Have lots of leftover Valentine’s Day candy? Expand your mind instead of your teeth (or mom and dad’s waistlines).
We actually did this one last year and ran out of time to post it!
Experiment – Do Candy Hearts Dissolve More Quickly In Hot or Cold Water?
Materials
- two bowls of water, one hot, one ice-cold
- two candy hearts
- pencils and pads
Directions:
1. Form a hypothesis. My children predicted that both hearts would dissolve but the one with the hot water would dissolve more quickly.
2. Create a T-chart and write “cold” on one side and “hot” on the other side.
3. Drop one candy heart into the bowl of ice water and one into the bowl of hot water.
2. Observe what happens every ten minutes.
(My son is 2.5 in this picture and he’s not really writing. We give him a journal to record his observations anyway, even if they are just scribbles!)
My kids noticed that both hearts sank and that the heart in the hot water bowl not only began dissolving immediately, it also began fizzing, creating a heart-shaped ring of bubbles!
We also noticed that the heart in the hot water left a lot of blue residue. After an hour, the heart in the cold water had not dissolved noticeably.
Why? The candy in the hot water dissolves more quickly because the heat makes the molecules move faster!
What a fun experiment – perfect for the little guys!
How clever! Thanks for such a great idea for the leftover valentine candy
Ohhh – I love this! Sharing on Google+, what a great way to teach the scientific method!
Great experiment and fun for the kids to learn…especially fun when learning with candy!! 🙂