How many of these items do you already have? We’ve tried to keep it simple for you by making the majority of the items things most people have within reach (both physically and budget-wise), and even have broken down the materials by experiment category so you can decide if those are ones you want to do.


Here’s an easy way to decide which materials to get: look over the list, and if the group of materials seems to difficult to obtain, just skip it for now and go onto the next group within the unit. Most items are obtainable from the grocery store, hardware store, and places like that. You do not need to do ALL the experiments – just pick the ones you want to do!


Shopping List for Unit 3: Matter (Density & Solids) Click here for Shopping List for Unit 3.
Shaping Matter
Piece of bread
Scale
Pennies
Marbles
Cereal (about 20 pieces of anything)


States of Matter
Microwave
Grape (green, red, and/or black)
Ivory soap bar
Water bottle
Cooking oil (about ½ cup)
Two water or empty 2L soda bottles
Food coloring/dye (two colors: red, blue, etc.)


Crystals
10 cups of granulated sugar (any cheap brand)
Wooden skewer
Black construction paper
1 cup vinegar (distilled white)
Paper towel or coffee filter
Cleaned pickle, jam, or mayo glass jar
20-50 pennies
2 cups cornstarch
2 cups sand (yes, from the playground is fine)
Clean egg shell
1 full box of Borax
4-6 cups Epsom salts
10’ string or yarn
3-6 pipe cleaners


Optional: Nylon fishing line
Optional: Alum (check spice section or gardening aisle)


Additional Items for Advanced Students:

Electrolysis
2 test tubes or something clear and closed at one end
2 two wires, one needs to be copper (12 inches long)
1 cup
9 volt battery
Long match or a long thin piece of wood
Rubber bands
Masking tape
Salt (table salt is fine)


NOTE: KEEP CHEMICALS OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. **STORE THE AMMONIA SEPARATE FROM EVERYTHING ELSE.**


BBQ Crystals
Uniodized salt (sodium chloride)
Ammonia (clear, no additives)
Laundry bluing (you can find it at Amazon, WalMart, and some drug stores)
Charcoal briquette, sponge, brick, cork, or porous rock
Non-metal pie plate (an old glass pan works great)
Food (dye) coloring


This next experiment is completely optional!
Optional Additional for Advanced Students: Advanced Crystals
Sodium silicate


Select one (or more) of the following for the Advanced Crystals Experiment (the colors indicated are the colors your experiment will grow…)
Calcium Chloride (white crystals)
Iron Chloride (yellow crystals)
Cobalt Chloride (red crystals)
Copper Sulfate (blue crystals)


Store these chemicals out of reach of children and in a dry, cool location. We’ll be using these for the rest of the year in different experiments. DO NOT mix these chemicals with anything other than what we indicate, as you can generate lethal gases such as HCN.


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Comments

19 Responses to “Shopping List for Unit 3”

  1. These are part of a kit sometimes called “Rock Garden” – it’s a toy where kids can grow an underwater crystal garden (called “Magic Rocks” from “seeds” and using sodium silicate – that’s the most inexpensive place I know of to get an assortment without buying a ton of chemicals. We go into details about that during the experiment itself. https://amzn.to/3CbHBa7

  2. annettemus says:

    Is there a science kit we can buy somewhere that has the “chlorides” and other items that will be harder to find? Or do you have any complete kits of experiments we can purchase (at least the stuff that we don’t have lying around the house)?
    Thanks,
    Annette Musso

  3. Definitely liquid. The powder is super-tricky to put in solution.

  4. Hello! I am an Amazon shopper and they have the chemicals needed. For the sodium silicate, should it be liquid or powder? Thanks!

  5. Which chemistry box? The ones for Unit 8 cover all of Unit 8. And the ones listed for Unit 15 cover those experiments, but Unit 3 doesn’t have a specific box associated with it.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Are the chemicals all in the chemistry box that we need for the Matter experiments?

  8. Tessa Moore says:

    We live in Australia – where do we find sodium silicate? It’s $113-$257 to ship from the USA!

  9. Sure – you can purchase them anywhere you can find chemicals for sale. The trick is, most chemical retails will only sell to schools or businesses, and most of them are a much higher grade (quality) than we need for the experiments, and/or come in much larger quantities than required. I found the least expensive supplier and posted it here to the website. If you do find other sources to find these, please post them in the comment section so everyone can benefit!

  10. Katherine Queitzsch says:

    Hi,

    Can we only order the Avanced Crystals chemicals off the internet, or is it possible to find them in a store? If so, what store?

    Thanks!

  11. You can find it here at Amazon, Walmart, and some drug stores.

  12. Aaron Smothers says:

    I’m having trouble finding bluing. Have looked in laundry sections at 2 grocery stores & Super Walmart. Any suggestions?

  13. Hmmm… that’s a good question. You want to try any soap that floats, as it will have a higher concentration of air whipped into it. Let me know how it goes!

  14. Fiona Mann says:

    Hi, is ivory soap available in the UK, or is there a UK alternative?

  15. Debra Thomson says:

    Thanks, Aurora!

  16. Whoops – sorry about that. We moved things around here on the back end and thought we’d updated all the links, but it looks like we missed one. All fixed now – thanks!

  17. Debra Thomson says:

    When I go to: Step 4. Do the Activities and Experiments in Unit 1:Mechanics, and I try to click on “experiments” (in ‘click here to zip over to the experiments’), it tells me that the page no longer exists. How can I get to the experiments?

  18. Hi J… yes, you’re right for asking about it. Here’s the deal – you’ll produce chlorine, HCN, and other gases, which are lethal… and then you’ll miss your kid a LOT.

    If you want to get more specific, the ingredients in chlorox are basically bleach and chlorine, both of which are nasty for anyone (kids especially!) to mess with. The chlorine in the bleach is highly reactive (this is why bleach works so well as a cleaner – the chlorine bonds with other substances cleaning your intended item). Brake fluid has a number of different chemicals in it (different proportions from different manufacturers), and at least one of these constituents will be reacting with the chlorine. Wait until they kit chemistry in college and then they can safely learn how to handle chlorine and other toxic gases safely.

    We’ll be covering chemistry is much more detail later in the year, so if you can hold off until then, we’ll be having a lot of fun with it later.

    You were in our Alaska workshop, right? You can make the crystal rocket we did then without losing a kid. Have fun!

  19. Howdy howdy! Thanks loads for getting the whole kit-&-caboodle of materials lists on the site for us! I really appreciate being able to go out and just grab everything in one fell swoop…or two… j

    Question: My son read in a local restaurant tabloid that mixing brake fluid with chlorox will produce lots of smoke.. Have you had the experience? Before we let him try it, will this kill him??? He’s anxious to try it.. but we kinda like him.. Also, what about Soda Ash and PineSol? thanks