Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Candy Thanksgiving!
The M&Ms candy shell dissolves in water, but each solution is so dense that the colored fluids push against each other instead of mixing. Meanwhile, surface tension on the edges of the pool hold the water in as the color spreads.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
3 Great Gummy Worm Science Experiments
Need a fun science activity? With these gummy worm science experiments, you can make gummy candy grow, shrink, and even dance! These gummy worm experiments can keep kids entertained and teach science at the same time.
Read on to find instructions for three favorite candy experiments with gummy worms.
Try this growing gummy worm science experiment to turn gummy worms into monster gummy snakes. All you have to do is put them in water for two days. The gummy worms absorb water, and the gelatin in the gummy worms both traps the water molecules and holds the gummy worms together. The result? Two days later, you’ll have enormous gummy worms.
You can also do this with gummy bears and some fruit snacks, as long as they contain gelatin.
1.Growing Gummy Worms
Try this growing gummy worm science experiment to turn gummy worms into monster gummy snakes. All you have to do is put them in water for two days. The gummy worms absorb water, and the gelatin in the gummy worms both traps the water molecules and holds the gummy worms together. The result? Two days later, you’ll have enormous gummy worms.
You can also do this with gummy bears and some fruit snacks, as long as they contain gelatin.
2. Shrinking gummy worms
Shrink candy in this gummy worm science fair experiment. Prepare different solutions such as orange juice, different concentrations of salt water, and different concentrations of sugar water. Make a hypothesis (prediction) about which solution will shrink the gummy candy most, and test it for your science fair project. You can learn more about the science here.
3. Dancing gummy worms
For this experiment, slice several gummy worms in half lengthwise, soak them in baking soda water, and put them in a cup full of vinegar. The worms will start floating! (See this Scholastic article for more details.)
Enjoy Your Gummy Experiments!
Enjoy making gummy worms grow, shrink, and dance. And check candyexperiments.com for more ways to destroy candy and learn science!Shrinking Gummy Worms
Shrink candy in this science experiment. You can even do this as a gummy worm science fair project.
Gummy worms contain water, which is what makes them chewy. When you put a gummy worm in a cup of salt water, the water flows out of the gummy worm into the salt water. This is because water naturally flows from a less concentrated solution (the gummy bear) to a more concentrated solution (the salt water). This process is called osmosis.
This experiment can be found in the book Candy Experiments 2.
What to do:
- Prepare several cups of water. Measure out salt or sugar and add to each cup. For instance, you might add one tablespoon of salt to one cup, two tablespoons of salt to a second cup, one tablespoon of sugar to a third cup, and so on. (Make sure to write down how much salt or sugar you added to each cup.)
- Make a hypothesis (prediction) about which solution will shrink the gummy candy most. Put a gummy worm in each cup of water.
- Leave the worms in water for up to two days.
- Remove each worm and measure it to see how much it shrank or grew.
- Write down your results and to learn if your hypothesis was correct.
What's Happening:
Gummy worms contain water, which is what makes them chewy. When you put a gummy worm in a cup of salt water, the water flows out of the gummy worm into the salt water. This is because water naturally flows from a less concentrated solution (the gummy bear) to a more concentrated solution (the salt water). This process is called osmosis.
This experiment can be found in the book Candy Experiments 2.
3 Fun Halloween Games
Here are three fun candy Halloween activities that will get your whole family celebrating.
1. Don’t Eat Pete!
In the game “Don’t Eat Pete,” players get to eat candy on every turn. It’s a way to be silly, make some noise, and eat candy all at the same time.To play, draw a 3 x 3 grid on a piece of paper, and put a small candy, like an M&M or a jelly bean, in each square. Have a leader secretly choose a piece to be “Pete.” Then let the rest of the people take turns eating the candy. When someone eats the chosen piece, the leader yells “Don’t eat Pete!” and you start a new round.
For an alternative version, send one player out of the room and have the rest of the group choose “Pete.” Then the player returns and starts eating the candy. When the player eats “Pete,” everybody yells together, “Don’t eat Pete!”
2. M&M Knife Game
In the M&M Knife Game, each player gets to scoop up their own candy--with a knife! Fill a bowl with M&M’s, then pass around a butter knife and let each person try to scoop up a serving of candy. You’ll have a great time watching the tricks and techniques kids use to keep candy from sliding off the knife blade.3. Guess the Number of Candies--With Math!
Fill a small glass jar with candies and have people guess how many are in the jar. But they can use math to guess!Use a scale to weigh an empty jar, weigh the full jar to find the weight of the candy, and weigh extra candy pieces to find their individual weight. Then divide the weight of the candy by the weight of one candy to find how many there are total.
You can also invite kids to count the pieces they see and guess how many more there are, or just guess wild numbers. After the game, give the candy to the winner--or let everyone eat it together!
Keep Your Halloween Fun
This year, turning away from extra Halloween activities can help us turn towards our families instead. Dress up in costumes, carve your favorite Jack-o’-lanterns, and play the silliest Halloween games you can think of. Because Halloween’s not just about candy--it’s about having fun together.Need more family Halloween activities? You can find candy science ideas on the Candy Experiments page.
4 Great Experiments for Destroying Halloween Candy
Overloaded with Halloween candy? It’s time to get your candy bubbling, breaking, melting, freezing, and oozing with candy experiments.
Here are four great ways to get your kids destroying candy and learning science at the same time.
1. Acid Test Station
Set up a table with bowls, water, and baking soda so that kids can dissolve candy and mix in baking soda to test it for acid. Keep some vinegar nearby to make a lot of bubbles for a final show-stopper!Encourage kids to tell you what else they notice. What does the mix smell like? What colors do they see? What happens when they mix the colors? Little kids have a lot of fun just unwrapping candy and dumping it in, so give them a bowl and a big spoon and watch what happens!
2. Melting Station
When you melt candy, amazing things happen. Not only do you create beautiful pools of colored candy, you see secret ingredients like palm oil.
Try melting candy on a microwavable plate to reveal secret ingredients or have melting races. Or cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and put on several different kinds of candy to see how they melt and which survives the longest!
3. Sink and Float Station
Can you sink a marshmallow? Can you float a piece of taffy? Smash the air bubbles out of a 3 Musketeers bar, or unwrap floating candy to remove trapped air pockets?
4. Creation Station
What about all extra candy that no one’s going to eat? Set up a Creation Station and let your kids just play around. They can stick candy together to make art, braid Red Vines, add M&M’s eyeballs, or try painting with M&M's.
Enjoy Your Crazy Candy Experiments Lab!
Once you've got your laboratory set up, your kids will have lots of activities to choose from. So get out the candy, stand back, and let your kids go crazy!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 create their own candy science experiments.
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
6 Ways to Destroy Easter Peeps With Candy Experiments
What's more fun than eating Peeps? Destroying them with candy experiments!
Here are some favorite Peeps experiments from around the internet.
When you microwave marshmallow Peeps, the water trapped inside turns to steam while the gelatin softens, causing the marshmallow to expand. But if the Peeps dry out and go stale, there’s less water to help them expand. That’s why stale Peeps don’t get nearly as big in the microwave--and why they won’t win the jousts.
Check out this Smithsonian video to learn more.
Here are some favorite Peeps experiments from around the internet.
1. Peeps Duel
Have your Peeps duel each other. Stick a toothpick in each Peeps marshmallow and put two in the microwave facing each other. The first Peep to touch the other with a toothpick wins the duel.2. Testing Stale Peeps
What can you do with old Peeps? Well, they won’t win any jousting contests.When you microwave marshmallow Peeps, the water trapped inside turns to steam while the gelatin softens, causing the marshmallow to expand. But if the Peeps dry out and go stale, there’s less water to help them expand. That’s why stale Peeps don’t get nearly as big in the microwave--and why they won’t win the jousts.
Check out this Smithsonian video to learn more.
3. Smashing Peeps with Dry Ice
Want to smash Peeps with a hammer? Put them in a cooler with some dry ice. The dry ice freezes the water and gelatin, making your Easter candy as brittle as ice.4. Giant Peeps, Shrinking Peeps
When you put marshmallows inside a sealed container and vacuum out the air, they grow! Let the air out again, and they collapse.5. Sink a Peeps
Peeps float because they're less dense than water--all those air bubbles spread the sugar out. But if you smash the Peeps to destroy the air bubbles and make it smaller, you can teach it to swim!
6. Bleach the Peeps
Peeps are covered with colored sugar, which dissolves in water. But because the Peeps marshmallow contains gelatin, the marshmallow part doesn’t dissolve. Place the Peeps in water to create stripes!
Ultimate Destruction!
To see how the scientists destroy Peeps, watch these videos from the Great Lakes Science Center. See Peeps dissolve in sulferic acid, vaporize in molten chlorate, and get electrocuted!
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