Science With Samantha: Make a Cloud In a Jar

In this edition of Science with Samantha, we're learning how to make a cloud in a jar.

Materials Needed:

Boiling Hot Water

Glass Jar

Oven Mitts

Matches or Hair Spray

Sandwich bag filled with ice

Instructions

1. Pour hot boiling water into a glass jar almost full. Once jar is hot, dump water out so only 1/3 of jar is filled with water.
2. Quickly spray hairspray into the jar, OR Light a match and drop it into water.
3. Immediately put the bag of ice onto the jar.
4. Watch the top of the jar carefully and you will see a cloud begin to form.
5. After observing the cloud in the jar, remove the lid and watch the cloud escape out of the jar.

This fun and simple experiment needs an adult, but is a wonderful way to talk about and educate kids on the water cycle.

The Water Cycle:

Evaporation:

Heat from the Sun causes water on Earth to evaporate (turn from liquid into water vapor, a gas) and rise into the sky. This water vapor collects in the sky in the form of clouds.

Condensation:

As water vapor in the clouds cools down it becomes water again. 

Precipitation:

Water falls from the sky in the form of rain, snow, hail, or sleet.

Collection:

Oceans and lakes collect water that has fallen. 

Water evaporates into the sky again and the cycle continues.