DIY Frost

This is a quick, easy experiment to show little ones how FROST is made! I found it over at Science Sparks a month or so ago and have been waiting for the right time to use it.   We've been seeing a lot of frost around with the cold weather, and with a couple of us under the weather this past week, it seemed like a good time to pull it out!

 You only need a few things to do this.  A clean, empty can (ours are from soup), ice (I crushed ours), salt, and water.  Start by filling your can at least halfway with ice.

Then add some salt and water.  We tried rock salt in one can and sea salt in the second.  Both worked fine.  I stirred ours around a little, but I don't know that it helped any.

Then you wait.  See the frost starting to form.

The girls liked the fact that they could draw in it.

Wait even longer, and you have more frost!

What's happening? The salt lowers the melting temperature of ice (as seen HERE), so adding it and the water allows the ice to quickly melt and cool off the can (to below freezing).  The can becomes much colder then the surrounding air which cause the water vapor in the air to form tiny ice crystals on the side of the can aka FROST!

Like I said, super simple (but still educational) for those days that you don't feel like putting something elaborate (or messy) together!