Back to AllExperiments in The Kit

Watch NextExperiment

Start Your 30-Day Free Access

Last Step:Create Account

Back to All
Experiments in The Kit

Watch Next
Experiment

Start Your 30-Day
Free Access

Last Step:
Create Account