• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy + Terms
  • Affiliates

The Chaos and the Clutter

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google Plus
  • RSS
  • Email
  • School at Home
  • Sensory
    • Sensory Processing Disorder
    • Awesome Sensory Play Activities
      • Sensory Bins
      • Sensory Bottles
      • Sensory Bags
  • Family Games
    • Minute to Win It Games
  • Special Needs Parenting
    • Childhood Anxiety
    • Reactive Attachment Disorder
    • Sensory Processing Disorder
  • Store
  • Course Login

Melting Ice Experiment

By Sharla Kostelyk

(This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy.)

  • Total41.5K
  • Facebook317
  • Twitter4
  • Pinterest41.1K
  • Mix
  • Yummly0

This is a simple science experiment to do with items you likely already have in your kitchen. Our daughter wanted to do her Science Fair project on melting ice. She was curious about what would make ice melt faster. 

This melting ice science experiment is perfect for science fairs.I thought it would be an easy at home science experiment that wouldn’t take too much planning or prep on my part, but be cool for the kids. It was pretty fascinating actually!

Melting Ice Science Experiment:

Supplies needed:

  • small Dixie cups or mini Solo cups
  • water
  • scissors
  • 6 compartment muffin tin
  • salt
  • sugar

Directions:

  1. Before beginning the experiment, have students talk about what they expect the results to be. Ask them what variable will melt the ice fastest. If you want, you can have them write down their hypothesis. 
  2. Fill 6 small Dixie cups or mini Solo cups with water. Place the cups on a baking tray and place the tray in the freezer.
  3. Freeze overnight.
  4. Cut the frozen water out of the paper cups (adult help may be required for this step). If using Solo cups, you won’t need scissors as you should be able to just pop the ice out.
  5. Place one ice cup in each of the compartments in the muffin tin. Pour hot water on one, cold water on another, steam on another, salt on another, and sugar on another.* Leave one alone so that it can act as the control.

*Adult supervision is important, particularly with the steam and hot water.

Students can document the progress through taking pictures or journalling observations at one minute, five minutes, half an hour, and one hour after adding the variables.

Here is a picture before we added anything to the ice:

IMG_1265

IMG_1267This is immediately after adding the variables to the ice:

ice experiment 1Here is the ice after just five minutes:

ice experiment 2This is after half an hour:

ice experiment 3Here is what our ice looked like after one hour:

ice experiment 4As you can see, the control did melt slower than any of the others. Hot water melted the ice the fastest.

Dixie CupsDixie CupsWilton 6 Cup Regular Muffin PanWilton 6 Cup Regular Muffin PanMorton Morton SaltMorton Morton Salt

Our daughter dictated to me what she had observed during the experiment and we included that as well as a picture she drew of the process and the photographs on her display board for the Science Fair. She loved presenting and explaining her findings to the judges.

melting ice

Here are some other simple science experiments using common household items that you may enjoy doing at home or in the classroom:

This is a great hands-on science experiment to explain how fold mountains are formed.How Fold Mountains are Madejello colour mixing experiment10 Jello Science Experiments

Layers of the Earth Hands-on Science Activity

  • Total41.5K
  • Facebook317
  • Twitter4
  • Pinterest41.1K
  • Mix
  • Yummly0

Filed Under: Homeschooling, Simple Science

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. putri says

    October 23, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    how to add steam to the ice?

    • Michelle says

      March 1, 2018 at 12:06 pm

      I’m wondering the same thing. Did you get a reply to this?

      • Sharla Kostelyk says

        March 10, 2018 at 12:16 pm

        We used the steam from a kettle. This part was done by an adult of course because of the risk of burns.

  2. Collis Crosby says

    December 5, 2018 at 7:17 pm

    What is the variables

Trackbacks

  1. Schiuma colorata per piccoli artisti Homemademamma | Homemademamma says:
    July 9, 2013 at 12:28 am

    […] Un freddo esperimento […]

  2. Science Fair Project Ideas - TinkerLab says:
    May 4, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    […] Melting Ice Experiment, The Chaos and the Clutter […]

  3. Nine Winter Science Experiments - Happy Trails Wild TalesHappy Trails Wild Tales says:
    December 4, 2014 at 8:17 am

    […] Melting Ice Experiment Let your kids add their own twist to this melting ice experiment used by The Chaos and The Clutter for a science fair project. Read how they did it! […]

  4. 16 Surprising Things to Do with Ice (It’s Not Just for Cocktails!) - Ponytail and T-Rex says:
    June 23, 2017 at 1:03 pm

    […] a muffin tin with ice and a few key ingredients, designed to see what makes ice melt the fastest. The Chaos and the Clutter has an easy tutorial you can follow so you can literally execute this cool project in less than ten […]

  5. Fun Kitchen Science Experiments for Kids - Better Than Homework says:
    March 13, 2018 at 9:37 am

    […] Can you make ice melt faster? Try and test several different variables with this melting ice science experiment from The Chaos and the Clutter. […]

Primary Sidebar

Categories

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Copyright © 2023 • The Chaos and the Clutter • Site Design by Jeni @ The Blog Maven

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2023 · Chaos and the Clutter 2.0 on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in