Discovery Jars Science Lab

I found the original ideas on Pinterest, and then I had to try them. I have a bunch of curious kids and this was a fun Saturday afternoon we spent making these. I will list the ingredients under each picture. These turned out so cool!

"Calming Jar"

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. water

Boil these together until clear, pour into jar, and add water to fill remaining space

1 t. glitter

1-2 drops food coloring

Hot glue or E6000 glue

Add the glitter to the sugar water. Glue the lid to the jar. 

Because the sugar is in the water it is denser and the glitter falls slowly. I've heard these used in time outs for kids. They shake the jar and then watch the glitter settle. Once the glitter settles, they can get out of time out. 

"Color Mixing Jars"

Red and Yellow Tye Dye Shirt powder

1 c. veg. oil

1 c. water with food coloring mixed (go sparing on the blue)

Jar #1

Mix a squirt of yellow dye with 1 c. oil, mix. 

Mix 2 drops food coloring with 1 c. water, mix. 

Add water to jar, and then the oil. Seal the lid and shake. The colors mix and settle quickly so the kids can see immediately what happens. 

Jar #2

Mix a squirt of red dye with 1 c. oil, mix. 

Mix 1 drop blue with water, mix

Add water and then the oil to the jar. 

Jar #3

Mix a squirt of yellow dye with 1 c. oil, mix

Mix 1-2 drops blue with 1 c. water, mix. 

Add water and then oil to jar. We learned the hard way that blue dye added to the oil turned the whole jar blue. 

"Bubble Jar"

2-3 c. water

Red food coloring

Few squirts of Dawn dishsoap

Glue the lid on and shake! You can use other colors too but Simeon's favorite color is red. 

"Silt Jar"

This wasn't the easiest jar to make in January. I went up to a trail head that has a pond near by and got my silt from there. I had to chip through muddy ice first, but I got it! I made sure no big leaves were in it, and then just added water to it when I got home. Seal the lid. This doesn't separate quickly. The kids thought it was gross that mud was in the house. 

"Density Testing Jars"

These were my favorite!!

10 marbles for each jar

1 bottle Suave shampoo, any color

1 bottle hair gel

 Pour the bottles into the jars, add the marbles, seal the lids and try it out! Which one is more dense? My favorite is the shampoo. That's more calming than the glitter jars!

"I Spy Jars"

I found a box of old craft supplies and used some of those in the jars. One i filled with rice, the other with beans and rice, and then added random supplies. I did write what they could find in the jar, but forgot to count the number of things. Note: write the number of buttons, beads, animals, etc. in the jar and write it on the side. You could also put one car, small doll, one pack of eight crayons, and practice naming the car parts, body parts, colors, numbers, etc. 

Party favors (Frogs, Lizards, Dinosaurs, balls, etc)

buttons

beads

marbles

pom poms

"Rocks and Leaves"

Nature jar. This started out great, but most of the leaf beads sank by the end of the day. 

Rocks

Fake leaves

Beads

"Sink and Float: Glass and Plastic"

We made a couple of these with a few other objects. This one has glass beads (sank) and plastic beads (floated) and water. 

"Pom Poms"

Water and fuzzy pom poms. This one is good for babies. I did see one with sparkly pom poms, and if I could have found my glitter, I would have added some. 

"Tidal Wave Pool"

Once again, over kill on the blue color. We took stickers and put some in the jar and some on the outside of the jar. I did add some oil, but it just sat on top. Maybe it needs more water? I think I will research this one more. Also, the stickers inside stuck to each other and you can't see them. They ended up being more like the Loch Ness Monster in there. 

"Float and Sink: Metal and Plastic"

Metal brads, pony beads, paper clips, odd office supplies and craft supplies, wire cuttings.

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

Water to fill to the top

Green food coloring

Boil the water and sugar together until the sugar is clear. Add to jar, fill remaining space with warm water. Add coloring and supplies. Seal the lid. The sugar makes it a little denser and so the beads float slowly. 

"Float and Sink: Random Objects"

Just water and a few odd objects. Unfortunately, I ended up with three objects that floated and the rest sank. 

"Numbers Jar"

Magnetic numbers

Magnetic math signs: + - x %

Beans

Magnet (not shown)

This can be used a number of ways: Find the numbers one through nine. Using a magnet, add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers you bring to the top. Count the number of beans for each number your magnet attracts. 

"Stacking Liquids Density Experiment"

You can find the whole experiment and explanation here.

Here is what happened: The blue jar on the right was a mess up, so we saved it to show what NOT to do. It is not complete with all the ingredients. I basically messed up putting in the ingredients in order, then I used blue dye powder in the veg oil and it ran/sank into the water and then into the syrup until everything turned blue. And then we tried shaking it, because after playing with mixing color jars, we just had to see what happened. It never separated again, so just a warning, once you get your rainbow jar done, don't shake it! 

These were the order of ingredients: (1/2 c. each)

Honey

Karo Syrup (with red food coloring)

Green Dawn dish soap

Water (with blue food coloring..once again, too dark..I think I'll just stay away from blue)

Vegetable oil (yellow dye powder...I think this should have stayed plain)

Rubbing alcohol (yellow ran into the alcohol)

Clear Lamp Oil

Be sure when adding your ingredients they do not touch the side as you are pouring them into the jar. Also, be careful not to slosh it around and pour slowly (but not so slow the liquids dribble back against your measuring tool). From what I understand, eventually the alcohol and the vegetable oil will switch places as the alcohol evaporates. The link also gives more detail and ideas to try out, as well as some hypothetical ideas too. 

One last jar I want to do when I find my glitter is to just do glitter and water and have them compare the sugar water glitter jars to the water glitter jar. 

Words of advice when letting lots of kids help you: 

Glue all the lids on as soon as the bottles are finished. You can use various plastic bottles, Voss water bottles (might be a bit more expensive, but they look very uniform), and I chose mason jars just because I had a lot in my basement being unused and these bottles will be supervised in a closed space. 

E6000 glue is for gluing metal to glass. Use in a well ventilated area and it may take up to 24 hours for the glue to dry. Hot glue will also work. Once again, I couldn't find my hot glue gun. 

Most of these supplies you can find around your house. For the glitter jars I saw some people used glitter glue instead of sugar water. My kids dried up all my glitter glue, but I had plenty of sugar I could use. 

Make sure you allow for some space in the I Spy bottles. I filled it kind of full on one and its hard to move the stuff around and find the lizards. 

Some other ideas: 

Magnetic jars: 

Cut Up Pipe cleaners

Paper clips in water (so they can see magnets still work in water)

Letter magnets

Rust jar: put in nuts, bolts, nails, screws and see how quickly and which ones rust

Season jars: 

Winter: Blue glitter and food coloring, water, plastic snowflakes, snowman (or snowman parts), penguins, Christmas trees

Spring: Pink glitter and food coloring, water, pastel flowers (beads?), plastic leaves, bunnies, chicks, baby animals, white pom poms (clouds?)

Summer: Green glitter and food coloring, water, plastic fruits, beach ball, sand, boats, fish, 

Autumn: Orange glitter and food coloring, water, fake leaves, pumpkins, tractor, bear (hibernation?), school supplies

Jelly fish: I saw this on Pinterest too.  A mom took a bottle, blue food coloring and a white plastic bag that she shaped and cut into something that looked like a jelly fish. It floats nicely, looks peaceful, and pretty realistic! 

Snowglobes. Lots of ideas all over the internet on how to make these, from baby food jars to large mason jars. 

Baby Discovery Bottles: These were made from the mini water bottles and had just water and objects you can find around the house: ribbon, beads, float and sink objects, money, animals, etc. Be sure to seal the bottle lids. 

Reading: Sight words on paper that pop up from rice or sand. 

Colors: glitter bottles in various colors. 

Have fun making the bottles and enjoying them!