Crystal+Lights

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Title
Sugar Crystals

Problem Scenario
I want to see if the temperature affects the rate of crystal growth. I will put one in room temperature, another one in the fridge and then one in the down in my basement. By this I will be recording the growth of each type of crystal everyday till fully grown.

Broad Question
Does the temperature affect the growth of sugar crystals?

Specific Question
Does the temperature affect the growth of Sugar crystals when they are in room temperature, the fridge, or in a dark cold environment such as my basement.

Hypothesis
The crystal in room temperature will grow the most because the warmer the place is the more the crystal will grow.

Independent Variable:
Temperature

Dependent Variable:
Amount of growth

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
Sugar Crystals

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
Sugar Crystals: Informal term for a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose.

General Plan
I am going to make 3 sugar crystals and I am going to put one in room temperature, one in the fridge, and another in my basement. I will be collecting data everyday and will record it. It only takes about a week for the crystals to fully grow.

Potential Problems And Solutions
Some potential problems would be that sugar crystals will not grow, a solution to this would be to find a different way to grow them still using my question.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns
Some safety or environmental concerns would be that you have to be careful while growing them or the turn out of the sugar crystals would be inedible.

Experimental Design
(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning) =Controlled, manipulated experiment=

What is your experimental unit?
Sugar crystals

Number Of Trials:
3 trials

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:
1 subject in each trial

Number of Observations:
Everday, so about 7 days

When data will be collected
I will start on Feb. 8, and I will collect data everyday until fully grown.

Where will data be collected?:
The data will be collected at my house.

Resources and Budget Table

 * Item || Number needed || Where I will get this || Cost ||
 * Sugar Crystals Materials || 1 || At the store || $15.00 ||
 * Poster Board || 1 || Mr. Groves || $0.00 ||
 * Fridge || 1 || At home || $0.00 ||
 * Thermometer || 1 || At home || $0.00 ||

Detailed Procedure
1. Get all the materials 2. Take the temperature of each space I will be putting the sugar crystals in. 3. Set up 3 test subjects 4. Collect data every week until fully grown
 * 1 in room teperature
 * 1 in the fridge
 * 1 in my basement

Photo List
I am going to take pictures of each crystal, one in room teperature, one in the fridge, and another in my basement. I will take pictures everyday to observe how much the crystals are growing everyday.

Time Line
Feb. 3 get materials Feb. 8 start experiment Feb. 4-11 collect data March 15 start putting together poster

Data Table

 * || Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 || Day 4 || Day 5 || Day 6 || Day 7 || Day 8 || Day 9 || Day 10 ||
 * Sugar Crystal 1 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Sugar Crystal 2 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Sugar Crystal 3 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

All Raw Data

 * Days || Room Temp || Basement || Fridge ||
 * 1 || 0 cm || 0 cm || 0 cm ||
 * 2 || 0 cm || 0 cm || 0 cm ||
 * 3 || 1/2 cm || 1/2 cm || 1/2 cm ||
 * 4 || 1 cm || 1 cm || 1/2 cm ||
 * 5 || 1 cm || 1 cm || 1/2 cm ||
 * 6 || 1 cm || 1 cm || 1/2 cm ||
 * 7 || 1 cm || 1 cm || 1/2 cm ||

Results
= My hypothesis was almost correct; the crystal at room temperature and in my basement grew the most, the fastest. Room temperature is at about 70˚ and the width of the sugar crystal was at about 1 cm long at the end of seven days. The one in my basement was at a temperature of 48˚ and like the room temperature one at the end of seven days it had a width of 1 cm.. Finally the one that grew the least was the one in the fridge and that was about 40 degrees and on the seventh day it was only at a half of a cm. =

Conclusion
My hypothesis was that the room temperature sugar crystal would grow the most, then the basement sugar crystal as the second fastest and then the fridge sugar crystal would grow the least. It actually turned out that the room temperature and basement sugar crystals grew at the same rate and the fridge grew at half the rate as the other sugar crystals. The experiment half supported my hypothesis. Based on the results, the room temperature and basement temperature grew at the same rate over the seven day period. The refrigerated temperature grew the least.

Discussion
If I was to change anything about my project it would be to go back and do better on collecting data. I had a hard time figuring out how to measure the growth of the sugar crystals. If I was able to go back I would have spent more time measuring them by figuring out the mass not just the width. Throught the whole process of the data didnt really change at a shocking rate it grew steadily. The room temperature sugar crystal and the basement sugar crystal grew atbthe same rate throughout the whole experiment. The fridge sugar crystal ended up growing the least out of the 3 and it grew half the size of them also.

Benefit to Community and/or Science
My experiment doesn't really benefit community ir science. If i had to find a way I guess it helped find a better and faster way tpo grow sugar crystals if anyone wanted to know how to make them grow faster.

Background Research
Sugar crystals have many uses besides an ingredient in recipes or food preparation. Though sucrose crystals are used to decorate and add sweetness to baked goods and desserts. It is said that the warmer the environment, the faster the sugar crystals will grow.

Abstract
I thought growing sugar crystals would be fun to grow so I decided to make a science fair experiment out of it. I thought it would be interesting to find out what temperature would make the sugar crystal grow the most, the fastest. My question that I was trying to answer was does the temperature affect the growth rate of sugar crystals? I hypothesized that the room temperature would grow the most, then the basement as the second fastest and then the fridge would grow the least. It actually turned out that the room temperature and basement sugar crystals grew at the same rate and the fridge grew at half their rate.