Age 10 And Up

Day 36: I was much younger than 10 when my mother helped me plant my first garden of Magic Rocks, and I still remember the fascination I felt as I watched them grow right before my very eyes. This simple science project was revisited on several more occasions while I still lived at home, but when I reached my teens and my living situation changed, I found myself subject to the mind-set which said, "Science isn't for girls." I pursued my interests covertly, smuggling copies of Scientific American into my personal library, concealed in school notebooks and only read when I knew no one was around. At school, biology was a requirement, and I participated in the experiments with glee. Chemistry and physics were electives, and although I was not allowed to enroll, I seized upon science whenever it availed itself to me, regardless of its form. At recess when my classmates were chatting, the teachers could find me off to the far side of the field, picking garnets out of schist, examining bryophytes with my nose to the spore capsules to make up for the lack of a hand lens, or looking for insect larvae in a small pond at the bus stop. For all of their encouragement of my curiosity, the dreaded phrase "Science isn't for girls" even fell from their lips. I never got the chemistry set I coveted, but I never forgot the Magic Rocks of my early years.

Some time after I reached adulthood, I stumbled across Magic Rocks on a store shelf, identical to those of my youth. I think I bought three or four packages, enough that if they became unavailable, I'd have some to play with several years hence. I planted one batch, and was rather surprised by the fragility of the crystals. Thinking back, I suppose my mother had done the handling of the chemicals, and I'd only watched the process. After making a mess of one grouping, I was more careful with my second lot, but even though the planting was a success, I placed the crystals in a bright window (the better to see the colour) and they soon faded to white.

In the intervening years between then and now, I've grown a number of "Depression Plants" (shown in my October 30 post), and the process always reminded me of Magic Rocks. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for kid-level science projects on Amazon, and Magic Rocks popped up on the screen! I couldn't resist.

Grow A Depression Plant

Day  17: Here's a simple and fun science project for you to do! I think I was about five when my mother guided me through growing my first Depression Plant (so named because the recipe was printed on Mrs. Stewart's Laundry Bluing during that era). Young kids should have adult supervision when using these household chemicals.

Mix together in a glass cup
2 Tbsp. non-iodized salt
2 Tbsp. liquid bluing (Mrs. Stewart's is available through Amazon and some retail stores)
2 Tbsp. water
1 1/2 tsp. household ammonia (non-sudsy works best)

Set a piece of brick or lump of coal in a glass dish at least one inch deep. Pour the solution over the brick, and over the next 24 hours, you will be able to watch the crystals forming into puffy mounds. If your dish is too shallow, the crystals may crawl over the edge, so check it hourly to be sure they're not escaping. They're very fragile, so be careful when moving the dish, and if you want to look at them under your microscope, transfer them carefully to your slide with the point of a pocket knife. If you want to grow red ones, you can add a few drops of mercurochrome to the solution.