 Hello my name is Sophia and today I'll be showing you how to make edible crystals of science. You will need at least one cup of water, at least four cups of sugar, a heat resistant jar, a bridge which will be used to grow and suspend the sugar candy, I use the clothespin and the wooden stick, a pot, a mixing utensil, and lastly a thermometer. Now let's prepare the seed crystals. Begin by soaking the stick in water and coat it in sugar. By doing this we are creating seed crystals which will lead to assisted nucleation. Assistant nucleation is the process in which a rough surface attracts crystal growth. In this case the rough grains of sugar will be the nucleation site. We can compare this process to how a bee is attracted to the pollen of a flower. The bees represent crystal growth and the pollen represents the seed crystals. After the water dries our finished product should look like this. Now let's begin to make the sugar syrup. To do this begin by adding a cup of water into your pot. Then add four cups of sugar. Then mix the solution evenly. Observe the slushy texture of the solution. It doesn't seem to be completely liquid. The reason for this is we have created a saturated solution. This is where a solution reaches the maximum sugar to water ratio. In other words the fixed one cup of water cannot fully dissolve all of that sugar and so we are left with a pretty saturated solution. You can see that here. In a dissolved solution the water and sugar is mixed evenly and there are no sugar clumps in the solution. Now transfer the pot onto the stove and turn the heat to medium high. Now as we stir the mixture the temperature seems to be more watery. That's where heat comes in. The increase in temperature allows the water to hold more sugar causing it to be less saturated and therefore be less slushy. A decrease in temperature would do the exact opposite. This makes sense. You pour sugar in a hot cup of tea. Not a cold one. When the solution begins to boil stir rapidly until it turns clear and reaches 230 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point turn off the heat. Now transfer the syrup into your heat resistant container. Parent's supervision is recommended. The syrup is hot and if it gets on your skin it will burn you. Once the syrup is transferred into the container wait for it to cool to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Once your solution reaches this temperature in my case and fit in 18 minutes prepare your bridge and carefully dip the seed crystal stick into your syrup. The next step is to wait. As we wait let's talk about what is going on. We know that the stick is attracting crystal growth but there are also a lot more factors at play. First water is slowly evaporating out of the solution. Evaporation can be any one of these two scenarios shown on the screen. What both scenarios have in common is that water is changing from a liquid to a gas. In a crystal making sense this causes the water to sugar ratio to shift again such that the solutions become even more saturated than before. In fact it's not just saturated anymore it's super saturated. This unstable state helps to promote crystal growth. The decrease of water molecules also allows sugar molecules to come together and form crystals. This diagram illustrates that process. The sugar molecules which are represented by the red circles are no longer blocked by the brown circles which are represented by the water molecules. This is called precipitation where pure sugar particles begin to form and seed at rough areas. Another thing that is happening is a phenomenon called supercooling. This is where a liquid does not turn into a solid even when it's below its freezing point. In this unstable state the liquid only becomes a solid when introduced to a rough surface or a nucleation site in this case the seed crystals. This explains why we are left with sticks of sugar candy rather than a jar of solid sugar. As this happens over time more crystals will form and will eventually be left with delicious rock candy. Although all these processes should be happening don't worry if they aren't. If crystals don't form don't be discouraged and try again. I've had to redo this experiment as well. 13 hours later it was time. I rushed out the next morning and yanked these crystals out. It may need a bit of force to get them out but they should eventually come loose. I made two crystal candies and both of them got a pretty good amount of crystal growth although one of them seems to have attracted a little more than the other. Transfer the candies to another empty container to drip the excess syrup off. After they dry you should be left with crystal candies. Admire yours, eat them after every meal. I hope you enjoyed this recipe and the signs behind it. Good luck! Bye!