STEAM /October (10/30)
Kitchen Science - Candy Science
Experiment 1 – Floating Letters Try this at home!
Skittles or M&M’s. Place some Skittles or M&Ms in the bottom of a cup, with the “M” or “S” facing up.
Now
carefully pour in about 4cm of water, try not to disturb the candy too much as
you do this.
Watch what happens. It
should take about five to 10 minutes.
Eventually the “M” or “S” on each candy will peel off and float to the
surface, but the candy stays intact.
Candy hearts or Necco discs
Cups for 7up or Sprite
1-2 Necco disc candies
Tall clear glass
Fill the glass nearly to the top with pop. Take the candy and one at a time drop them
in. After 2 minutes, what happens to the
candy and what happens to the pop?
Experiment 3 – Floating / Sinking Candy Bars
Mini chocolate bars: Twix, Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, and
Kit Kat
Some things sink and some things float. This all has to do with upthrust-the force that pushes up on things in a liquid. The size of upthrust is the same as the weight of water an object pushes out of
the way. If the upthrust is greater than the weight of the object, the object
floats. Otherwise, it sinks.
Start by talking about a HYPOTHESIS sheet. Predict and record whether the candy will SINK OR FLOAT. Now test your guesses. Talk about the
ingredients and how the Twix, Milky Way, and Snickers all had ingredients that
were heavier than water (nuts, caramel, etc.)
The middle of the 3 Musketeers has a lot of air, which makes it lighter
than water and will float. What other foods may float? (marshmallows…)
Experiment 4 – Pop Rocks Expander Try this fun one
Pop rocks
candy
Small
individual bottles of 7up or sprite
Balloons
Add Pop Rocks into the balloon. Now take the cover off the bottle of pop and pull the balloon over the pop opening. Tip the Pop Rocks into the pop. As the balloon expands, talk about how both Pop Rocks and Pop have Carbon Dioxide in them. In fact, Pop Rocks even lists carbon dioxide as an ingredient. The carbon dioxide from both ingredients makes the balloon inflate.
