The Idea Garden: Science Club number 2- Candy Experiments

One of the first things we learn in teacher training is to try out your lessons before you do them. I somehow got lazy and thought I'd just wing it... and almost all of our candy experiments bombed. Nevertheless, the kids had a great time and made sure they sampled everything we tried!!!

Nice shirt... fitting!!!

Every idea I got was from www.candyexperiments.com

Super cool website- and the thing I like most is their spirit of experimentation. They never cease to ask "What if..." or "What can I do with this?" Some great lessons by just looking at the thinking behind their experiments. Nice.

Probably the most simplistic, yet effective experiment was testing different candy to see if it would sink or float. They had to predict first too. Almost everything sank, but we had lots of interesting discussion. Pop rocks let off bubbles. Some tiny sprinkle shapes sank or floated, depending on how they were put in the bowl.

We tried some individually wrapped Werther's candies still in the package, which floated, but sank once we unwrapped them. Hmmmm....

Recording results on the Sink or Float T-chart

testing pop rocks

Dissolving M&M's and Skittles... the printed M's and S's actually
peel off and float to the top. Didn't work every time, but if you
try it enough times, you may get a letter intact.

Epic Fail #1: Skittles Density Rainbow. Dissolve 2 red, 4 orange, 6 yellow etc.
(more skittles= more sugar/density)
Cool idea, just didn't separate them properly. Ended up with browny-purple sludge.

this is the beautiful example I was trying to make

Epic Fail #2: How did the Coke and Mentos thing not work???
Too small of bottle, not enough in the bottle...?

Cold water currents - Ice on one side of the dish in room temp. water.
Pushed the wateraway from the ice (colours just show the currents).
Very interesting AND pretty!