Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition

For the past month, students in Mrs. Klaves’s Intro to IB Chemistry class have had the opportunity to participate in the Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition. Students participating in this competition would receive extra credit in the class and the opportunity to win the competition.

“It is important for students to connect learning to areas and industries outside of the school walls,” said Klaves.

This competition relates to students in class work because the unit students are working on is all about solutes, solvents, and making solutions. All of these things play into the territory of growing crystals and is a great way for students to practice in the real world skills that they have taken notes on. This application of knowledge learned in class helps students better learn the material and better improve their understanding over all.

“The competition requires students to understand the different type of solutions in Chemistry,” said Klaves.

To enter the competition students were required to work in groups of two or more people and make the initial calculations for how much potassium dihydrogen phosphate was necessary to use, this is for the first stage. After figuring this out students had to go through the rigorous process of creating the seed crystal solution. This seed crystal is the crystal that is used as the basis of the crystal that students actually grow.

“To make a crystal you need to make a supersaturated solution quickly to get your first small seed crystal and then slowly to get your crystal to grow larger. It requires more advanced lab techniques to grow a great crystal,” said Klaves.

The second stage of growing the crystal is preparing the seed crystal to be grown. In order to grow the seed crystal it needs to be suspended in a solution. Students had to create this solution themselves and make sure that it is supersaturated. Because of this supersaturation crystals will grow slower, this will make sure that they form more neatly and will be scored higher.

“Students need to remember to be patient and take your time. You are allowed 6 weeks to grow the crystal. If it grows quickly it will have cracks and usually be misshapen,” said Klaves.

In order to do well in the competition judges are looking for numerous factors to determine its purity. For example judges rate the clarity, edges, faces and occlusions of the crystal out of four. After this the crystal’s mass is determined and needs to be over 0.5g in order to qualify.

“Since students are required to do this outside of class time it requires drive and initiative on the student's part. In order to grow the best crystal a lot of patience is required as well,” said Klaves.

Participating in this project is very hard for students because it keeps them practicing different skills, this can help them not only in school, but life as well. During this project students used math, chemistry, and problem solving skills. To participate in this project students need a lot of patience as parts of the lab are very tedious.

“From this competition I practiced skills such as; teamwork, communication, and problem solving,” said sophomore and participant Kylie Lanser.

Not only do students gain the practice of skills, but they also have the opportunity to win prizes. For teachers there is a little competition as all and their best crystal can win a prize of one hundred dollars. The best crystals of this competition will be displayed at UW-Madison. By far the coolest prizes are for the best overall crystal and the best quality crystal, they each will win a prize of two hundred dollars and will be given the opportunity to have their crystals grow aboard the International Space Station U.S. National Lab.

“This is the fourth year that UW-Madison has put on this competition. We have had students participate in all four years,” said Klaves.

This competition gives tons of opportunities to students, and helps them practice many skills. Students participating in this project take the initiative to better themselves and grow their overall knowledge and that is the spirit of Case High School.