A ‘Cool’ Experiment

Not long ago, while studying Pluto (an ice planet) we were able to make our own homemade ice cream. The whole point of the experiment was to show, in a rather tasty fashion, how things freeze.

We had wanted to grab one of those nifty soccer ball-like contraptions to make the ice cream in…but as that was not something we could do without ordering it we went with the old school way the book described.

We took two Ziploc plastic bags…1-quart and 1-gallon size. In the gallon size bag we put a certain amount of rock salt and water and in the quart size bag we put heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla. Each bag was sealed individually and the smaller one placed within the larger one.

A few minutes of shaking, watching the salt turn from a solid to a slushy mess and we had some not so bad tasting ice cream!

It was still a little troublesome trying to explain to such a young one about freezing point depression and have it make sense as some of the high school and college students who learn about it have a hard time wrapping their minds around it as well. We did what we could.

What she’ll remember? 1) That Pluto is an ice planet (ok, it isn’t a ‘planet’ technically anymore. Nevertheless she’ll remember it does not have a hot inner core as the rest of the planets do). 2) That making ice cream ourselves is fun, yummy and we should try experimenting making some other flavors as vanilla is good but other kinds are even better! : )