Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

How to grow snowflakes in a bottle with Science Friday

Watch more with these video collections:

If there’s no snow outside, try growing your own snowflakes. From Science Friday‘s collection of Holiday Science features and experiments, learn how to grow snowflakes in a bottle.

Caltech physicist, snowflake expert, and author of The Secret Life of a Snowflake Ken Libbrecht shares his snow crystal growing experiment, which requires a large plastic bottle, a bucket, a sponge, fishing line, pins, needles, and dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide (CO2).

a growing snowflake
Reminder: Wear gloves when working with dry ice, which can “burn” your skin if you touch it. Read more about safe dry ice handling here.

snowflake chart
growing a snowflake
Watch more dry ice videos, experiment videos, and videos about ice crystals, including:
• The scientist that grows ‘identical twin snowflakes’
• Go on a Snowflake Safari
• Watch snowflakes form in time lapse through a microscope

via @scifri.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Why do ice cubes crack in drinks?

Rion Nakaya

Why do carrots taste sweeter in the winter?

Rion Nakaya

What’s In a 20,000 Year-Old Cube of Ice?

Rion Nakaya

What is a comet made of? Dara Ó Briain’s Science Club demonstrates

Rion Nakaya

Watch snowflakes form in time lapse through a microscope

Rion Nakaya

The Sound of Ice: Skating on thin black ice makes sci-fi movie laser sounds

Rion Nakaya

The scientist that grows ‘identical twin snowflakes’

Rion Nakaya

The Birth of a Snowflake (A snowflake melts in reverse)

Rion Nakaya

The 3-million-year old Ningwu ice cave never thaws

Rion Nakaya