Candy Experiments

2020-09-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

Drop a Warhead in baking soda water, and bubbles erupt. Leave a Skittle in water, and the S floats to the surface. Melt a Starburst, and shiny oil spots form. You're doing candy experiments--science experiments with candy.

Melt Halloween candy. Dissolve Valentine hearts. Float Easter Peeps. Or let your kids explore their own ideas.

Candy experiments. All candy. All science. All fun.

As seen in Family Fun, Parents, Mothering Magazine, Highlights, the Chicago Tribune, ParentMap, Miami Family, and The Red Tricycle

Melted Mentos

2012-01-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

Heating Mentos in the oven turned them into hollow soup-bowl shells.

My kids were melting several kinds of candy at the same time, so the red color is probably from Jolly Ranchers or something. Remember to line your pan with tinfoil when you're melting candy into puddles!

New Blog Post on 247moms.com

2012-01-13T22:48:00.000-08:00

Check out my new blog post "Candy Experiments for the New Year" at 247moms.com to see how doing candy experiments can help you accomplish your New Year's goals!

Kids and Candy Temptation

2012-01-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

This article in a Harvard Business School newsletter briefly describes a study done on kids and candy. Children were asked to complete certain paper-folding tasks, with some children being promised candy and soda afterwards and some not promised anything. Surprisingly, the children who were promised the candy reward performed worse than the other children, even though there was a bribe at the end, supposedly because the thought of the candy was so distracting they couldn't focus as well on their tasks. The article expands the idea to adults tempted to spend time online during work hours, which can also be distracting. The takeaway? For kids, promising candy can be a distraction instead of a motivating bribe. And for me? Maybe I need to limit my email time.

Sugar Crystal Snow

2012-01-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

While I was hanging ornaments in water for sugar coating, the bottom of the bottle soon became covered by a layer of loose sugar crystals. After I removed the ornaments, the crystals were stirred up, swirling gently around the bowl before they sank like snowflakes. It was a sugar crystal snowstorm!

Sugar Crystal Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

After seeing Timothy Horn's carriage coated with sparkling sugar crystals, I was inspired to create my own. I hung these pipe cleaners in sugar water (2 parts sugar, 1 part water, boiled until sugar is dissolved, then placed in a jar) and left them there a week.

The results? Sparkly ornaments pretty enough to hang on our tree.

For instructions on making sugar crystals, see the Exploratorium's rock candy recipe.

Impressing kids with Candy Canes

2011-12-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

OK, it was just one kid. But boy, did his eyes go wide after I melted a candy cane just enough to make it swoop side to side. As I blogged last year, I made a zig zag form out of a strip of folded tinfoil, placed the candy cane on top, and put it in a 250 F oven for 5 minutes. (My young friend had a hard time waiting that long, and I was worried it wouldn't be ready before he ran out of patience. The two-hour floating conversation hearts are probably not the right experiment for him!) The candy cane ended up as kind of an M shape--I wish I'd taken a picture!

Candy Cane Stripes

2011-12-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder how to make stripes at the bottom of a bowl of water? All you need is a candy cane.

Unwrap the candy cane, put it in a shallow dish of water, and let it sit for several minutes. The stripes will slowly dissolve into the water and spread across the bottom of the bowl.

Candy Experiments in Columbus Parent

2011-12-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

I knew this article was coming out, but didn't think to look it up until today. I'm glad I did. It starts off with kids trying out the oil test, and leads to my favorite line in the article, when the kids are asked if there's oil in candy: “No. Who puts oil in candy?” Emily said. “That’s gross.”You can read the entire article "Cooking with Kids: Candy Science" at Columbus Parents online.

Time article about sugar in cereal

2011-12-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

My favorite foods for the Find Hidden Candy experiment are soda (because there's SO much sugar) and breakfast cereal. At the USA Science and Engineering Festival, I chose a box of Honey Smacks cereal because it had by far the most sugar: more than 50%. Twizzlers, by comparison, are only 42% sugar (and contain flour as well--does that make them healthier than Honey Smacks?)Now an article in Time points out the appalling amounts of sugar in many breakfast cereals, and compares it with other foods. One cup of Honey Smacks has more sugar than a Twinkie (and not much food value--those things are like tiny air-filled balloons!) Forty-four cereals have more sugar per cup than Chip's Ahoy cookies.So if you serve cereal for breakfast, check the sugar content when you buy. Even "healthy" cereals like Frosted Mini Wheats have more than you think (about 20%). And if your kids beg for sugary cereal, think of serving it for dessert.

Gift Ideas

2011-12-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Do you have young scientists in your family? Here are some gifts I'm considering this holiday season.

--Doyle and Fossey Science Detective Books: Think about Encyclopedia Brown doing science experiments, and you get Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey. These fifth grade science detectives use real science to solve mysteries like why is the garbage can burping, who faked the ghost in the cemetery, and who wrote the mysterious love letter (I especially liked this one because it uses chromatography.) Each story has instructions for an experiment kids can try themselves. With a degree in microbiology, years of lab experience, and several children's books in publication, Torrey knows both her science and her audience. My daughter enjoyed these books, and I'm wondering if my son is ready for them.

--Potato Chip Science: I haven't tried this one out yet because I hid it until it's time to wrap presents. (Don't tell my kids!) According to the package, it has instructions and equipment for several experiments including a potato clock. If nothing else, the packaging is genius--they've enclosed it in a crackly plastic potato chip bag.

--Candy Experiments Kit: If I get surprised by a sudden need for a holiday gift (somehow I can never tell when get-togethers and playdates are going to erupt into spontaneous gift exchanges), I'll package up some candy experiment kits. To make your own kit, print out the set of 8 experiment cards from my Printables page, which includes experiments for Life Saver Lights, Pop Rocks, Floating Letters, Acid Test, and others. Tape the appropriate candy to each card, wrap it up in a nice box, and decorate with a bow. Nobody'll ever know it was a last minute scramble.

Holiday Experiments: Oldies but Goodies

2011-12-06T11:14:00.001-08:00

I just saw that my guest blog post for sensationalhomeschooling.com last year was reposted at the blog Our Journey Through Autism. I wrote about chromatography and melting candy canes. Since the blog post became unavailable soon after I published it, it's fun to see it up again.

Last year I posted these really fun candy cane experiments:
-Candy Cane Countdown #3: Bubbling Candy Canes
-Candy Cane Countdown #2: Mutant Candy Canes
-Candy Cane Countdown #1: Rubber Bandy Canes

The Rubber Bandy Canes were one of my favorite experiments ever, and I just bought two boxes of Bob's candy canes so we can do them again. Maybe this year we'll even be able to hollow some out.

Melting Gummies

2011-12-06T11:05:00.001-08:00

Here's a blog post by a mom who melted gummi bears in the microwave, then gave her son q-tips to play in the bubbling goo before it hardened. Looks really fun (but supervise closely if you do this at home, because melted candy can be very hot.)

Sugar Crystals on Display

2011-12-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

I've made plenty of sugar crystals in the course of creating candy experiments, and there will be sugar crystal experiments in the Candy Experiments book coming out next October. But I never knew you could actually do anything with sugar crystals until I saw Timothy Horn's sculpture, Mother-Load.

Horn's noticed a backlash against sugar in public opinion in the last few years, as experts warn that sugar is contributing to the rise of obesity. "Sugar has been getting a bad rap," he says. So his art works, such as this sugar-coated carriage Mother-Load, seek to present sugar as something beautiful.

Horn created Mother-Load in recognition of Alma Spreckles, a rags-to-riches 1900's socialite who married a San Francisco sugar baron. Horn made a form from plywood and steel, adding ornamental details made from scrunched aluminum foil and carved foam. But the most striking ornamentation comes from the sugar crystals, bought in bulk at a Chinese grocery. Horn used an acrylic glaze to coat the entire surface of the carriage in gem-like crystals of all sizes. Finally, Horn coated the carriage in amber-colored shellac, making the final product glow like honey. A sign in museum where the carriage is currently displayed warns visitors to not lick the artwork!

Mother-Load will be displayed at the Bellevue Arts Museum through Dec 31. You can also see more pictures at Timothy Horn's website.

Sour Cotton Candy Acid Test Video

2011-11-29T18:57:00.000-08:00

Here's another fun thing to acid test: sour cotton candy. Since the cotton candy sugar strands are so thin, they dissolve almost instantly, releasing the sour acid to react with the baking soda. The result? LOTS of bubbles.

Candy Experiments in Space!

2011-11-18T22:57:00.001-08:00

No, I didn't jump on a spaceship (too bad). But here's a video of a candy experiment in space, in which a NASA astronaut sticks candy corns in a floating ball of water to demonstrate how surfactants work. It's pretty cool. You can read the whole article here.

Thanks to Samira Kawash at www.candyprofessor.com for sending me the link!

Why you shouldn't broil your candy

2011-11-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

What your melting experiment looks like when you use the broiler because your oven's bake function broke.

M&M's math

2011-11-11T11:30:00.001-08:00

Lots of bloggers write about graphing Skittles or M&M's. This pdf shows the variety of M&M's colors with percentages. I was surprised that brown (at 13%) was almost as common as red (13%) and yellow (14%), since I recently opened a small bag of M&M's that didn't have any browns at all. Thanks to Rachel of Momma Owl's Lab for posting the link to this pdf on her blog, as well as a great M&M's graphing experiment.

Creation Station: new Experiment Party idea

2011-11-10T21:58:00.001-08:00

When I did an experiment party with several elementary school girls last week, I added a Creation Station as one of the experiment stops. Here we put all the candy we couldn't use for the other experiments (sink/float, acid test, and Find Hidden Candy), and encouraged the girls to build with it. They had a blast, creating all sorts of fun art, and it was a great way to use up the candy we couldn't experiment with. I highly recommend it for any candy experiments party!

Density experiment from Science Matters Blog

2011-11-10T21:52:00.001-08:00

The former teacher and mom at Science Matters had a whole week of candy experiments before Halloween. Here's a great way to measure the density of candy.I've also played around with density measurements, and there will be some density experiments in next year's Candy Experiments book, but I found this one straightforward and easy to understand. The author also has lots of great ideas for demonstrations on erosion, cells, and refraction (I really wish I could test this one out!)

brown sugar no more

2011-11-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

White sugar crystallizes. So what about brown sugar? My kids wanted to find out, so I dissolved a couple of tablespoons in a tablespoon of hot water, set it on the counter, and waited to see what happened. After a few weeks, this is what we got:

The sugar has formed into clear crystals, with a molasses-like liquid beneath them (you can see the brown puddle at the bottom of the tipped bowl.) But why?

It turns out that brown sugar isn't much different from white sugar. In fact, most brown sugar is just white sugar with a little molasses added. When you dissolve it, and let it recrystallize, the sugar molecules crystallize together, concentrating the molasses flavoring in the remaining liquid. The crystals have only a tiny molasses taste, which comes from the molasses coating I wasn't quite able to rinse off. If I could clean off the crystals before I tasted them, I'd be tasting pure sugar.

When I tell people I do candy experiments, they always ask if I make candy. My answer is always no. It's way more fun to take it apart!

Candy Corn Chemistry

2011-11-08T14:48:00.001-08:00

A fun little video, shared by the American Chemical Society, on what goes into candy corn.

Candy Experiments on KOMO News

2011-11-06T14:45:00.001-08:00

Here's the piece from KOMO TV's show featuring candy experiments. It's amazing how over an hour of filming gets condensed to two minutes! Our only question: why on earth does the reporter introduce candy experiments while standing in Greenlake?

Submerged Gummies

2011-11-06T14:41:00.001-08:00

Gummi bears have really been in the news lately. Along with teenagers soaking them in alcohol, scientists are sinking them in the ocean to study the crushing effects of the deep sea waves. Read more about it here.

I do want to contest one fact in the article, which says "This might be the first time gummy bears have been destroyed in the name of science." We've been destroying gummi bears in the name of science for years now!

Post Halloween Candy Buys

2011-11-03T18:05:00.001-07:00

If you see any "Fluffy Stuff Spider Web Cotton Candy" while scoping the after-Halloween sales, pick up a package. Since the only ingredients are sugar, citric acid, and artificial flavors, they're great for the acid test.

Pixy Stix are on sale too, at least in the post-Halloween aisle at my local drugstore. Those are really fun for acid testing.

Candy management tips from Candy Construction book

2011-11-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

Here's another way to use up Halloween candy. Author Sharon Bowers has come up with lots of great crafts you can design with candy in her book Candy Construction: How to Build Race Cars, Castles, and Other Cool Stuff out of Store-Bought Candy.

Like me, Bowers has found that once she gets the kids excited about the candy project and turns them loose, they're not focused on eating it. She tells her kids no eating while building ("What construction worker snacks on the job?"), and lets them choose one piece of candy to set aside and eat after cleanup. Her final rule: "Candy construction workers always brush their teeth after work."

In my experience, letting the kids choose even one piece of candy to eat keeps them focused on eating, not testing, so my mantra is, "The candy is for experiments, it's not for eating." But it's nice to know that Bowers has also figured out ways to get children to play with candy instead of eating it. It really is possible to redirect kids' candy mania, and find alternative ways for them to enjoy their candy.

A cleanup tip

2011-11-01T19:08:00.001-07:00

After doing three candy experiment demos in five days, I've learned I really need to pack a bunch of rags. School paper towels just don't cut it when you're trying to mop up somebody's sticky spilled experiment. And have the rags ready at hand--we wasted a lot of time running to and from the paper towel dispenser during my son's Halloween party.

Really original trick-or-treat idea!

2011-11-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a family who passed out water and oranges at a Halloween Hydration Station, and the trick or treaters had a great time! That's probably the healthiest Halloween handout I've ever heard of.

Melting

2011-10-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

In case I don't get around to adding this to the experiments page, here's instructions for candy melting fun.

Oven:
Cover a baking sheet with tinfoil
Unwrap your candy and put it on the sheet. (Caution: never melt a jawbreaker!)
Place in low oven (300-350 F) and wait to see what happens.

Microwave: use a microwave-safe plate and watch your candy (not jawbreakers) as you heat it. Most candy melts in a minute or less. If you heat it too long, you might scorch your candy or even your plate, so choose your dishes carefully and keep a close watch.

You might be surprised at what melts and what doesn't!

Outsmarted Twice!

2011-10-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

After the children's Halloween party tonight, my daughter asked if they could eat some of their candy. "Lots of candy!"

As a candy experimenter, I try to keep my children from gorging on candy. But I didn't want to just say no. "Sure," I said. Noticing that she was contorting her face in very odd ways, I remembered some memoir I'd read in which the writer could never master the Mr. Spock eyebrow trick. "If you can raise only one eyebrow." Ha! Beat that impossible task! She promptly did.

I couldn't renege--as she reminded me several times on the way home, "We don't lie in our church, Mommy!" And her proposal, that each child could eat one mini candy bar and share in the contents of two mini packs of M&M's, was still conservative under the circumstances. I agreed to the deal, as long as she would give me all the brown M&M's for my upcoming class demonstrations on chromatography. "Just the plain ones? not the peanuts?" she clarified, and, feeling magnanimous, I agreed.

And that was how I learned that some packs of M&M's are defective. I.e., incomplete. I.e., no browns.

Maybe next time I'll just keep my mouth shut.

Drunken Gummi Bears

2011-10-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

A Detroit newstory, which I saw mentioned at candyprofessor.com, warns parents that teens are now soaking gummi candy in vodka so that they can smuggle alcohol around. While I would not recommend soaking anything in alcohol, it is pretty fun to soak gummi candies in water. They absorb so much water, they actually expand.

Leaf chromatography experiment

2011-10-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

There's no candy involved, but Scientific American has a great chromatography experiment with autumn leaves. It takes a little while longer than M&M chromatography, so be prepared.

Candy Experiment in Scientific American

2011-10-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

A friend just emailed me this article in Scientific American. It's an experiment which tests the effect of evaporation on melting chocolate (you wrap one chocolate bar in a dry paper towel and one bar in a wet paper towel to compare how fast they melt).

Let me know if the link doesn't work.

Hearts Fading

2011-10-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

When we first tested hearts in the window to see if they would fade, only the pink ones faded quickly. But after a few more weeks, more colors had faded as well.

This heart used to be purple. The other side, exposed to the sun, has faded completely. On this side, the bottom of the heart, the edges have faded from sunlight, leaving only the untouched purple spot in the middle.

The blue candy heart on the left has faded noticeably. Compare it with the unfaded heart on the right.

T-Shirts Available

2011-10-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

So many people asked about our T-shirts last year at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC that I've decided to make them available. If you'd like to tell the world you do candy experiments, you can order shirts here.

Family Experiments with Candy Discards

2011-10-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

An article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal describes why one family does candy experiments. After the Halloween-loving father helps his kids sort their candy "according to awesomeness," the kids won't eat the discards. So there's nothing left to do but experiment with it!

Candy Experiments on TV

2011-10-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

The cable show NorthWest Families, which airs on Northwest Cable News, just did a segment on candy experiments. They're right--candy experiments ARE a great way to use Halloween candy!

Here's the candy experiments video. If it doesn't work, try this
link.

Zotz

2011-10-18T09:14:00.001-07:00

Zotz candies bubble when you bite into their super-sour center. How come?

A look at the ingredient list reveals the answer. Besides sugar and corn syrup, colors, and flavors, the candy contains malic acid, sodium bicarbonate, and tartaric acid. In other words, it's just an acid-baking soda reaction.

Here's a video of Zotz in water.

If you can't view the video, here's my six-year-old's illustration of the process. It's almost as good as the video (says his mother).

Next time you try Zotz, remember to enjoy the bubbles. You're eating a self-contained acid test!

Candy Experiments in new article

2011-10-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

An article in LakeInTheHillsPatch mentions candy experiments as one way to use up candy experiments, saying "Older kids will have a blast running experiments with their candy. Check out CandyExperiments.com for some cool science experiments that go beyond exploding Mentos in Coke..."

It's always fun to be mentioned, and I agree that older kids will have a blast with candy experiments. But younger kids do too! Even my toddlers loved dumping candy in water and stirring, stirring, stirring. In fact, my young son could go through an entire Halloween haul in one evening, just dumping it all into a bowl of water to make "candy soup."

One comment in this article mentioned that many military organizations do not want candy shipped to them. If true, this would put a crimp in those dentist buy-back programs. More investigation required.

Candy Experiments used in childrens' hospitals

2011-10-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

Recently the organization Hope and Healing through Science used candy experiments as part of their ongoing series of science lessons with hospitalized children at Duke and UNC Children's Hospitals. Looks like they all had a great time!

You can read about their candy experiments, as well as other fun science projects they've done, at their blog.

Jawbreaker Rings

2011-10-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

Since it's kind of hard to bisect a jawbreaker, I'm thinking I shouldn't put the experiment in the book. But isn't the result beautiful?

The "tree-rings" come from the process of panning the candy.

A Candy Experimenter's Shopping Bag

2011-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

1 bag taffy (for freezing experiments)
2 bags Hershey miniatures and 1 bag Nestle Crunch (for floating experiments)
1 orange (because even I will occasionally indulge a child's checkout-counter whims!)

Candy in the Sun

2011-09-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't mean to conduct this experiment, it was just a byproduct of leaving this pink mint on the kitchen counter for a few weeks because I kept meaning to throw it in the oven. The sunlight faded it so much it's hardly pink anymore.

Pink mint (original color) next to sun-faded mint

Here's a picture of the underside of the mint. Again, you can see the contrast between the faded edges, which perhaps got some sunlight because the mint isn't actually quite flat, and so a little sun would have shone on the very edges, and also perhaps because the mint was sitting on a reflective pie tin. Whatever the reason, the difference is significant.

I hope my dermatologist sister is proud of me writing about the strong effects of sunlight! I wonder if the mint would have been protected against fading by a coating of sunscreen?

Call for Experimenters in Columbus, OH

2011-09-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Has anybody ever done candy experiments in Columbus, OH? If you have, and if you're willing to help out with an article on candy experiments that will appear in Columbus Parent Magazine, contact me.

Density Rainbow Upgrade

2011-09-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Somebody once suggested I try doing the density rainbow with a syringe. Yesterday, in the process of taking pictures for the upcoming book, I finally tried it, and it worked great. (I used one of those blue bulb syringes you get to clean baby's ears--guess I should mark it so I don't use it on ears again!)

I had much more control over the pouring process when I used the syringe. My husband also poured a rainbow, and he poured his colored solution into a liquid measuring cup with a lip, which also made the pouring easier. Both rainbows turned out nicely, with very distinct stripes.

So, if you've been put off by the difficulty of the Density Rainbow, it may be time to give it another try!

Photos

2011-09-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Taking all these photos of candy experiments is making me snacky. I've had to slice lots of apples as sweet replacements.My toddler is also getting into the spirit of things. Since I gave her all my Pop Rocks discards (many packages had failed so that the Pop Rocks had all stuck together and lost their fizz), she's been putting them into her own bowl of water. When I caught her licking fragments off her fingers, she gave a guilty start and started plucking them off her tongue to drop in the water.Yet another reason never to eat candy experiments!

Another Day in the Candy Lab

2011-09-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

Summer sink and float experiments in the candy lab.

Sports Snacks

2011-09-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

Just found this photo of a snack given to my young son after his soccer game.

In case you can't read the labels, that's a whole 35 grams of sugar. How many calories do you burn in a kiddie soccer game, anyway?

Lessons Learned While Dissolving Chocolate

2011-09-08T21:55:00.001-07:00

When we went on vacation to the beach, I took an afternoon to pound away at the candy experiments book. One experiment was on dissolving chocolate, so I pulled out some of the glasses in the cabin, filled them up, and dropped in chocolate pieces:

Here's something this teetotaler never knew before: some shot glasses are so narrow you can't fit a spoon down inside to scoop out a piece of chocolate! (Luckily this was a well-stocked cabin: I soon turned up something like a pickle fork that worked just fine.)

This photo is of one of the chocolate experiments, with tiny fragments of chocolate dissolving at the bottom.

Candy Experiments in Homeschooling Newsletter

2011-09-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Candyexperiments.com was just featured in a newsletter by homeschooling-ideas.com. Besides the blurb for candy experiments, there's also a great (and short!) animation of a black hole swallowing a star, sidewalk chalk art that's unbelieveably realistic, and a scrapbook with a picture of a medieval undercroft I'm sure I've visited. What fun!

Thanks for the interest.

2011-08-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

All that experimentation floating candy in soda got me thinking: can we test how soda floats? The perfect opportunity presented itself at my husband's work party, where we found a tub full of choices. I held up one can of regular Coke, and one can of diet, and released them at the water's surface. Diet Coke bobbed away, while the regular Coke sank to the bottom.

This was so fun I tried it with many kinds of soda, and only stopped when I couldn't feel my cold fingers anymore!

Summer Soda Experiments

2011-08-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

After testing what kinds of candy float in which kinds of sodas, my children examine the results while sipping leftover test solution.

Candy in the News

2011-07-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

NPR's comedy show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" just covered a story about using candy to help people. Apparently cops in Canada now hand out lollipops to calm drunks.

Hear more about it at the Wait Wait website, in the show from July 23.

Candy Experiments in Summer Sun

2011-07-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

With 13 kids to entertain, a sunny summer afternoon, and a handy picnic table, it was time for candy experiments!

Ingredients for a successful outdoor session

* washable table

* large bucket of water (you won't want to be running to the tap all the time)

* small pitcher you can refill from the bucket

o for filling cups

o for washing sticky hands

* disposable cups (I recommend clear plastic because you can see through the sides as well as the top)

* bowl of baking soda, with more inside for easy refills

* spoons for soda and for stirring

* sunscreen

* small bowls for candy dispensing (no need to get out all the M&M's; using Minis, we only went through less than 1/2 a cup)

* seltzer water, because kids like watching all the bubbles when they put in the candy

* garbage container or sack (You'll generate a lot of wrappers)

* paper towels

Good candy

* M&Ms for color mixing

* Warheads for acid test

* Nerds for acid test, for bright colors, for looking for sugar crystals in middle

* Taffy, Tootsie Rolls for boat-making

Favorites:

As always, testing for acid was a huge hit, especially when we tried Warheads, Nerds, and Lemonheads (remember to let Lemonheads dissolve for a few minutes before adding soda).

We also competed to see who could shape taffy into boats that would float. Most boats sank quickly, but a few winners stayed up for several seconds. An 8-year-old girl was our champion, stretching several boats of Tootsie Roll (one of her secrets was to use at least two pieces), and a 5-year-old girl won for the longest time with a taffy boat. To make a taffy boat, mold your taffy into a bowl shape, and be sure not to poke holes in the bottom.

Diverting kids with a few bottles of bubble solution might have been be cheaper, cleaner, and a lot less work. But the kids had a great time (some played with candy for over an hour and a half!), and learned some science, and the candy experiments sure added a splash of color to an otherwise low-key afternoon.

More about Cocoa Butter Decorations

2011-07-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

We just finished a super-long car trip through Utah, Colorado, and South Dakota. I didn't get to tour the Sweet's candy factory in Salt Lake (another time!), but we did visit the La Chatelaine shop in Bozeman, Montana. Racking our brains and trying to remember what city they were in, we were lucky enough to look them up after we'd finished our lunch in Bozeman, or we would have missed our chance.

Not only did we buy a box of gorgeous truffles, but the saleslady explained how they created the cocoa butter decorations. She told me that the patterns come pre-printed on sheets of plastic, which are applied to the truffles as they come out of the enrobing machine, still warm. It made me wonder if I could warm the truffles up and use tissue paper to lift the patterns off, but I'm not sure I want to try. Halloween candy is fair game for experimentation, but gourmet truffles are another matter.

Cocoa Butter

2011-06-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

You might think that since chocolate bloom degrades the quality of a chocolate bar, cocoa butter on chocolate's surface is a bad thing. Think again.

Cocoa butter covers the surface of many gourmet chocolates. That's because the decorations are made with cocoa butter. We learned this at the recent Seattle Chocolate Salon, where vendors handed out samples of their wares to try. Many also spared a few minutes to answer questions from a curious candy experimenter.

The creators of La Chatelaine chocolate explained to me how the cocoa butter was dyed and applied to decorate their truffles. Cocoa butter coating doesn't degrade the taste at all--it was a real test of will to save these truffles for photographs before I could eat them. They taste as good as they look.

Amano Chocolate also had gorgeous truffles.

Apologies to the vendors whose wares I couldn't feature--I couldn't afford a box from everybody!
Maybe next year.

Candy Experiments Award

2011-06-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Great news--my Highlights article, "Candy Secrets," just won a 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing, proving once again that candy science is a real winner for kids and parents!

The Inventor of Jelly Belly Beans

2011-06-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

A great article about David Klein, who claims to have invented the Jelly Belly, and the crazy candy he's working on now.

Chocolate Bloom

2011-06-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I decided to revisit the Chocolate Bloom experiment. A chocolatier at Oh! Chocolate gave me a tip: if my melted chocolate bars aren't blooming, stir them with a pretzel or something. Without proper tempering, the stirred chocolate should quickly bloom.

So, last Wednesday, I liquified Hershey bars in the microwave, in the oven, and with a hair dryer, and dipped nearly a pack of pretzel sticks. At the end of the day there was no bloom anywhere. I decided to give up and start eating the pretzels.

But the bloom had gotten started, all right. By Friday, my chocolate bars were getting speckled. By today, they were spectacular.

These Hershey bars were melted twice in the microwave, then left in the kitchen window for a week. The bars on the left, which had been stirred, definitely bloomed. But so did the unstirred bars on the right. (Top: milk chocolate, bottom: Special Dark.)

This one was my favorite: it looks as if it had turned inside-out.

And what about those pretzels? By today, the uneaten survivors had bloomed too.

The lesson? If you're trying to create chocolate bloom, be patient. It might take a few days for the process to really work.

Coming Soon: the Candy Experiments book!

2011-06-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's official: my book Candy Experiments will be published next summer by Andrews McMeel. With several dozen great candy experiments, including several that have never been published, it'll have lots of fun ways to play with candy and learn science at the same time.

Blog Award

2011-06-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

Candyexperiments.com just received a Stylish Blogger award from the Homeschool Escapade blog, whose author commented, "Just wanted you to know how much your blog is appreciated (I love all the great ideas)."

Thanks!

Summer Learning at WeTeach

2011-06-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

The We Teach group has just published their summer learning ebook, including an activity from me based on Find Hidden Candy. Download the book for fun ways to include math, cooking, science, and many other subjects in your summer activities. You can also visit the We Teach website to learn more about the group, a resource for "anyone and everyone who teaches--no matter the classroom!"

Ice Bags--Frozen Fireworks?

2011-05-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

On the day we experimented with M&Ms and Ziploc bags of ice to learn about cold water currents, my son and daughter decided to fill baggies with water and put them in the freezer. (Note to self--no wonder I'm out of sandwich bags!)

When I cleaned out the freezer, hoping to sneak the water bags into the garbage, I was amazed by what I saw. Air bubbles had formed lines streaking out from the center of the ice, as if we'd frozen a firework explosion.

The explanation for this phenomenon has to do with the air in the water. PhD Martin Lersch writes in his food chemistry blog, Kymos, that room temperature water has air dissolved in it, and the amount of air it can hold increases as it gets colder. (I had to boil water to remove the air for my experiments with floating conversation hearts.) When the water freezes, "the water can no longer keep the air dissolved and a bubble is formed." If the ice were to freeze from the inside out, the air could escape naturally. However, since freezer ice freezes from the outside in, and (presumably) since our ice was enclosed in air-tight Ziploc bags, the air was trapped inside the ice. We froze the water in large amounts, which contained more air than regular ice cubes.

The result? Lots of trapped air bubbles forming slow-motion fireworks, a beautiful reminder of Nature's inexhaustible designs.

Egg Decorating

2011-05-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Whenever we do major candy experiments, I end up with stained countertops. So, this Easter, I thought we should try dying Easter eggs with candy.

The Laffy Taffy looked pretty good when it was stuck on the egg. However, when we peeled it off, only one egg had any color left.

We'll have to try better ways to transfer color next year when it's egg season again.

Pixy Stix Art

2011-05-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

A new use for Pixy Stix: sand art.

Pixy Stix After the Art

2011-05-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Of course, after you've opened all those Pixy Stix you have to do the acid test. (Pixy Stix are awesome to test, since they dissolve so fast.

Trying something new, my daughter mixed the baking soda with the Pixy Stix while the powder was still dry.

Then we poured in the water. Great bubbles!

Sinking Hearts, Rising Hearts

2011-05-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

What do romance novels have in common with candy experiments? They're both full of sinking and rising hearts.

Cake Mate hearts float nicely for a few minutes when you put them in water. As they do, they dissolve, shedding bright red sugar solution. The solution, denser than pure water, sinks.

Conversation hearts sink immediately. In some hearts, however, trapped air bubbles seem to emerge, floating upwards, sometimes carrying up candy particles. (Watch the blue heart in the right side of the bowl shedding pieces which float up to the surface.)

I can feel my heart rising already, can't you?

Candy Wrapper Dress

2011-05-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm not the only one finding new uses for candy.

Starburst wrapper dress video

Melted Gum

2011-05-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Note to self: next time I let my kids melt gum on a baking sheet, put down tinfoil! I keep forgetting this tip I've seen my readers use, and it would save me hours of work. I still haven't gotten all of the gum off.

Chromatography Methods

2011-05-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

The theory of chromatography is simple: you dab a dot of color onto a paper, stand the paper up in water, and let the rising water separate the colors by solubility. But how do you make sure the paper stays upright?

One easy method is to crease the chromatography paper vertically, then stand it in water. This works especially well if the bottom of the paper is cut flat (an angled bottom will make the paper tip.)

If the paper doesn't stand on its own, try folding the top of the paper over the side of the glass. Note that that this method is problematic: a professional biochemist cautioned me that surface tension between the glass and the paper might interfere with the capillary action causing the water to rise. However, it works well enough for M&M color separation, or the other basic chromatography we do in our kitchen. For better results, angle the bottom of the paper out so that the paper is not stuck to the glass.

If your chromatography paper is especially difficult to work with, clip it in place with clothespins or binder clips. Lay a pencil over the top of the glass and clip on the paper, forming a T with the paper hanging down, or take a shortcut and clip it to the side of the glass, as shown (angling the paper out from the glass, as above).

When doing chromatography with large groups, I use clothespins on a wire rack to suspend the chromatography papers over a dish of water. This way I only need one water container. (Make sure your scientists label their papers in pencil if they want to know which are theirs.)

Whatever chromatography method you use, make sure that the color dot is placed above the waterline. This is easy if you're hanging the paper--just hold the bottom edge in the water with the dot above the surface, then clip the paper in place. If you fold and stand your paper, make sure the dot is high enough so that it will still be dry when you stand up your paper. Then watch the water rise, and see what colors your dot is really made of.

CakeMate Hearts

2011-04-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

If you're not making cupcakes, there's only so much you can do with Cake Mate Valentine's hearts. After we had eaten our fill of the hearts a kind neighbor gave us, I wondered what we'd do with the rest. "How about candy experiments?" a friend suggested. Of course.

According to the label, these red hearts actually contain three dyes: Red 3, Red 40, and Yellow 6. When we tried chromatography, the red heart dye separated into at least two different colors, a pink and an orange.

If the color table on www.red40.com is accurate, we found Red 3 ("cherry-red") and Red 40 ("orange-red"). Yellow may have been too faint for us to see (this is common), it might not separate from the other dyes in water (for instance, if it moves at the same speed in water as one of the other dyes), or it may only have been used in the pink candy which we did not test.

We also wondered if the hearts would sink or float. Turns out they do both.

These two hearts were put in water at the same time. One sank quickly, while the other floated for several minutes. The floating heart had an air bubble trapped underneath, which probably helped the buoyancy.

Overall, the hearts floated at first, then sank, then returned to the surface as a dissolving mass of bubbles.

Easter Blue M's?

2011-04-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

Easter M&Ms come in such pretty colors that when we got some last year, we were excited to experiment with them. Sadly, the M&M colors were too faint for good chromatography--we could hardly see the colors on the paper, much less any separation. So this year, we decided to concentrate on the m's themselves.

First of all, are these m's made of the same stuff as normal white m's? Experimentation shows at least one difference: these m's seem to dissolve.

Blue streaks sinking down from the bottom of the m--dissolved blue dye?

That led us to the big question: do the blue m's float? What about all those little bunnies and sheep? Apparently so.

What about the speckles on the M&M eggs?

Yes, they float too.

Which leads me to my final question: how do they print the speckles on all sides of an oblong egg? Alas, experimentation can't answer that one.

Do hearts float or don't they?

2011-04-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

As I wrote previously, I've been wondering why Valentine's conversation hearts float if you leave them in water. My theory was that formation of air bubbles on the surface of the hearts made them float. So how could I test it?

Water has air dissolved in it. This air forms the bubbles you see when you start to heat water (as opposed to the bubbles formed by water vapor when water boils).* You can remove most of the air by boiling the water. So I boiled a pan.

After the pan had returned to room temperature (I helped it along by letting the full pan of hot water sit in a cold water sink), I filled cups with 1/2 cup each of normal tap water and boiled water. Here's what happened:

In my tap water cup, bubbles quickly developed on the hearts. In my boiled water cup, so few bubbles formed initially that I could still count them. Two of my tap water hearts were floating within an hour.

Floating hearts covered with bubbles.

The hearts in boiled water, on the other hand, took much longer. It was an hour and a half before one of the hearts was finally covered with enough tiny bubbles to start floating.

Why did the heart in boiled water float at all? Because even though I boiled the water, the water was continually exposed to air. I couldn't remove all the air unless I tried the process with vacuum equipment--which I don't have in my kitchen!

*For more information, visit The Engineering Toolbox.

Experiment: Cold Water Currents

2011-03-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

My son checked out the book Awesome Ocean Science by Cindy Littlefield,* and decided to try the experiment on Deep-Water Currents (pg 32). In this experiment, you fill a baking dish with tap water, put an ice pack in one end, drop one drop of food coloring in the water near the ice pack, and drop another drop near the opposite end of the pan. The food coloring near the ice pack starts moving in a streak towards the far end, while the opposite drop does not spread, showing how cold water from the ice pack pushes warmer water away.

Dye dropped in water near the ice has been pushed to the side, forming the streak.

Dye dropped in the corner away from the ice has formed a stationary puddle.

Since I hate using food coloring near small children (think of the stains!) and since I'm always wondering what candy will do in any situation, we decided to try this as a candy experiment. We set up our pan again, dropping single M&Ms in the water near the ice. Would the cold water push the candy dye?

M&Ms dropped in water near ice pack. The cold water has pushed the dye away in a streak.

As you can see, the first part of the experiment worked very well. The moving cold water pushed the M&M dye away from the ice, forming lovely streaks of color. Next we tried the experiment as instructed by the book, with M&Ms placed both close to the ice and far away. We expected the furthest M&M to dissolve into a round pool of color, as had our dye drop. But it didn't work quite that way.

M&Ms placed in water with ice pack. The color from the M&Ms in the corners has spread towards the ice pack, while the color from the M&Ms near the ice pack has spread away from the ice.

The M&M color in the corners didn't stay put. Instead, it pushed back towards the ice packs. Were we doing the experiment wrong, or was there another explanation?

I think there was another force acting upon the M&M color. As candy dissolves, the denser sugar water sinks to the bottom. With water continuing to sink, the widening puddle of color is pushed away from the candy. Since we'd placed our candy in a corner, the color had no place to go except towards the ice pack.

*Littlefield, Cindy A. Awesome Ocean Science. Nashville, TN: Williamson Books, 2003.

Cacao: Chocolate in Infancy

2011-03-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

My recent trip to Costa Rica showed me wonders I never thought I'd see in real life: wild parrots, foraging monkeys, and a river full of crocodiles. But the most exciting sight to a candy experimenter's eyes? A real life cacao tree.

Cacao flowers grow on the branches and trunk of the cacao tree throughout the year.* We spotted two tiny flowers sprouting from the main trunk well above our heads.

The flowers become pods, which take 5-6 months to grow to full size and mature.* We could only see one empty pod on our tree, chewed through by a foraging animal.

The beans from this cacao tree are far removed from the chocolate in my gourmet bar. After harvest, cacao beans must be fermented, dried, cleaned, roasted, and ground before they start to approach what I know as chocolate.* Furthermore, since this tree was located in Costa Rica's Las Pumas Rescue Center, its beans will never turn up in my chocolate blooming experiments. Still, as I admired the tree, I felt as if I were greeting an old friend.

*See Stephen T Beckett, The Science of Chocolate, page 14
*See Stephen T Beckett, The Science of Chocolate, chapters 2-3

Highlights Magazine gives award to "Candy Secrets" article

2011-03-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

I was very pleased to have my article "Candy Secrets," about candy experiments, published in Highlights magazine last October. Apparently the editors were also pleased by the article, because I have just received their Pewter Plate Award for "Nonfiction Feature of the Year." It's an actual engraved pewter plate, delivered to my doorstep yesterday afternoon.

I knew candy experiments were changing the world, but I didn't realize they'd been so well received in the world of children's literature. Thanks, Highlights!

A Healthy Airplane Snack?

2011-03-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

On a recent family plane trip, my husband bought a snack to keep my toddler happy for a few minutes. He chose the $3 Cranberry Nut Mix, which contained "Raisins, Cranberries, Yogurt Raisins, Yogurt Cranberries, Almonds & Walnuts." A healthy choice?

Not as healthy as he thought. "Yogurt" confectioner's coating, according to the USDA, is 62% sugar and 27% fat. (Ours also contained the artificial color titanium dioxide--that bright white doesn't come from yogurt!) Sweetened cranberries are 65% sugar according to the same website. Even naturally sweet raisins contain 59% sugar.

So what's the total amount of sugar in a 30 g serving of "healthy" nuts and berries? 16 grams, or 53%--the same as four mint Lifesavers.

We ended up protecting our child by eating the "yogurt" fruit ourselves.

This snack might be better named "Sugar Cranberry Nut Mix," since it's more than half sugar.

Ehow article on dissolving candy

2011-03-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

I was interested to find an ehow.com article on science projects which references my "Dissolving Hot/Cold" experiment The author instructs students to use candy such as Smarties, Lifesavers, or M&Ms, and to time with a stopwatch how long it takes the candy to dissolve. While timing how long it takes candy to dissolve could yield some interesting data, you need to choose carefully what kind of candy to test. Many candies, including Lifesavers and Smarties, take quite awhile to dissolve. M&M chocolate will not dissolve in cold water.

If you want to measure how long candy takes to dissolve, I suggest using something that dissolves quickly, like the candy shells on Skittles or M&Ms. Try timing how long it takes for the color to dissolve off of each piece. Otherwise, use small pieces of identical candy (I wonder if cinnamon hearts would dissolve quickly). Avoid doing this experiment with pressed dextrose candy such as Smarties (they take hours to dissolve) or chocolate (if you are trying to compare dissolving times).

Keeping Kids Busy

2011-02-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

Need a way to entertain your children? My two-year-old spent more than an hour dumping candy hearts in water, stirring the water, pouring the water into a cup--and then wiping up the sticky mess at the end! The quarter I paid for the box of candy was money well-spent.

Valentine Experiment: Floating Hearts

2011-02-13T23:20:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day means it's time for the mysteriously floating conversation hearts. This year I used Brach's Conversation Hearts.

Drop them in water, and they sink.

After an about an hour, they start to rise.

After two hours, they should all be bobbing at the surface.

Remove them from water (they're a little gooey), drop them back in, and they sink back to the bottom.

I'd love to know more about why they do this. My guess is that enough air bubbles collect on the hearts to make them float, but more research is definitely called for.

Candy Experiments on KidsHealth.org

2011-02-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

Candy experiments went live at Kidshealth.org recently, featured as part of their Valentine's Day center. The experiments will remain on the Kidshealth.org site permanently as part of their Game Closet (accessed from the side menu by clicking on the "Movies and Games" link.) All the photos are being used courtesy of candyexperiments.com.

Though the experiments are based candyexperiments.com experiments, you'll find great new information associated with each. For instance, in Acid Test you'll learn how our stomachs contain acid that helps us break down food, and Density Rainbow adds tidbits about bone density and calcium.

It's exciting to see candy experiments reach such a wide audience. KidsHealth.org is a great site to partner with. You'll enjoy clicking around to find nutrition information, advice on relationships, matter-of-fact treatment of sensitive subjects, and games that help kids think about nutrition and other aspects of health.

An Emergency Birthday Present

2011-02-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

We had a minor birthday party crisis recently when my daughter was invited to the birthday party of a boy she hardly knows. All she could tell me was his reading level ("He won't like chapter books, Mommy") and that he occasionally wears an Army necklace. What sort of present could I provide with so little information? Then we remembered: everybody loves candy experiments.

So we made a candy experiment kit, with POP ROCKS to dissolve, WARHEADS for the Acid Test, Starbursts for the Oil Test, Skittles for floating letters, and Lifesavers for Lifesaver Lights. Brand-new experiment cards contained the instructions for each experiment.

May his birthday be full of acid test bubbles, popping POP ROCKS, and all kinds of candy fun!

New Experiment Cards

2011-02-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

I put together a new set of experiment cards with eight experiments on a page. The new cards include Lifesaver Lights, What Makes Pop Rocks Pop, WARHEADS Acid Test, Hot/Cold Dissolving Race, Sink/Float, and Find Hidden Candy. Print them off to use in the kitchen, or pass them out as gifts or Trick-or-Treat prizes.

2011-02-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

What happens when you open a can of Tangerine Altoids, shut it again,

and leave it in the cupboard for five years?

Sticky puddles.

Tangerine Altoids are a type of candy known as a "sugar glass," like fruit Lifesavers or Jolly Ranchers. This type of candy is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water from the atmosphere. The Altoids in my tin absorbed enough water over five years that some of the candy liquified and puddled at the bottom of the tin.

Vitaminwater: Candy in Disguise

2011-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

Britain's Advertising Standards Authority just ruled that Coca Cola's vitaminwater "has too much sugar to be accurately described as nutritious," and that the company broke rules by advertising its products as "delicious and nutritious." How much sugar does one bottle actually have?

A fan photo on vitaminwater's Facebook page shows that an 8 oz serving in a bottle of Power-C dragonfruit flavored drink contains 13 g sugar. But the bottle holds 2.5 servings, or almost 33 grams of sugar. Drinking one bottle is like eating eight mint Life Savers plus an Altoid.

The company's product photos show only the side of the bottle with the list of vitamins, never the sugar content. Follow their links to the FAQ questions page (if your browser loads it at all), and you'll find this statement, which makes vitaminwater sugar sound downright nutritious: "we formulate vitaminwater with a blend of cane sugar (a pure, high-quality, natural sweetener that comes from the sugar cane plant) and crystalline fructose." But sugar is sugar, no matter how it's advertised as pure and natural. And the blurb doesn't say how much sugar there is.

Want to find drinks that really are "delicious and nutritious," as vitaminwater was once advertised to be? Check labels and play Find Hidden Candy. You'll learn more from the labels than from any advertisement.

Or have a cool drink of plain water. Now that's delicious.

Candy Experiments on Brazilian TV

2010-12-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

Candy experiments just received international recognition, as part of a Brazilian documentary about the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Noticing the popularity of our booth, the interviewer came over to ask us about what we were doing. My daughter and I both enjoyed being interviewed, but wondered if we would ever get to see the show. Thanks to a Brazilian dad who saw the show and sent us the link, we finally get to see it ourselves.

You can watch the show at the Globonews website. Our segment is in the second video, starting at about 1:20. Lucky that we were near the beginning!

Here's the rest of the email from the Brazilian dad:

"I saw your experiments on TV here in Brazil. I'll try to reproduce some of your suggestions to my son. My son is 5 years old, he is a candy lover and also a science enthusiastic, just like most kids I guess. So your initiative will fulfill his expectations :-) Great idea from you."

We're so pleased that candy experiments have crossed the border!

Candy Cane Countdown #1: Rubber Bandy Canes

2010-12-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

When we heated our candy canes, we expected them to bend. We didn't expect them to stretch--but some did. Here's how you can stretch one brand of candy canes like rubber bands.

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F and line a pan with foil (in case the candy cane melts too much.)
2. Place an unwrapped Bobs brand candy cane in the oven on a pan.
3. Wait about 5 minutes until the candy cane is warm but not yet melting.
4. Using tongs, pick up the candy cane and break it apart. Does the middle stretch?

Candy Experiments at Sensational Homeschooling

2010-12-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

My guest blog about holiday candy experiments just went up at sensationalhomeschooling.com. Since my readers can no longer access that site, here's a recap of the article:

At www.candyexperiments.com, we experiment with all sorts of candy to learn science lessons about melting, density, colored dyes, and ingredients. This month we looked for ways to use up some of our holiday candy and found these two experiments you can try at home:

Chromatography

Many candy colors are made by mixing dyes. You can separate these dyes with chromatography. While brown M&Ms are the most fun to separate (they form a rainbow of color), M&M green also separates.

To try chromatography with your green holiday M&Ms:

1. Cut a rectangle of coffee filter paper (about 4" x 2").

2. Wet a green M&M and dab a spot of color onto the paper, about one inch from the bottom.

3. Fill a glass with 1/2 inch of water.

4. Fold the paper vertically. Then stand it in the glass, with the color spot above the waterline. (If the paper doesn't stand up, fold the top over the edge of the glass, making sure the paper still touches the water.)

5. Wait a few minutes as water seeps up the paper. The water will dissolve the color spot and separate it into faint streaks of yellow and blue, with the blue on top.

Candy Canes vs. Sugar

Candy canes, which are made from a mixture of heated sugar and corn syrup, melt at a lower temperature than table sugar. Here's how you can see for yourself:

1. Line a baking sheet with foil and preheat your oven to 250 F.

2. Place a candy cane and a sugar lump on the baking sheet.

3. Heat in oven for 5-10 minutes. What happens to the candy cane? What happens to the sugar?

Candy Cane Shapes

Warm candy cane is pliable, or easy to bend. In the factory, straight sticks of warm candy are bent into curved candy canes, before they harden and cool. You can turn candy canes into other fun shapes by doing this:

1. Take a square of foil. Fold it several times lengthwise to make a long strip.

2. Shape your strip into a funny shape. You can fold it accordion-style to make a zig-zag, curve it gently up and down into S-shapes, or raise the edges up to form a C.

3. Lay the candy cane on top of the foil. Place in oven on baking sheet.

4. Wait several minutes. Does your candy cane melt into the shape of the foil?

(Note: since candy canes vary in size and ingredients, they will melt at different speeds. Check every few minutes; candy canes melted too long will turn into bubbling puddles.)

This holiday season, don't feel overwhelmed by too many holiday treats. Turn them into candy experiments. Soon the whole family--even you--will be begging for more.

Candy Cane Countdown #2: Mutant Candy Canes

2010-12-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

A candy cane doesn't start out as a cane. It starts out as a straight candy cane that's bent into shape while it's still warm. * You too can form candy canes into funny shapes. Here's how:

1. Preheat your oven to 250 F and line a baking sheet with tinfoil.
2. Fold a square of tinfoil into a rectangular strip about 3 inches wide (i.e. wider than the candy cane.) Then fold it into an interesting shape, like a zigzag, an S-curve, a bowl, or anything you like.
3. Place your unwrapped candy cane on top of the foil shape, put it on the pan, and heat in the oven for 5-10 minutes.** Check frequently until the candy cane has softens and sinks onto the mold.

Did you make a mutant candy cane?

Above: candy cane on foil shape

Below: same candy cane

Above: candy cane on foil shape

Below: same candy cane

Below: candy cane on zig-zag foil

*See Candy Canes at www.candyusa.com, published by the National Confectioner's Association.
**Melting times vary based on candy cane size.

Candy Cane Countdown #3: Bubbling Candy Canes

2010-12-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Want to turn your candy cane into a bubbling puddle? Try this.

A candy cane melted in the oven, then cooled and removed from foil.

1. Turn up the oven to 300 F, and put an unwrapped candy cane on a foil-lined pan.
2. Leave the candy cane in the oven for 5-10 minutes.*
3. After several minutes, your candy cane will melt into a bubbling pile of goo. (Don't touch--it's HOT!) Can you still see stripes?

*Melting times vary based on the size of the candy cane.

Candy Cane Countdown

2010-12-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

The other day my son was licking a candy cane. "Why does the red stripe turn pink?" he asked. As I explained that the red dye had thinned out to show the white beneath, I was reminded how everyday questions can lead to all sorts of interesting lessons--and candy experiments.

We've been having lots of fun getting new experiments ready for the holiday season, like Mutant Candy Canes, Bubbling Candy Canes, and Rubber Bandy Canes. Check back over the next few days to see them yourself!

To get in the candy cane spirit, check out these web pages from the National Confectioner's Association:
--How Candy Canes are Made
--Fun Facts about Candy Canes

Sticky Candy

2010-12-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

In which my son mashes warm candy into his own invented sticky stew--and becomes my competition!

Braiding Candy Experiments

2010-12-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

My daughter came up with a new candy experiment: braiding Twizzlers. She separates out the strands, then braids them together for decorations. Since she wanted to explain her craft to the world, here's the video.

Here's the finished product.

Candy Experiments To Be Used on KidsHealth.org

2010-12-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

For the record, I found them before they found me.

It was last spring that I stumbled onto the candy-eating pumpkin on KidsHealth.org, a calorie-counting game. Even though I knew it was most appropriate for Halloween, it was too fun to save, so I blogged about it right away. I was impressed that the website was funded by a nonprofit dedicated to children's heath, instead of corporate sponsors, and that their activities were both entertaining and educational.

Now KidsHealth.org has found candy experiments.

Since candy experiments fit so well into the KidsHealth.org mission and methods, KidsHealth.org will soon be publishing ten candy experiments on their website. I'll be excited to see how they turn out.

Especially if they put the experiments near the candy-eating pumpkin.

More Pictures from DC

2010-11-30T22:37:00.000-08:00

These photos were taken by the official photographers of the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Since they just put the link up, I thought I'd share. Here are a few highlights:

--Check out this picture to see how much sugar is in a bottle of orange soda (count the Life Savers on the white scale in the bottom right corner). On the right you can see the chromatography setup--each clothespin held a paper in the water. (At home you can just fold the paper to stand it up, fold the top of the paper over the lip of the cup, or attach it to a pencil laid over the top; this was mass-production chromatography.

--This picture shows my daughter demonstrating how sour Warheads are. She's only 7 1/2, but she worked at the booth as many hours as I did.

Candy Experiment Tips

2010-11-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

As families out on the internet report on their candy experiments, I'm learning new things myself! For instance:

--one mom covers her baking sheet with tinfoil before melting candy on it. Why didn't I think of that? It would have saved me hours of scrubbing.
--one mom had a hard time pouring the density rainbow over the spoon, so she used a syringe instead. Perfect rainbow.
--Monitor your candy as you melt it--if your microwave is hotter than mine, you definitely don't want to microwave a Starburst for a whole minute.

Thanks for sharing your ideas, and for helping me improve candy experiments.

Freezing Fun

2010-11-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a candy experiments report from one reader, whose son Daniel and daughter Naomi got creative with the freezer:

"We found your site last year, and we love our new tradition of doing experiments on our Halloween candy! I wanted to share one our kids came up with. Perhaps it might be something others would like to do. We took the water experiments one step further and froze our candy. I've attached three pictures as examples. We used a cup and a small bowl for water with Nerds in it. You will see that they partially dissolved and mixed with the water to different degrees depending on the size of the container. The third item used Multi-colored Lemonheads in a small bowl. They partially dissolved as well, and left a bubble pattern on the bottom. [See her pictures below.]

For the experiment, we filled the containers with water, dumped the candy in, then immediately put them in the freezer. Depending on the size of the container, there were different effects. I am assuming that this is due to the time it takes to freeze - less or more time for the candy to change state. It might be interesting to try with milk or juice as well. And of course, different kinds of candy. Larger pieces, like jawbreakers or gumballs, would be interesting.

Thanks for your site!"

What experiments is your family coming up with? Let us know!

Candy Nerds in frozen water 1

Candy Nerds in frozen water 2

Sour Lemonheads in frozen water

New Density Rainbow Video

2010-11-10T23:47:00.001-08:00

Several people, including my own mother, have mentioned that the density rainbow is hard to do. I hope this video will be helpful.

Stretchy

2010-11-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

One mother emailed to say that at their recent candy experiments party, they stretched Laffy Taffy to a length of 1.75 yards! My kids and I had to try it. I wasn't sure how to stretch the candy that far, so I rolled it instead into a strand about 2 1/2 feet long (the length of my cutting board).

When I was a child I made taffy with my grandmother once--the last step was to butter our hands and stretch it out. It's funny to think that this reader is just treating taffy as it's supposed to be treated.

Wonder what other kinds of candy you can stretch that far? We will definitely have to investigate this further.

DC photos

2010-11-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Memories from the USA Science and Engineering Festival:

The booth, located on Pennsylvania Avenue near Freedom Plaza

Experiments with kids, including Chromatography and Find Hidden Candy

The crowd--we were swamped nearly every second

The Sour Bubble Acid Test with Warheads