ice and salt experiment explanation

Science for Kids: Salt and Ice Experiments

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Brrr! Winter brings ice and snow and all the fun and not-so-fun activities along with it. As you or your children may end up shoveling a walkway or driving behind a snow plow this winter, everyone might be wondering why we use salt to help melt ice on our walkways and roads. Here is an easy experiment that is relatable to real-world winter conditions. You can test and observe the effects of salt and other household materials on ice. I’ve included the science and real-world applications at the end of this post so you can relate what you discover to the conditions you’ve experienced this winter!

Materials for Salt and Ice Science Experiment

You most likely have everything you need for this experiment right in your kitchen. There is a lot of wiggle room in your experimental design. Have your children help decide what materials you will test on the ice.

You will need:

• Kitchen scale (these scales are great for tons of different science experiments )
• At least one of the following: sea salt, kosher salt, or other salts from around the globe (try these fun salts for some variety !) sugar, cornstarch, coffee, sand, baking soda, cornmeal, bath salts, etc.
• Several containers or small plates
• Stopwatch or clock
• Measuring spoons

The beauty of this experiment is that you can test just about anything on your ice cube. Just stick to harmless household items. Skip powdered soaps or caustic materials that might be irritating to eyes and skin.

Salt and Ice Experiment

Choose your materials and get started. You’ll need at least 3 different containers. One will hold a plain ice cube as the control in the experiment. Another will hold an ice cube and a pre-determined amount of salt, the third will hold an ice cube and a material for comparison. You can certainly set up more than three if you’d like.

For even more accuracy, you can use the kitchen scale to determine the mass of the ice cubes before you begin. Later on, you can mass them again to get an idea of how much water has melted.

Once you’ve done any sort of weighing or measuring the ice cubes and taken notes, put them in the designated containers. Keep one ice cube bare and cover one with salt. Use the same measurement for all of your materials. For example, if you use 1 teaspoon of salt, use 1 teaspoon of sugar on the next cube. Your ice cubes most likely are not all the same size, but you can control the amount of “melter” you are using. It is always good to teach and remind about precision in an experiment.

Once the experiment is set up, wait a designated amount of time (5 minutes is a good place to start) to see the effects. Take notes on observable changes. If you got the mass of the ice before the experiment, you can brush off any salt or other melting agent and weigh the cube again. Note that any particle left on the ice cube does add mass, so this measurement helps with accuracy but is not 100% precise.

Keep track of the changes and determine the results of the experiment. If you are working on graphing in math, this is a great opportunity to graph the masses you observed before and after the experiment.

Why Does Salt Melt Ice?

So why do we use salt on our roads and walkways? Why does it seem to melt ice? Salt lowers the freezing point of water. This is called “freezing point depression”, and it means that the water will not freeze until it has reached a lower temperature than the normal freezing temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). The salt’s structure makes it more difficult for the water molecules to form the rigid formation they need to be in to become ice.

All substances have freezing points–the temperature at which they freeze–and melting points.  To further explore melting points, check out  science experiment with the pop-up timers used to cook meat .

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Ice and Salt Science Experiment

Posted on Published: March 21, 2019

This STEAM activity is perfect for any time of the year! Kids will learn how salt can melt ice with this fun science experiment.

Any activity that combines art and science is a win-win in our house. And for some reason, ones that include melting ice is extra fun! So we decided to turn all of our favorite things into a science experiment.

The first time we did this activity, it was pretty much a free for all with the salt, water, and food coloring. However, it did give us lots of talking points about why the ice melts faster with salt. The salt lowers the freezing point of water, which brought up a whole slew of other questions from my little scientist…thank goodness for Google!

The sections of ice that had lots of salt on it formed little craters that we were able to see right away. And with the help of colorful warm water, we created even bigger craters in the ice.

The actual experiment part came into play when we sprinkled salt on one half of the ice block and not the other. We made some predictions then observed what was happening.

Depending on the age of the kiddos, there are so many ways to extend this activity. You could have two different ice blocks, one with salt, one without and then measure how much water has melted off after a certain amount of time. You could try different types of salt or the change the temperature of the water added to the watercolors.

And as with any science experiment, it’s important to talk to your kiddos about safety including how to use the equipment appropriately. They can even use science safety goggles and lab coats during the experiment.

Supplies Needed for Salt & Ice Experiment

• plastic container
• tray or baking sheet
• liquid watercolors or food coloring
• pipettes or paint brushes
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Set up is fairly easy for this experiment. I filled some plastic containers of different sizes and shapes with water and placed them in the freezer overnight. If you are doing this in the winter and it’s cold enough, you could also freeze them outside…which would make for another great science conversation!

When we were ready for the experiment, I mixed a squirt of liquid watercolor and a little warm water into some cups. Then I placed the ice onto a tray and let the little scientist get to work using salt, paint brushes, and pipettes.

The tray helps keep everything pretty well contained which makes for a quick and easy clean-up. Sometimes I will put everything into a larger plastic container which allows for more open play after doing the guided experiment.

With the colorful art process of painting the ice, mixed with the science experiment of salt melting the ice, this is a fun way to introduce STEAM to your little scientists!

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Why Salt Makes Ice Colder – How Cold Ice Gets

Salt helps melt ice and prevent it from re-freezing on sidewalks and roads, yet adding salt to ice makes it colder so you can freeze ice cream. Melting ice but making it colder seems contradictory, but makes sense once you understand freezing point depression . How does this work? How cold does salt make ice? Here’s the simple explanation.

Salt makes ice water colder by lowering the temperature at which water freezes. So, more ice melts than forms. Melting ice absorbs energy, lowering the temperature.

Salt Lowers the Temperature of Ice Water

Adding salt to ice water lowers the temperature from the normal freezing point of water (0 °C or 32 °F) to as low as -21 °C or -5 °F. You get the same effect if you add salt to ice cubes because the outer surface of ice always contains a thin film of water. Eventually, all the ice melts, leaving very cold salt water. You can use this information to make ice cream without a freezer. Simply put the ingredients into a bowl and rest this bowl in a container of salted ice!

How Salt Melts Ice

When you salt a road, once again, there is a thin film of water on the ice. Salt dissolves in this water, lowers the temperature at which it can re-freeze, and prevents it from solidifying back into ice. But, there is a lower temperature limit for this process. If the temperature is cold enough, the salt water can freeze. In practice, ordinary road salt isn’t that effective below -7 °C or 20 °F.

This is why road salt isn’t necessarily the same as table salt. Different types of salt lower the freezing point of the resulting salt water different amounts. Potassium chloride (KCl), magnesium chloride (MgCl 2 ), and calcium chloride (CaCl 2 ) all lower the freezing point of water more than table salt (NaCl). But, they each have different environmental effects and other properties, so choosing the best de-icer isn’t always a simple matter. Sometimes its best to just add sand and let heat from friction melt ice.

How Freezing Point Depression Works

To understand freezing point depression, it helps to first understand how melting and freezing work.

Ice absorbs energy (heat) from the environment to break the hydrogen bonds that make it a solid, allowing it to turn into a liquid. In contrast, water releases energy (heat) when it solidifies into ice. Melting is an endothermic process , while freezing is an exothermic process . At the freezing point, these two processes are at equilibrium, so the energy absorbed by water freezing equals the energy released by ice melting. But, when you add salt, you lower the freezing point of the water. Ice melts into water, absorbing heat, but doesn’t re-freeze into ice and release heat. So, the temperature drops.

How does salt lower the freezing point? Salt (NaCl) dissolves in water to form its ions (Na + and Cl – ). The ion particles get between the water molecules and make it harder for them to align to crystallize into ice. This means the temperature has to be colder for the liquid to freeze. Table salt dissolves to form two particles, but some salts dissolve to form more particles and lower the freezing point even more. For example, magnesium chloride (MgCl 2 ) dissolves to form three particles (Mg 2+ , Cl – , Cl – ).

Freezing point depression is an example of a colligative property . A colligative property does not depend on the chemical identity of a substance, but on the number of particles that are formed. Other colligative properties include boiling point elevation and osmotic pressure .

• Atkins, Peter (2006). Atkins’ Physical Chemistry . Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198700725.
• Ge, Xinlei; Wang, Xidong (2009). “Estimation of Freezing Point Depression, Boiling Point Elevation, and Vaporization Enthalpies of Electrolyte Solutions”. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research . 48 (10): 5123–5123. doi: 10.1021/ie900434h
• Petrucci, Ralph H.; Harwood, William S.; Herring, F. Geoffrey (2002). General Chemistry (8th ed.). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-014329-4.
• Treberg, J. R.; Wilson, C. E.; et al. (2002). “ The freeze-avoidance response of smelt Osmerus mordax : initiation and subsequent suppression 6353 “. The Journal of Experimental Biology . 205 (Pt 10): 1419–1427.

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How Does Salt Affect Ice? A Simple Science Experiment

Looking for a way to explain to your learners why salt is utilized to combat icy roadways and sidewalks? Check out this simple science experiment to demonstrate how salt affects the freezing point of water and how the over-utilization of salt can be harmful to the environment.

Every winter before a storm, large trucks rumble down the road through my neighborhood, spreading salt crystals over the pavement. My six-year-old was curious about why these trucks appeared before a storm and so I decided to not only tell him but to show him, with a simple science experiment.

The Simple Science of Water and Salt

To provide my kids with a bit of background information, I broke out my chemistry modeling set and gave them a brief description of what’s happening at the molecular level.

Water is a molecule that is made up of two elements: hydrogen and oxygen. Water, also written as H 2 O, freezes at 0℃ or 32℉. However, when a compound like sodium chloride, NaCl, what we commonly refer to as salt, is dissolved in water, something interesting happens. The salt compound breaks apart into sodium and chlorine ions and prevents the water molecules from bonding together at their normal freezing point of 0℃ or 32℉. The addition of salt actually lowers the freezing point of water! 

When this occurs, we can’t actually see the sodium and chlorine ions at work, as they are way too small for our eyes to observe. What we do notice is that, when salt is applied to ice, the ice begins to melt. This is because the composition of water is no longer plain H 2 O; it now has sodium and chlorine ions floating around in it, causing the freezing point to decrease.

How’s that for some snazzy science?

Making the Science of Salt and Water Visible

In order to visualize the concept of salt lowering the freezing point of water, I gathered a few simple supplies from my kitchen and got to work. This experiment took approximately 30 minutes for my kids to complete from start to finish, with additional time to discuss the environmental implications of adding salt to icy roadways.

Materials Needed for the Science Experiment

To demonstrate how salt affects the freezing point of water, you’ll need the following materials:

• 2 Ice cubes
• Table salt*
• Timer or Clock

*You can use either fine or coarse table salt for this experiment. I chose to use both to demonstrate the difference in melting time for each option. If you want to test both salt types as well, you will need 3 ice cubes and 3 bowls.

Make Predictions to Practice Critical Thinking Skills

To engage your learners in critical thinking (and to add an extra layer of fun to the science experiment!) have them make the following predictions prior to conducting the experiment:

• Which ice cube will melt the fastest?
• How much time will it take for the plain ice cube to melt?
• How much time will it take for the salty ice cube to melt?

Not only do these questions get students thinking about the experiment, but they also allow them to make mathematical comparisons to the results, engaging the “M” in STEM! Have your learners record their predictions in a table, like the one shown below. 

Title: What Effect Does Salt Have on Ice?

I’ll explain more about teaching students how to collect data in an organized manner in the data collection portion of this post.

Most importantly, this is a fun activity to get your kids thinking and making hypotheses. Most children are afraid of being “wrong”; this activity teaches them that being wrong is part of the fun! Taking educated guesses is what drives science forward because when we realize our answer is wrong, we can confidently move forward in the right direction! Try to foster the idea that it’s not the “right” or “wrong” answer that’s important, but rather the learning that happens as a result of the experiment.

Instructions to Conduct the Salty Ice Experiment

Follow these step-by-step instructions to visualize the effect salt has on the ice.

• Set the bowls on a level surface.
• Place an ice cube in each bowl.
• Label the first bowl as your control. This bowl will only contain an ice cube.
• Label the second bowl as your variable. 
• Into the second bowl, pour one teaspoon of table salt on top of the ice cube.
• Record the time or start a stopwatch
• Observe the difference in the time it takes for the two ice cubes to melt.

If you have chosen to test the effect that both fine and coarse table salt have on the ice cubes, add a step to the instructions, applying one teaspoon of the additional salt to a third ice cube.

The temperature of the surrounding air will affect the rate at which both ice cubes melt. You want to specifically focus on the difference in time between the melting rates of the ice cubes.

Simple Data Collection for the Science Experiment

This is a great activity to introduce or reinforce the importance of recording data in an organized manner. Create a simple table like the one below for your learners to write down their observations. Point out that a table must have a title, clear labels explaining what each value represents, along with the units of measurement used.

Here is an example of a table to use for the salty ice experiment:

If you have chosen to test an additional type of table salt, be sure to add an extra column to the table.

Discussion Questions for the Salty Ice Experiment

Once your learners have completed the salty ice science experiment, have them revisit their predictions and compare them to the results. Try to avoid statements such as, “Were your predictions right or wrong?” as the aim is not for them to be accurate in their assumptions, but instead to learn how to properly conduct an experiment and analyze results. Here are some prompts you can try to get them thinking:

• Which ice cube changed from solid to liquid first? Why do you think that happened?
• How does the melting time of the plain ice cube compare to your prediction? Did it melt faster or slower than you predicted?
• How does the melting time of the salted ice cube compare to your prediction? Did it melt faster or slower than you predicted?
• How can this knowledge be useful to someone that lives in a climate zone that receives ice and snow in the winter?

Depending on the age and ability level of your learners, have them calculate the numerical difference in predicted versus actual melting times of each ice cube to add an extra mathematical component to this lesson.

Environmental Implications of Using Salt to Decrease Ice Accumulation on Outdoor Surfaces

To apply what they have learned, introduce and discuss the environmental issues that arise when salt is applied in abundance to icy roadways and outdoor surfaces. You can utilize the video lesson I created with Medinah Eatman of Science Teacher Mom to guide this portion of their learning, beginning at the Nature Connection section, found at minute 15 of the virtual lesson. You’ll notice that I reference a printable in the video, which you can access for free here:

Here are the main takeaways from this section of the lesson:

• Excess salt washes into local waterways, causing problems for the plants and animals that reside there.
• Fresh water fish that reside in local waterways have hatchlings that are 30% smaller than average when exposed to higher salinity. Salinity is a value that addresses the amount of salt dissolved in water. 
• Increased salinity in freshwater can kill zooplankton and phytoplankton, which are important food resources for fish, clams, snails, and insects.
• Plants can be negatively affected by increased salinity, causing them to have smaller leaves, flowers, and fruit, as well as slower stem growth.
• Large mammals like deer and moose are attracted to the salted roadways, causing in increase in collision rate with these animals during winter months.

The lesson then goes on to discuss the appropriate level of salt to use per area of ice, as well as some salt alternatives currently available to treat icy surface conditions.

Making Science Easily Accessible

Conducting simple scientific experiments like this one allows students to see that science is everywhere and doesn’t require fancy equipment to conduct investigations. Additionally, their confidence in making predictions and interpreting information will grow, strengthening their critical thinking skills.

If you try this salted ice experiment, please let me know by tagging me @thoughtfullysustainable on Instagram or Facebook , or by leaving a comment below! If you have any questions, feel free to email me!  

Instructions

1. Set the bowls on a level surface. 2. Place an ice cube in each bowl. 3. Label the first bowl as your control. This bowl will only contain an ice cube. 4. Label the second bowl as your variable. 5. Into the second bowl, pour one teaspoon of table salt on top of the ice cube. 6. Record the time or start a stopwatch 7. Observe the difference in the time it takes for the two ice cubes to melt.

You can use either fine or coarse table salt for this experiment. I chose to use both to demonstrate the difference in melting time for each option. If you want to test both salt types as well, you will need 3 ice cubes and 3 bowls.

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Kitchen Science Experiments to Try at Home

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Melting Ice with Salt

Part of the show does farting make you weigh less, iceberg-antarctica.jpg.

We were asked why councils don't use seawater to melt ice on the roads, so why not find out the answer with an experiment?

Ingredients

Instructions

Mix up some seawater by adding about 9g of salt to 250ml of water (or if it is easier, by dipping some out of the sea). 

Fill several containers with ice.

Add some seawater to one container, salt in another, and some screenwash in a third.

Measure the temperature change.

You should find that all the ice that you have added salt or antifreeze to will reduce in temperature, but the stronger the solution, the greater the reduction in temperature.

Explanation

Salt, and other soluble substances will reduce the melting point of water, so if you put salt on ice, it will now be above its melting point, and start to melt.  The stronger the solution, the more it reduces the melting point, so strong solutions will melt ice to lower temperatures than weak ones.

Melting ice involves breaking bonds between the water molecules, so it requires a huge amount  of heat energy: This means that it will cool down as it melts, until ether it all melts or it reaches the melting point of the salt solution you have applied. The temperature the ice gets to gives you a good idea of how cold your de-icer will work on the roads.

Why does ice melt when you add salt?

The surface where ice and water meet is a very dynamic; molecules are always melting off and others freezing onto the surface. When the ice is stable (i.e. neither freezing nor melting) these two processes are still happening, but they are in balance.  If you reduce the temperature the probability of a molecule melting off will reduce, so the melting slows down, and the freezing speeds up, which means that the ice grows.  If you heat it up then the opposite will happen, and melting will dominate.

If you add salt, or any dissolved substance, the water molecules will effectively get lost amongst the salt, and take longer to make it back to the ice, so the rate of freezing will slow down, but the rate of melting will be unchanged, so overall the ice will melt at 0°C. 

At lower temperatures the rate of freezing is higher, so there is a new freezing point below 0°C. In fact, the lowest temperature it is possible to get water using salt is around -18°C, and this was roughly how 0°F was defined (although using Ammonium rather than Sodium Chloride).

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Why does water expand when it freezes, news from the bsgt/esgct conference, the trebuchet, why is soap foam always white, why are my windows so drafty, thank you for your prompt.

Thank you for your prompt reply. But I did not get the reply for my query regarding gain in enthalpy by freezing water which rises when temperature goes down. How can there be gain in enthalpy by freezing water instead of loss.My presumption is that the gain enthalpy referred here is by environment. Please confirm.

The sentence in the above

The sentence in the above explanation "so if you put salt on ice it will now be above its melting point" is confusing .Can you elaborate on it

yeah but what are the sources

yeah but what are the sources of error becasue whe ni looked it up i found this and after reading everythign i couldnt find the sources of error and any improvements whats so ever

Maybe you could suggest some

Maybe you could suggest some improvements?

Add a comment

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Melting Ice Science Experiment

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This is a fun, non-toxic project for kids of all ages, and the best part is you likely have everything you need at home. All you need is ice, salt, and food coloring.

You can use any type of salt for this project. Coarse salt, such as rock salt or sea salt , works great. Table salt is fine. Also, you could use other types of salt besides sodium chloride (NaCl). For example, Epsom salts are a good choice.

You don't have to color the project, but it's a lot of fun to use food coloring, watercolors, or any water-based paint. You can use liquids or powders, whichever you have handy.

• Food coloring (or watercolors or tempera paints)

Experiment Instructions

• Make ice. You can use ice cubes for this project, but it's nice to have larger pieces of ice for your experiment. Freeze water in shallow plastic containers such as disposable storage containers for sandwiches or leftovers. Only fill the containers part way to make relatively thin pieces of ice. The salt can melt holes all the way through thin pieces, making interesting ice tunnels.
• Keep the ice in the freezer until you are ready to experiment, then remove the blocks of ice and place them on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan. If the ice doesn't want to come out, it's easy to remove ice from containers by running warm water around the bottom of the dish. Place the pieces of ice in a large pan or a cookie sheet. The ice will melt, so this keeps the project contained.
• Sprinkle salt onto the ice or make little salt piles on top of the pieces. Experiment.
• Dot the surface with coloring. The coloring doesn't color the frozen ice, but it follows the melting pattern . You'll be able to see channels, holes, and tunnels in the ice, plus it looks pretty.
• You can add more salt and coloring, or not. Explore however you like.

Clean Up Tips

This is a messy project. You can perform it outdoors or in a kitchen or bathroom. The coloring will stain hands, clothes, and surfaces. You can remove coloring from counters using a cleaner with bleach.

How It Works

Very young kids will like to explore and may not care too much about the science, but you can discuss erosion and the shapes formed by running water. The salt lowers the freezing point of water through a process called freezing point depression . The ice starts to melt, making liquid water. Salt dissolves in the water, adding ions that increase the temperature at which the water could re-freeze. As the ice melts, energy is drawn from the water, making it colder. Salt is used in ice cream makers for this reason. It makes the ice cream cold enough to freeze. Did you notice how the water feels colder than the ice cube? The ice exposed to the salty water melts faster than other ice, so holes and channels form.

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Happy Hooligans

Crafts and Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers to Tweens

Salt and Ice Activity – Melting Frozen Hands

Last updated on March 28, 2022

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When it comes to easy science activities for toddlers and preschoolers,  melting frozen “ice hands” with salt is a winner! Freeze colourful ice hands overnight and let the kids melt them with this delightful preschool chemistry activity . It’s perfect indoors or outdoors at any time of the year.

For those of you who have never done a salt and ice activity with your kids, you have to try it!  The hooligans love it when we set out to melt ice with salt.  We do it at least once a year, and it always holds their attention until every last bit of ice has been dissolved or turned to mush.  Not only is it engaging and fun, a salt and ice activity is a chemistry lesson that never fails to impress kids of all ages.

How Does Salt Melt Ice?

Fill your kids in on the science behind this activity. Explain to them that salt doesn’t actually melt ice. Salt simply lowers the freezing point of water. This is what causes the melting. And then, as the ice melts, that water mixes with the salt, which results in the ice sitting in a puddle of salty water. This continues to speed up the melting.

If you don’t have rubber gloves:

No rubber gloves? Try these salt and ice experiments with your kids:

Kids who love dinosaurs will especially love our “dino dig” experiment,  and everyone will love our “ice age” experiment.

Kids who love Disney’s Frozen will love our “Melting Elsa’s Frozen Hands” experiment.

For your conviencience, this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Supplies & Materials:

• twist-ties (a pipe cleaner will work too)
• shallow baking pan

Prep the hands:

• Fill a glove with water.  Leave yourself a couple of inches at the top because you’re going to have to twist it shut.
• Add a drop or two of food colouring, and shake the glove to disperse the colour.
• Twist glove tightly a couple of times and secure snugly with a twist-tie.
• Lay glove in baking pan. (the pan will catch any water in the even that a glove leaks.
• Place pan in freezer overnight, or if outside temps are cold enough, place the gloves outside overnight like I did.

I really didn’t have a plan for the hands at first.  I simply set them out in the sandbox early one winter morning, knowing the hooligans would discover them when we went outside to play.

How to remove the glove:

You can see that some of the ice fingers broke when I was removing the latex gloves. The trick to preventing the fingers from snapping off is to run the gloved hand under a bit of cool water , and very gently slide the glove off.

Take your time when you’re working on the fingers.  You may have to drip a bit of water into the glove, but be careful not to melt the fingers with the water.

When the kids discovered the colourful frozen hands sitting in the sand, they were a little puzzled, and not sure what to do with them, so they loaded them into a basket and brought them up to the back deck.  It was then that I thought to get the salt.

You can see our Ice Age Activity here and our Frozen Dino Dig here.

How To Do The Experiment:

• colourful ice hands
• a shallow pan, container or tray to put your icy hands in
• salt (I used driveway salt, but table salt would work as well)
• bowl to hold your salt
• scoops and spoons

I placed the hands in a foil baking pan and filled a separate plastic dish with driveway salt. I supplied the hooligans with a few scoops and spoons.  The kids got to work sprinkling the salt on the hands. As the ice melted, the salty water pooled in the bottom of the pan, and they were able to scoop that all over the hands to speed up the melting process.

They were fascinated to see that the ice started melting as they added the salt. It was really cool to see the cracks and crevices that formed and to watch the hands dissolve as they added more and more salt.

This is an activity that could easily be done inside, and if you’re looking for a way to give your hooligans even more of a mission, add some buttons, beads and other small toys to the gloves like we did with our haunted halloween hands.  Your children will work until they’ve released all of the goodies from the ice!

More Salt Experiments and Salt Activities for Kids:

• Salt Tray – Pre-Writing Activity
• Ice Age Bin
•  Salt, Glue and Watercolour Art

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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.

Reader Interactions

January 14, 2014 at 7:05 am

Love this idea!! I look forward to reading all of your creative ideas with the children. God Bless!

January 14, 2014 at 8:14 am

oooh, I think mine would love that, they love anything cold and wet on a cold, wet day. I will have to look the science up so I can pretend to be a clever mummy.

January 14, 2014 at 4:35 pm

I love ice and salt activities. I did this very same one at Halloween with the kiddos in my day home. We added googly eyes, spiders, bugs, and pieces of drinking straws to the gloves before they froze. We called them Monster Hands – this was the big activity during our Halloween party. 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549538705120408.1073741831.514922955248650&type=1&l=8b50d61cc5

happyhooligans

January 14, 2014 at 7:20 pm

We did the same thing, Jenn, right down to the pieces of drinking straws. We called ours “Haunted Hallowe’en Hands”.

lisa foster

January 15, 2014 at 10:02 pm

I am assuming you cut the glove off before you poured the salt? Never did a salt and ice before

January 15, 2014 at 10:09 pm

Yes, just run it under a little bit of cold water, and gently slide it off. I should add that to the post! Thanks, Lisa.

January 15, 2014 at 10:14 pm

Thank you for the speedy response. I want to try it tomorrow. Just started following you and am loving it

I just edited the post and added a bit about removing the gloves. Thanks again, Lisa.

January 17, 2014 at 1:10 pm

Latex gloves are great. For a baby sensory activity we filled gloves with jelly to squeeze and squash and then suspended some from ceiling too. Other gloves were filled with ice and water. The babies had fun batting them and squeezing etc.

January 18, 2014 at 8:03 am

Great ideas, Gemma!

January 17, 2014 at 9:21 pm

Thank you for the lovely words about the blog, Jackie. LOVE the salt PLUS icy hands. The same thing happened to our “troll hand” fingers. The children collected the fingers in a bucket. The idea was kind of gruesome, but the colorful collection was pretty.

Coombe Mill

January 18, 2014 at 8:54 am

They look very spooky with the fun colours and the odd missing finger!

Rachel | Racheous - Lovable Learning

January 21, 2014 at 5:28 am

This is a fun and memorable activity Jackie! I think I’ll have to do this while our weather is so stinkin’ hot and we can watch it melt 😀

January 22, 2014 at 2:27 pm

Love your creative ideas! Please link some up at http://www.solagratiamom.com Link-Up too!

Carrie @ Crafty Moms Share

January 24, 2014 at 7:57 pm

What an amazing idea!! It looks like a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

January 27, 2014 at 2:24 pm

Do you think the vinyl (latex free) gloves will work?

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Experiments With Salt Melting Ice

Science Projects and Research With Salt, Sugar, Water and Ice Cubes

Teachers interested in using salt and ice experiments in the classroom can incorporate a range of theories and methods into lessons. Discuss the properties of salt and its effect on water, the influences on melting ice, or the creation of ice crystals in the winter. Using salt and ice to explore melting points allows students to develop an understanding of substances and their chemical reactions.

How can salt lower the freezing point of water?

This experiment involves students testing the properties and effects of salt on ice and water. Students need 2 cups of water, salt, ice cubes and access to a freezer. First put a tablespoon of salt into one of the cups of water, and place both cups into the freezer. Check each cup every 10 minutes and take a guess as to which cup's water will freeze first. Next, take two ice cubes out of the freezer and put them on a plate. Sprinkle some some salt on one of the ice cubes. Observe and record which ice cube melts the fastest. These two experiments allow students to determine that salt lowers the freezing point of water. Students can infer that salt water can still freeze, but the temperature must be colder than fresh water.

Thread the Ice

Demonstrate the properties of solids and liquids by using an experiment with water and ice. Students need an ice cube, a bowl, some thread and salt. Place the ice cube in the bowl and put the thread across the ice. Sprinkle some salt along the thread and on to the ice cube. Wait for two minutes, and carefully pull the ends of the thread. The thread is now frozen to the ice. The teacher can explain that liquid water has molecules that move around, while the molecules in the solid ice are fixed and do not move. Describe the process of ice melting in terms of the exchange of molecules due to temperature changes. The salt is diluted by the water that has melted off the ice, allowing the ice to capture some of the molecules of water which causes the ice to freeze around the thread.

Salt vs. Sugar: Melting Ice

Compare the effects of salt and sugar on water and ice. Students observe the properties of ice, and that salt speeds up the rate of ice melting compared to sugar or nothing. Students need three zip-lock bags, a teaspoon, ice cubes, salt, sugar and a plastic sheet to cover the work area. First label each zip-lock bag with either control, salt or sugar. Place an ice cube in each of the bags. Measure a teaspoon of salt and place it in the bag labeled salt. Measure a teaspoon of sugar and sprinkle it in the bag labeled sugar. Seal the bags and observe the three ice cubes in the different conditions. Students can infer which ice cube will melt the fastest by watching the transformation of each ice cube.

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About the Author

Amanda Wehner is a primary teacher with a Master of Teaching degree. Her dissertation focused on researching the current crisis amongst boys and literacy skills. Before completing her research, Wehner had received an undergraduate degree with a double major in psychology and biology.

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ice cubes in water image by MAXFX from Fotolia.com

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Winter STEM Activity – Salt and Ice Science Experiment

It’s cold out. Like really cold. Our temperatures today are reaching -40 with windchill. So what should we do when it’s freezing cold outside? A winter STEM activity of course! In particular we decided to test the effect of salt on ice. Our results were interesting and resulted in some pretty significant findings. Something we love in our STEM activities.

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A few years ago our government started mixing road salt into the gravel they put on our roads. We all knew immediately because we had white salt build up on our cars and the floor of the garage. But why is salting our roads a good thing? Even if it does nasty things to our cars?

Part of living in the great North is that we also use a lot of products to help with traction on our driveways and sidewalks. Ice melts, sand and even lava rocks are all products available to help make winter conditions safer. We know salt melts ice, but how do these things work?

We set out to see what exactly salt does to ice and the environment around the reaction.

Winter STEM Activity Supplies

What you will discover in this article!

Clean tin cans Ice cubes Table salt Coarse rock salt Measuring spoons No-contact digital thermometer

Salt and Ice Challenge

The inspiration for this science experiment and STEM activity came from a popular frost creation activity, except in our case our climate is so dry we can’t make frost unless we do our experiment in the washroom while someone is showering!

Set up 5 tin cans (more if you want to test more variables, types of salt, quantities, etc.)

In each can add the same amount of ice.

Set one can as your control. This one will have no salt added.

In the next two cans add table salt. Can #1 add 1 teaspoon. Can #2 add 2 tablespoons.

In the final two cans add coarse rock salt. Can #1 add 1 teaspoon. Can #2 add 2 tablespoons.

You can gently shake the cans to spread the salt around if you wish.

Make sure you set the cans far enough apart from each other that they don’t affect the results of adjacent cans.

Watch closely and you will see liquid water forming on the tin cans in the form of condensation. This indicates that there is a rapid change in temperature happening. Which means it is time for some scientific investigation.

The Results

Now using your digital thermometer start taking readings. At the beginning your readings will be similar from each can, but over approximately 20 minutes you will start noticing some big changes!

First reading, the numbers were the same across all the cans. Keep in mind the freezing point (or melting point depending on your experiment) is 0 degrees Celsius.

Note: we are in Canada, so our readings are in Celcius, but you can easily use degrees Fahrenheit for your readings. Your numbers will just be slightly different from ours.

2 minutes later, things are starting to drop but nothing too exciting yet.

10 minutes later our readings differ significantly between the cans. We moved in close to make sure we were getting accurate readings.

Two tablespoons of table salt and the temperature of the ice reached a low of -14 degrees.

1 teaspoon of coarse salt reached a low of -20 degrees.

And most significant of all, 2 tablespoons of coarse salt reached a low of almost -28!

During this time our control stayed around -4 degrees.

These results were huge! It’s always great to do an experiment that provides significant results. This Winter STEM Activity gives kids big results, so even those who might struggle with these concepts or activities, can still see great outcomes.

The last can was so cold that when I was cleaning up my fingers stuck to the can. Which was another great reminder about safety in such extreme cold. It seems every winter at least one kid gets stuck to metal on the playground!

Understanding the Science Behind Salt Reactions with Ice

Salt lowers the freezing point of water. This causes it to pull heat from the air and tin can in order to melt the ice, significantly dropping the temperature on the surface of the tin can and in the air. This gives us our low temperature readings. If you live in a moist climate, moisture from the air will freeze as it comes in contact with the cold surface of the can which can lead to the creation of frost or ice crystals. However, since we live in such a cold, dry climate, that does not work here. To make frost we had to move the experiment into the washroom while someone was showering!

The best part, is that many ice cream makers work on a similar principle. Using salt to alter the freezing point of liquids. We also used this science principle to make homemade slurpees . A huge hit!

However, it is important to note that there is some chemistry at work here, making this a great activity for chemistry labs. Not all salts are the same chemical composition, and they don’t all work the same on icy surfaces. Road salt isn’t the same as table salt. Different types of salt lower the freezing point of the resulting salt water by different amounts. Some examples of different salts include: Potassium chloride (KCl), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), and calcium chloride (CaCl2), all lower the freezing point of water more than table salt (NaCl). However, it is very important to look into each of these options carefully. Each type of salt has different effects on the environment, some may be safer for pets paws, some cause a lot of corrosion damage to vehicles, and some work more effectively under different weather conditions. Choosing the best de-icer isn’t always a simple matter.

Salt and Ice Safety

Now you have seen the science, you should be able to see why there are safety concerns. Never use salt and ice on your skin (like featured on some dangerous social media trend) or on your pet’s paws. It can lead to frostbite, severe burns and scarring.

Looking for more Winter STEM Activity ideas? Check these out!

5 Days of Smart STEM Ideas for Kids

Get started in STEM with easy, engaging activities.

Paging Fun Mums

Replacing Insanity with fun!

Melting Ice & Salt Science Experiment

This is such a fun and beautiful activity! The salt lowers the freezing point of water. The ice starts to melt, making liquid water. Salt dissolves in the water, adding ions that increase the temperature at which the water could re-freeze. As the ice melts, energy is drawn from the water, making it colder. Salt is used in ice cream makers for this reason. It makes the ice cream cold enough to freeze. Pretty cool hey!

If the kids don’t care to much for all of that sciencey stuff, this still makes for an interesting, non toxic and fun activity.

To make your own you will need:

pagingfunmums

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3 thoughts on “ melting ice & salt science experiment ”.

wow kids love to play in ice cube new activity lovely

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Melting Ice With Salt

Fill a balloon with water and freeze it. Put the resulting blob of ice in a large glass baking dish. Set up a ramekin of salt along with eye droppers and liquid food coloring, and get ready to start experimenting.

This Melting Ice with Salt video shares a simple experiment for kids. It’s demonstrated by TheDadLab ‘s Alex and Max with some help from dad Sergei Urban. The London, England-based team films crafts, activities, and science experiments that are fun and easy to try at home.

But you may be asking how salt lowers the freezing point of water. This concept is called “freezing point depression.” Essentially, the salt makes it harder for the water molecules to bond together in their rigid structure. In water, salt is a solute, and it will break into its elements. So, if you’re using table salt, also known as sodium chloride (NaCl), to melt ice, the salt will dissolve into separate sodium ions and chloride ions.

Often, however, cities use calcium chloride (CaCl2), another type of salt, on their icy streets. Calcium chloride is more effective at melting ice because it can break down into three ions instead of two: one calcium ion and two chloride ions. More ions mean more ions getting in the way of those rigid ice bonds. Unfortunately, chloride is superbad for the environment. It can kill aquatic animals, and that can thereby affect other animal populations in their food web. Chloride also dehydrates and kills plants and can alter soil composition, making it harder for vegetation to grow. While some other compounds that can melt ice and snow don’t include chloride, they are much more expensive than sodium chloride or calcium chloride.

Here’s another quick video example from Primrose Preschool:

Related DIY from the Exploratorium: “ Ice Balloons – Chill out with a frozen water balloon and explore some beautiful science. ”

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January 25, 2018

Lift Ice Cubes with Chemistry

An Ice-Cold Activity from Science Buddies

By Science Buddies & Sabine De Brabandere

Melt and freeze your way to some science magic--all it takes is a dash of salt! 

George Retseck

Key concepts Chemistry Freezing Melting Freezing-point depression

Introduction Did you ever wonder why they use salt to de-ice roads? Did you know that snow more readily sticks to pavement treated with salt? Why would this be the case? In this activity you will use the same principles to pick up ice cubes with a string. Is it possible to do this—without getting your hands cold? Do the activity and see what a pinch of salt can do!

Background Water is made up of tiny building blocks called molecules. These water molecules don’t sit still—they wiggle and move around all the time. The water’s temperature is a measure of how much these molecules move. When you cool water you lower its temperature, and the molecules slow down. Eventually after you cool the water enough they move so little they can form strong connections and the water freezes, turning into ice, which is a solid. For pure water this transition happens around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). Conversely, if you add heat to a block of ice, its molecules will start wiggling more; eventually they move around too much to stay stuck together, and the ice melts, turning back into a liquid. These transitions, however, do not happen instantaneously—water and ice can coexist. (That is, a whole ice cube does not turn to liquid water all at once.) To visualize this process you can think of a group of excited children—like molecules at higher temperature, they move and wiggle a lot. The higher their excitement, the more they move. Calm them and they will slow down just like molecules slow down when you reduce the temperature. Eventually you might get these children to hold hands and stand nicely in line—so they behave like a solid.

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When the water is not pure, the water molecules cannot connect as readily to form a solid; other particles get in the way. That is why salty, sugary or other water solutions’ freezing points—temperatures at which they turn solid—are lower than 0 degrees C. This explains why treating roads with salt in winter can prevent them from icing over. The salt dissolves in the water, lowering its freezing point, which will only turn to ice at temperatures well below 0 degrees C. In this activity you will use this characteristic in a clever way to pick up an ice cube.

Three glasses

Three strings, each about 20 centimeters long (Yarn works well.)

One sticky note

Watch or timer

Thermometer (optional)  

Preparation

Gather all of your materials on a work surface that can tolerate spills.

Fill your three glasses with cold water

Put a few ice cubes in the first glass of water. They float because ice is less dense than water.

Search for a cube whose surface is at about water level. Lay one end of a piece of string across that ice cube. Do you think the ice will stick to the string?

Lift the string. Does the ice cube stick to the string? Why do you think this is the case?

Do you have ideas on how you can lift the ice cube with a string, without touching the cube with your hands?

Try again, but now, sprinkle some salt over the string and ice cube. Do you think the ice will stick to the string if you lift it?

Lift the string. Does the ice cube stick to the string? After all, salt is not glue, right?

What do you think would happen if you left the ice cubes with the strings on top out for a few minutes?

Take the two other glasses filled with water, add a few fresh ice cubes to each glass.

For both glasses, lay one end of a piece of string across an ice cube whose surface is about water level; let the other end of the string hang over the edge off the glass.

Sprinkle salt over the string and ice cube in one of the glasses, and mark this glass with a sticky note. Wait for about two to three minutes. Do you think the ice will stick to the string after you give it some time? Would both, only one or none stick? Why would this happen?

After about two to three minutes, lift one string at a time. Can it pick up the ice cube? Can you explain what you see? If you cannot pick up any ice cube, try again but wait a little longer this time.

Extra: Try some other substances, such as sugar or food coloring. Can these make the ice cube stick to the string?

Extra: Make two identical water-and-ice baths. Add more salt to one bath, leave the other as is. Measuring the temperature of each water-and-ice bath every minute for the next five minutes. Graph your results. What do you observe? Is one colder than the other? Why would that be?

Extra: Can you re-create a mini iceberg in a saltwater ocean in a bowl at home? What temperatures can prevent your “ iceberg ” from melting and “ ocean ” from freezing?

Observations and results Could you lift the ice cube you had sprinkled with salt and left untouched for few minutes? Did you fail to pick up the cube in all the other cases? Why does this happen? First, the ice around the string melts when you sprinkle it with salt, then the string freezes to the ice cube.

You probably wonder why it happens only when you sprinkle salt over the ice cube and string. When you sprinkle salt over ice it dissolves in the thin layer of water above the ice. Because saltwater freezes at a lower temperature than pure water adding the salt makes some ice melt and absorb heat in the process. The area just around it thereby cools and freezes water molecules to the ice cube, also freezing the string on. Without the salt, the water and ice are both at the same temperature and the string does not freeze to the ice. In both cases the ice cube gradually melts as it absorbs heat from the air around it, but without the salt the string cannot freeze to the cube.

If you used sugar, you would see the same effect. The cube sticks to the string. Dissolving other substances in water will also lower the freezing point and create the same effect.

Cleanup Pour the water and ice cubes in the sink, and wash the glasses.

More to explore Scrumptious Science: Making Ice Cream in a Bag , from Scientific American High Seas: What Happens When the Glaciers Melt? , from Scientific American Freezing-Point Depression , from CK–12 Freeze Your Fruit with Science , from Scientific American Science Activities for All Ages! , from Science Buddies

This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies

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July 4, 2016

Ice and Salt Science Experiment

The kids are out for summer break and we are finding simple and fun activities to fill our days. This ice and salt science experiment is just that–simple and fun.  My kids love simple science experiments and this one was enjoyed by all 3 of my kids ages 3, 5 and 7 years old.

We set out to find which type of salt would melt the ice the fastest.  The kids enjoyed making predictions before we got started and seeing what the final results were.  I can see us doing more ice melting experiments before summer is over. It’s a fun STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) activity for kids.

• Ice block with aquatic treasure (like these ocean toys )
• Kosher Salt
• Plastic tray
• Plastic cups
• Spray bottles

First things first, you need ice to melt.  Fill a large plastic bowl with water, blue food coloring, and aquatic animals. Place it in the freezer ahead of time and come back for it the day you want to do the ice and salt melting experiment.

Explain to your kids that when water gets below 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit it freezes going from a liquid to a solid.

Once you have your ice you can start your experiment.

Set the bowl of ice out while you gather supplies so it will melt just a tiny bit and come out of the bowl with ease. You’ll need a plastic tray, the salts, 3 plastic cups and Sharpie markers.  Label each cup with what type salt you will pour in.  Fill the cups with salt and fill up 2 water spray bottles.  The kids can use them to melt the ice after you determine which salt melts the ice the fastest.

Start out by scooping a little of each salt on the ice. Then wait a few minutes to see which salt melts the ice the fastest.  Our winner was the rock salt, second place was the kosher salt and last was the table salt.

Salt is said to melt ice because it lowers the freezing temperature and disrupts the molecular equilibrium .  Different salts have different molecular compositions.  Because of this, the different salts melt at different rates.

Ice Melting Activity for Kids

Once we had finished our salt and ice science experiment we went on to enjoy an aquatic treasure hunt.  The kids dumped all the salt on the ice by this point and they got the water spray bottles and started melting the ice by spraying it with water.  They wanted to rescue the animals that were stuck in the ice.

This was a great extension to our activity. Using spray bottles is a great way to let the kids work on those tiny hand muscles they need for fine motor skills.  Once all the animals were rescued the kids played with the ice until it was almost completely gone.

We had a lot of fun making predictions of which salt we thought would melt the ice the quickest and seeing our final results after conducting this experiment.  The simple ice and salt science experiment was a lot of fun and full of learning!

Don’t let the fun and discovery stop there!

We have TONS of science experiments your kids will love on our  Super Cool Science Experiments for Kids  page! 

Take me to the experiments –>   Super Cool Science Experiments for Kids

About Jaime

Hi! I am Jaime, mama to three high energy boys. With three boys, life never slows down, but I wouldn't have it any other way! We love creating, learning, and crafting together and we can turn anything into an adventure. I enjoy sharing our activities and crafts on my blog Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tail.

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