Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

we are doing this for our science fair project. We copied everything thing possible in order to grow these crystals. We get a major grade on this, and we are relying on this website to help us. Its been 7 days, and not one thing has grown. We have done multiple trials.
Help!!

Hi SydneyHunter,
Growing crystals? Sounds exciting. However, I do not know which ScienceBuddies project you are working on because we have two growing crystals projects. I'll assume it's this one: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary. If I'm wrong, please don't hesitate to ask about the 2nd crystal growth project:https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p005.shtml. I'm sorry to hear that your crystals haven't grown yet. Are you sure you completely saturated your solutions with borax? You shouldn't have been able to dissolve any more borax. Did you wait too long after boiling the water to dissolve the borax? If you waited too long, then the water would have cooled off before the addition of borax, resulting in not enough borax dissolving and thus a solution that wasn't saturated enough. However, borax is dangerous if inhaled so you should still add the chemical only when the water is done boiling, just more quickly. Are your jars located in places that tend to face ruckus or any vibrations in general? The motions may disrupt bond formation supposed to be taking place. Try placing your jars in a quieter and more peaceful location and out of the light to avoid any other energy disruption. If you have time, try reforming your solutions to add the maximum amount of solute quickly after boiling. If these don't end up helping, don't hesitate to tell us. Best of luck!