Ice and Salt Experiment Ideas for Kids

August 3, 2021
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Help kids learn about the impact ice and salt have on temperature with this fun, easy science for kids. This ice and salt experiment is so simple to set up and perfect for helping kids to explore and think critically about the world around them. Use this experiment with ice salt and water temperature with preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd graders.

Help kids learn about the impact ice and salt have on temperature with this fun, easy science for kids. This ice and salt experiment is so simple to set up and perfect for helping kids to explore and think critically about the world around them. Use this experiment with ice salt and water temperature with preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd graders.

Ice and salt experiment

Teach kids about the effect ice and salt have on temperature with this fun, hands-on Ice and salt experiment. This ice and salt experiment for preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 students is super simple, but a great demonstration to teach kids.  When we want to make our drinks colder or to keep them cool, we add ice. No one likes warm lemonade or soda, right? Ice makes drinks colder because the temperature of the ice is lower than the temperature of most drinks. Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so we know the temperature of the ice. If a drink is at room temperature, we know it is probably around 70 degrees F. If a drink has been in the refrigerator, we know that refrigerators are kept around 40 degrees F, so the drink will be around that temperature as well.

If ice is 32 degrees and is placed in a room temperature drink, what temperature does the drink become? Will adding more ice make a difference? Is there a way to make the drink even colder without adding more ice? Let’s experiment.

Salt and ice experiment

Start by gathering the supplies you will need. The materials you need for this science experiment are super simple, you should have them laying around your house:

  • 2 drinking glasses
  • water
  • ice cubes
  • thermometer
  • salt
gather two glasses, water, ice cubes, salt and a thermometer for this simple science experiment for kids

Ice and salt experiment for preschoolers

Let’s first see how the amount of ice affects the temperature of a drink. To make this experiment simple and easy to replicate, we will use water for our drink.

Pour 1/2 cup water into each of the drinking glasses. Record the temperature of each glass of water.

Add one or two ice cubes to one of the glasses and place enough ice cubes into the other glass that it almost fills the water with ice. Give each glass is stir and let them set for 5 minutes.

why does ice make water colder science project

Ice salt experiment

After 5 minutes, record the temperature of each glass. Keep recording the temperature every 2 minutes. At what point do you see the temperature remaining steady? When the temperature remains the same for 2 measurement times, move on to part two of the experiment. If not, keep recording every 2 minutes until the temperature stabilizes, then move on.

adding salt to ice to make drinks colder

Experiment with ice and salt

In this part of the experiment, you are going to use the glass with the most ice added. (The water in this glass is probably going to have the lower temperature, as well.) Add a tablespoon of salt to the water and stir. Next, record the temperature of the water. Did the addition of the salt have an immediate effect on the water temperature?

Check the temperature of the water every 2 minutes until it stays steady.

 
why do we use salt on the driveway in winter science fair project

Water Temperature Experiment

In part one of our experiment, we wanted to see if the amount of water added to a drink (water) determined how cold the drink could get. The final recorded temperatures of the two glasses should have shown that the temperature in the glass with more ice was lower than the glass with just one or two ice cubes. In fact, the ice in the glass with less added ice was probably melted by the end of the recording time.

When the ice melted, there was nothing left to make the water colder. In the glass with more ice, the presence of ice continued to drop the temperature.

ice and salt science experiment

In part two of our experiment, we wanted to see if we could make the drink get even colder without adding more ice. When the salt was added to the cold water, the temperature dropped even more. Why?

We know that fresh water (water without salt) freezes at 32 degrees F. When salt is added to water, the freezing point of water is lowered. This causes the ice to melt. Melting requires heat, which it takes from the ice and the water around it. This lowers the temperature of the water even below the freezing point of fresh water. 

 

 

 

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    Beth Gorden is the creative multi-tasking creator of 123 Homeschool 4 Me. As a busy homeschooling mother of six, she strives to create hands-on learning activities and worksheets that kids will love to make learning FUN! With over 20 years educating children, she has created over 1 million pages of printables to help teach kids alphabet, math, science, English grammar, history, and so much more! Beth is also the creator of 2 additional sites with even more educational activities and FREE printables - www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com and www.preschoolplayandlearn.com. Beth studied at the University of Northwestern where she got a double major to make her effective at teaching children while making education FUN!

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    One Comment

    1. Love this idea! Such a simple way to demonstrate kind of a complicated idea for a younger mind. We added a timing element. We had two ice cube trays, one fresh and one salt and timed how long it took to freeze each. We also had two separate cups of ice and sprinkled a tablespoon of salt on one and, again, timed it to see which melted faster.

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