Instructify

You can’t beat an ice sculpture to spruce up the refreshment table at the winter dance. But if your school doesn’t have huge blocks of ice or chainsaws in the supply closet, head to your local chemistry laboratory to take matters into your own hands. The Popular Science website shows you how to create liquid ice sculptures like an X-Man with water and sodium acetate.

The article advocates buying the sodium acetate from unitednuclear.com for $24 per pound. If you don’t already have the stuff lying around and want to do this on the cheap, you can check out this post on Instructables to learn how to make it yourself.

PopSci.com rates this experiment a 2 out of 5 in their safety scale (1 equals safe, 5 equals crazy), so your students can probably do this as a lab. As with any interaction of chemicals, please observe safety guidelines such as using goggles, and refrain from drinking the solution – so no using your icy art to cool off the punch bowl at the school dance. -BILL FERRIS

Transform Hand Warmers to Liquid Ice Sculptures via PopSci.com
Create Sodium Acetate via Instructables