Crystal Geodes (Creative Chemistry Experiments)

You will need:

1. 4-5 egg shells, washed
   and dried
2. Egg carton or some other
   box to hold the egg shells
3. Epsom salt or common
   table salt
4. Hot water
5. Different food colours

Geodes are nothing but rocks which contain a core made up of crystal. The creation of geodes takes many years, but you can speed up their formation through the process of evaporation.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Start by cracking the eggs in half, and cleaning the inside of the shells.
2. Take the Epsom salt and water in roughly equal quantities.
3. You could start by taking ¼ cup of hot, but not boiling water and dissolving ¼ cup of Epsom salt into it.
4. Keep adding more Epsom salt to the water till the salt stops dissolving even after constant stirring, creating a super saturated solution.
5. Pour this solution into the egg shells.
6. Add a drop of a different food colour in each shell to make the crystals more attractive.
7. Place the eggs in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours till you can see the crystals.
8. Once the crystals have formed, remove the solution and gently without dropping the geode crystals, pour out the excess water from the shells.

RESULT

Each shell will have a mass of needle-like colourful crystals inside. As the
crystals dry, they become brighter and shinier. You can even try this experiment
using baking soda or sugar or common salt in place of Epsom salt.