by Loralee Leavitt
Do you have resolutions for the New Year? Like cleaning out your
cupboards? Helping your family cut back on sweets? Teaching your
children more science? With candy experiments, you can do all these.
Just pull out any leftover Halloween candy, winter candy canes, and
holiday goodies, and use them for fun science activities that your
kids will love.
ACID TEST:
Sour candy contains acid. Acid reacts with baking soda to
create bubbles. So if you dissolve candy and add baking soda, you can
watch the bubbles to see how much acid each candy has. To test your
candy for acid, fill several cups or bowls with about ½ cup of warm
water each. Let the candy dissolve as much as you can, stirring or
breaking up candy to dissolve it faster. Then add about ¼ tsp baking
soda to each cup. Which bubbled the most? Was it the sourest?
Sink and Float:
Fill a large bowl with cool water, and drop in candies to see
which sink and which float. Then cut the candies open to examine the
insides. Candies like 3 Musketeers, Whoppers, and chocolate
marshmallows contain air bubbles that help them float, while candy
that sinks is often solid in the middle. You can also test candy bars
that are still wrapped. Do the wrapped bars float better than the
unwrapped ones? Do they still float if you tear the wrappers to
release the trapped air?
Melting:
Some candy melts quickly. Some melts
slowly. Some doesn’t melt at all. To see which is which, place
different candies on a foil-lined baking sheet and put in a 300 F
oven. (Never heat a Jawbreaker.) Check every few minutes to see what
is happening. Candy like Smarties and Jolly Ranchers melt fairly
quickly, creating candy puddles; chocolate bars melt away from their
fillings; and mint Life Savers don’t melt at this temperature. You’ll
also be able to point out oil spots in candies like Tootsie Rolls and
Starbursts, as the melted oil pools on top of the sugary candy.
Stickiness:
If you have any sticky candy, try the sticky test. Which
candy is stickiest? Can you make it stickier by rolling it or warming
it in your hands? Pull out the rest of your leftover candy, and let
your kids stick it all together to make crazy shapes and sculptures.
No matter which experiments you choose, your kids will have a great
time in the candy lab. And as you clean leftover candy out of your
cupboards, teach your kids about the ingredients hidden in their sweet
treats, and enjoy science activities together, you’ll know you’re
starting the year off right!
****Loralee Leavitt is the creator of www.candyexperiments.com, which
features these and many more experiments. She will be presenting
candy experiments at the 2012 USA Science and Engineering Festival in
Washington D.C., and her book on Candy Experiments will be published
in October 2012.