What Is a Crystal?

For starters, a crystal is a mineral which is not saying much because minerals make up the earth,the moon, and meteorites that voyage to earth from other parts of the solar system.

Now that you got to know the "family" that crystals belongs to called minerals, lets get started with the basic facts of crystals. There are 88 naturally occurring elements of crystals that are made of atoms of different sizes and properties that combine in many different ways to form crystals. The huge range of temperatures and pressures within the earth contributes to crystals diversity, but the variety is not endless certain shapes or variations occur again and again.

The rules for being a crystal:

All crystals must be built out of atoms, atoms are built out protons, neutrons and electrons and form everything known to man.

All crystals are formed by a repeated pattern of molecules connecting together. In some solids, the arrangements of the building blocks (atoms and molecules) can be random or very different. In crystals, however, a collection of atoms is repeated in exactly the same arrangement over and over throughout the entire material, this structure is called a crystalline structure (thats what gives crystals their geometric appearance).

Did you,

when growing, all lab-made crystals separate all of their molecules into the water and let them naturally form into their former shape of crystal, so when the water evaporates the mineral is left behind.

All crystals must be solid, when something is solid because the particles that make up a solid are packed so tightly together it means that it cannot move very freely.


Now that you know some of the things a crystal is lets find out what a crystal isn't

A crystal does not have a indefinite chemical composition.

A crystal is not anything transparent that has a geometric structure.

And finally a crystal is not a banana split covered in Hershey's chocolate syrup.

I hope you at least earned one thing from this short explanatory paragraph, bye for now.

Volcano Presentation Reflection

Over all I did a ton of research on this project and I think my partner and I did very well I made a glogster about our volcano to let people get an idea of what volcano we chose and then I made a slide-show about the uses of volcanoes ad Brandon found some interesting facts and cool images.

Our presentation wasn't rehearsed enough for us to be really comfortable presenting but we pulled it off and got lots of positive feedback from my classmates. As I mentioned before I was very nervous (as I normally am when presenting) and next time I present I will try to be more relaxed and comfortable when presenting in front of the class.

If I had to do my project and presentation over again I would have met up with my partner and worked a lot together because we ended up only having one persons do most the research for the presentation.

If I were a teacher, as a combined grade I would give us a six out of seven because I knew a whole bunch about our topic and showed it to the class but we didn't present that well and we didnt both know our topic that well.

Crystal Garden Reflection.

Even though it took me two weeks to grow my crystals because of the small amount of solution I put them and the places I tried to grow crystals on; my crystals did appear in the end. I must say that I learned quite a lot about the process of crystal growing and the way that when the liquid evaporates the minerals are left behind (way cool).

Hypothesis:Because I have grown crystals before I know how they'll turn out but if I hadn't had grown crystals before I would have thought that they would take years to grow and that they would be large and transparent.

Data Analysis:
What material did the crystals grow best on? My number one crystal growing materials were wooden sticks plastic trees and a rock.
What material did the crystals grow the worst on? Painted materials I'm guessing that its because it has a protective layer of thick paint.


What solution was the easiest to grow crystals from? For me it was Epsom salt probably because it evaporates easily and that it was super saturated.
What solution grew crystals the slowest or were the most difficult? For most people including myself it was sugar. On the other hand sugar did grow the biggest crystals in my entire garden.
Which method was the best for growing crystals? Most people either soaked something in crystal solution or filled a container with it.


Conclusion: What can you conclude about the conditions that are needed for crystals to grow? You need to have a low amount of humidity in the air, you need to have a place for the solution be in or else it will drip and your crystals will not be likely to form and you need your crystal garden to be an open container so that the solution can evaporate. What have you learned about crystals during this project? Crystals a very easy to grow and are a great time saving way to demonstrate the growth of natural crystals. To grow a mineral and water solution crystal you pretty much don't have to do anything other than record the growth of them. Do you have a new hypothesis? Yes, crystals will grow on porous materials, you need supersaturated water (water that has so much mineral in it that you cant put any more) and you need perfect crystal growing conditions such as dry air,open gardens etc.

Further Inquiry: What errors may have occurred in your garden? I left a top on my crystal garden in the beginning i guess that was my only error. How would you change the experiment if you were to do it all over again?I would not change the experiment because it was good but I would change my garden into a crystal growing machine! What further questions do you have about crystals and the conditions they need for growth? Exactly how long does it take real crystals to grow?


Bibliography: I used http://www.mypsciencegrade6.blogspot.com/ for my questions.

I only did my "crystal garden diary" for three days and it isn't so good but anyway here it is:

Day 1:Today I made some more sugar crystals, some salt crystals and some monoamine oxidase crystals. I cant see any crystals yet but I would really like to see some and find out the differences between them.

Day 2:Today I added some Epsom salt to my crystal garden. I also noticed a bunch of salt crystals growing on one of my rocks and it was so cool they were hanging down like red stalactites. I am kind of disappointed because none of my other crystals are growing.

Day 3:Today I noticed that my garden didn't change over the weekend and that it looks exactly the same but Im going to add some more transparent Epsom salt solution to see if I can get some more cool crystals growing.

Mapping Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Mapping Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Problem

Is there a pattern in the locations of earthquakes and volcanoes?

Yes, there is evidence of this in “the ring of fire” which is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

There are also various fault lines where a number of earthquakes occur in the same area.

Skills Focus

Interpreting data

Materials

Outline world map showing longitude and latitude

4 pencils of different colors

Procedure

1. Use the information in the table to mark the location of each earthquake on the world map Use a colored pencil to draw a letter E inside a circle at each earthquake location.

2. Use a pencil of a second color to mark the volcanoes on the world map. Indicate each volcano with the letter V inside a circle.

3. Use a third pencil to lightly shade the areas in which earthquakes are found.

4. Use a fourth pencil to shade the areas in which volcanoes are found.

Analyze and Conclude

1.        How are earthquakes distributed on the map? Are they scattered evenly or in concentrated zones?

Most of the earthquakes occur in small clusters or (earthquake prone areas such as fault lines and subduction zones) but there are some very random areas in my opinion.

2. How are volcanoes distributed? Are they scattered evenly or in concentrated zones?

Mostly the distribution of volcanoes is everywhere although there are a number of volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean

3. From your data what can you infer about the relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes?

Sometimes they occur in the same areas and I think it’s because of plate boundaries.

More to Explore

The nearest active volcano to Belgrade, Serbia which is where I live is mount Vesuvius in Italy and it is currently active it has erupted many times before

What I Noticed About My Crystal Garden Today

Today I noticed that my garden didn't change over the weekend and that it looks exactly the same but Im going to add some more transparent Epsom salt solution to see if I can get some more cool crystals growing.

What I Did to My Crystal Garden Today

Today I added some Epsom salt to my crystal garden. I also noticed a bunch of salt crystals growing on one of my rocks and it was so cool they were hanging down like red stalactites. I am kind of disappointed because none of y other crystals are growing.

Today I Made Some More Crystals

Today I made some more sugar crystals, some salt crystals and some monoamine oxidase crystals. I cant see any crystals yet but I would really like to see some and find out the differences between them.