Homeschool Project #1: Easy Homemade Ice Cream
COVID-19 has us stuck inside with our kiddos, trying to figure out how to teach them. Here’s a great project that will get your blood pumping, provides a quick science lesson, and has a tasty payoff.
Easy Homemade Ice Cream
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 large sealable bag
- 2 small sealable bags
- 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp sugar
- dash of vanilla
- 20+ icecubes
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- newspaper or kitchen towel
- tape or rubber bands
Here’s what you do:
- Add sugar, vanilla, and sugar to one of the small sealable bags. Seal it and gently mix ingredients.
- Place mixed ingredients into the second sealable bag and seal it.
- Add ice cubes and kosher salt to the large sealable bag. Seal and gently mix.
- Open the large bag and add the small sealed bags. Seal large bag.
- Wrap the large bag with newspaper and seal with tape or wrap in a kitchen towel and secure it with rubber bands.
- Shake the whole package for 5 minutes, check to see if your cream mixture has frozen into ice cream. If not, proceed shaking until it freezes.
Variations
Add flavored syrup or crushed fruit if desired.
The Sciencey Bit
This Easy Homemade Ice Cream experiment demonstrates “freezing point depression.” When the salt (sodium chloride) is added to the ice, it lowers the temperature of the ice and water below freezing 0C or 32F. This depression pulls heat from the cream mixture, allowing it to freeze quickly, and presto, easy homemade ice cream. The same principle is applied to snow and rock salt. By adding salt to snowy sidewalks, the freezing point is lowered, preventing ice from forming so we don’t slip when we walk.
