Once upon a science project…

And, that’s why the Spouse, with his chemistry background and all, is typically the overseer of all things science-related. But, this project was going to require more time and really needed to be done during the day. So… I had to rise to the occasion.

Sounding simple enough, the project started with a hard-boiled egg.

The 1st Grader was supposed to barely crack her egg and make an imprint of the cracked shell on the play-doh. But, of course, everyone had to have an egg and participate.

Not surprisingly, this is what the Preschooler’s egg situation looked like five minutes later. You can imagine the aroma.

The next part in the process is where our project derailed. When I re-read the instructions I noticed we were lacking one all-important supply for our second {and most important step} of the fossil egg: plaster of Paris. No need to worry, I thought. We’re close to a Jo-Ann’s. But, would you believe that I called our local Jo-Ann’s only to discover they were sold out of plaster of Paris?! How can a craft store be out of plaster of Paris?? This is like Home Depot selling out of lumber. It just shouldn’t happen. Ever. And most certainly not the afternoon/evening before I have to make a fossil egg.

So, my mom suggested I Google making our own plaster of Paris because she thought that would be the quickest, simplest solution to the dilemma. And, of course, Google had an endless number of articles on how easy it is to make your own plaster using just flour and water. This, though, is where I’d like to remind everyone of the dangers of believing things you read on the Internet. Just because you can DIY something doesn’t mean you should. 

But, we did. And, oh, the mess.

What the internet doesn’t tell you about the homemade plaster of Paris is that it has a much lengthier drying time. As in, it might never dry.

Unaware of the potential for such a disappointing outcome, we coated our play-doh in the homemade plaster and cleaned up the HUGE aftermath of the project.

Then, we set the egg on a plate in anticipation of it drying so we could do the final step of the project: staining the plaster with tea to make it look aged {like a fossil, of course}.

We checked at 7:00. Then at 8:00. And, again at 9:00. Still not dry. So, we went to bed hoping we could wrap it up the next morning. Only, the next morning, some 14 hours after we put the Google version of plaster on this thing, our plaster still had yet to harden.

{This picture was taken during happier times when we thought the fossil was well on its way to completion}.

So, I did what any tired mom would do. I bagged the project up in a Ziploc and sent this little mess of a science experiment in with the 1st Grader with the sad explanation that our fossil egg had not yet fossilized. And, that was as good as we could do.

Blame it on Jo-Ann’s.

I think we she should get an “A” for effort.

And, I also think plaster of Paris, at least the homemade variety, should be renamed plaster of Problems. Or, maybe just plaster of Potential. Because it might potentially harden… and it might just not.