Ice Fishing

Supplies

• Ice cubes (5 – 10)
• Cold water
• Salt
• String
• Large jar (cup, container etc)
• Optional: food colouring

Instructions

1. Fill a jar with cold water. Add a few drops of food colouring (if you chose to).
2. Add ice cubes to the water.
3. Place string onto the ice cube. Try to pick it up with the string. Hint: this will not work.
4. Place string onto the ice cube and sprinkle with salt. Wait a few seconds and try again! Ta da! You have caught yourself an ice cube!

Notes:

• If you add too much salt or wait too long before trying to pick up the ice cube this may not work.
• The water should be very cold – a lot of ice cubes help to keep water cold.
• We found smaller ice cubes worked better for us.

Note: Salt lowers the freezing point and melting point of ice. In this experiment, the ice cube with salt on it is surrounded by freezing temperatures. The freezing temperatures cause the ice cube with salt on it to quickly freeze again – freezing to the string this time.

Skills

• Math – measurement
• Science
• Cause and effect