SCIENCE LAB REPORT

Title: Saltwater and Ice Cube

11/19/15
EARTH SCIENCE
3RD HOUR
Research Team:
Miguel Luna Alonzo - Leader
Miguel Luna Alonzo - Equipment Manager
Alejandro Picazo/Joe Broca - Recorder/Media Manager

EXPERIMENTAL QUESTION
How does the amount of salt in water affect the time it takes an ice cube to melt.

INTRODUCTION
Purpose: How the ocean affects the climate.
Salinity: The amount of salt dissolved in water.
Density: How compact (Spread Out) some thing is. Amount of matter in a certain amount
of space.

HYPOTHESIS
If there is more salt, then the ice cube will melt faster, because we use salt to melt ice in
the winter.

VARIABLES
Independent variable: Amount of Salt (Grams)
Levels: 0g, 1g, 2g, 3g
Dependent variable: Time (Minutes)
Controlled variables:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Same type of water

Same size ice
Same size cup
Same salt
Control Group: 0g of salt

MATERIALS

Salt
4 Beakers
4 Ice cubes
Weight Scale
Timer(Phone)
Water (50
Sharpie (1)

PROCEDURE
1. First we put water in beakers (50ml)
2. Measure amount of salt that will go into beakers
1

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Get ice cubes

Prepare timer (Phone)
Put ice cubes in beakers with water
Look for interesting things happening
Gather data
When ice melts record data
9. Record data until ice melts

DATA
Observations: Blue color is going up and salt is going to the
bottom. Regular water is dissolving faster than the salt water with
2g and 3g of salt. Cold water going down, pushing warm water up
to melt the ice faster(for regular water).
Amount of salt
(Grams)

Time to Melt (Minutes)

Trial #1

0g

19.12

1g

20.28

2g

17.23

3g

20.28

GRAPH

ANALYSIS
1. Regular water melted second, the water with 1g salt melted first. We also
noticed that the slat that had 2g and 3g melted last.
2. The salt was keeping the cold water on top, while the water without salt
kept the cold water on bottom, and while the cold water was on the bottom, it was
pushing the warm water up and that's what caused the regular water to melt
faster.
3. We kind messed with the ice and salt a lot by mixing them around a lot,
maybe that's what caused some to melt slower and some to melt faster.

CONCLUSION
1. We were trying to see which kind of water would dissolve ice faster.
2. We thought that the ice with the most salt would melt faster.
3. We reject our hypothesis, turns out the ice with the most salt took more
longer to dissolve.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. We would not mess with the ice or salt and just let science do its work.
2. Where does salt come from in the oceans? Could different kind of salts
affect how fast an ice cube melts?

REFERENCES
1. Discovery Education. (2012). Biology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 115-118). London,
England: Holton. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/my-drive

Lab Photos: