Candy Cane Fun

I am not sure why, but my girls love candy canes! I am guessing it is their interesting shape more then anything.  Although I suppose being made of sugar helps some too! I have seen people all over Pinterest bending their candy canes into shapes, so I thought I would try too.  I figured the little candy canes would be easiest because they are small, so they should heat up quickly. I didn't even consider it might work the opposite way, and they would cool down just as quick!

So I started with a 300 degree oven and a bunch of little candy canes.  I wanted to turn them into letters.

I baked them for 4 minutes and they were hot! Too hot to handle! I let them cool a bit and was able to start forming some letters. They cooled to fast though and had to be returned to the oven. This time for just 3 minutes.  After that I was able to make a couple more letters.  Again the candy canes would cool off and have to go back in the oven.  I think I repeated this 6 times and still didn't have all my letters! Talk about frustrating!

My letters were also not smooth and pretty likes the ones I had seen.  They were all smushed where I tried to join them. Especially when they got hot and melty.  So I decided to dip them in chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better, especially peppermint! 

I did discover that if you lift them when the chocolate is almost dry you get much nicer edges!

I had hoped the girls would be able to play with the candy canes like they did on Preschool Powol Packets, but these little ones got too hot and just didn't work well.  We may have to try some of the big ones we have!

While I was messing with the little candy canes I let the girls do a different experiment with a big cherry flavored one.  We have previously placed Skittles in water to see the S's come off, so we did the same with the candy cane to see what happened to it.  

Bria predicted the stripes would come off.

And almost immediately the stripes started getting fuzzy.

The girls ran off for a few minutes, and when they returned not only were the stripes gone, but most of the candy cane piece! All that was left was this little sliver.

Bria stuck it back in and waited a few more minutes.  It was gone! Completely dissolved! At this point the girls insisted the resulting greenish water would now taste like the candy cane, so I let them try it. They both willing tried it, but neither of them thought it had the same cherry flavor!

Next time we will try the big candy canes for sure, but at least you don't have to experience the same frustration!

Experimenting with Skittles

I bought a huge bag of skittles for Bria's My Little Pony Party, and most of them did not get eaten.  Luckily I remembered seeing some experiments using skittles on Candy Experiments.  I decided on two of them (Density Rainbow and Floating S's), and we got to work.  For some reason I don't really have any clear bowls, so we used some wine glasses instead.  I also heated all my water in the microwave because I am terribly impatient and did not want to attempt dissolving skittles in room temperature water.

I started with 7 glasses (6 for the Density Rainbow and 1 for the Floating S's).  I sorted out my skittles for the Density Rainbow and set them in front of the appropriate glass: 2 red, 4 orange, 6 yellow, 8 green, and 10 purple).

Then I added 2 tablespoons of heated water to each of the 5 glasses and added the skittles that were next to the glass.

And waited. And stirred.

And waited. And re-heated.

And finally after about 40 minutes they were dissolved!  Time to make a rainbow. I started by pouring the purple into the empty cup.  Then very carefully using a syringe I added the green.  I had to place the tip of the syringe against the glass as I pushed the plunger slowly to prevent the liquids from mixing.

Then we tried to add the yellow by slowly pouring it over the back of a spoon held against the glass.  That didn't work too well for us.  So now we had a weird colored layer with some purple still at the bottom, so we went back to the syringe for the orange and red.

It didn't turn out perfectly since our yellow and green mixed a bit with the purple, but we had some layers at least.  Since it is just sugar water the colors did end up mixing together the longer it sat, but for a while you could see how more sugar made a denser water that would stay at the bottom while less sugar made a less dense water that would float on the top similar to oil.

Our Floating S's experiment was started at the same time as the Density Rainbow, but it wasn't as involved. I filled the last glass about 2/3 full with the warm water and had Nadia throw in some random skittles.  Then we just let them set while we worked on the other experiment.

Once we had finished the Density Rainbow we could clearly see that the skittles in the other glass sank to the bottom while the S's on the outside of the skittles floated to the top.  When you do this you have to be careful not to mix the water or you will break the S's!

Pop Rocks Science: Capturing Carbon Dioxide

     We were at Pizza Hut when Bria started staring at the bubbles in my cup.  I tried to explain to her that pop has bubbles because it has a gas (carbon dioxide) in it. I don't know that she really understood, but it did give me an idea.

     We had some Pop Rocks here, and they, like pop, are made with carbon dioxide (Pop Rocks FAQ).  I know Bria has had Pop Rocks before, but she didn't seem to remember them. First I let her and Nadia each eat some (of course).

     Then I had them put some in a dish of water to see what would happen.  They could see that as the Pop Rocks dissolved in the water gas was released in the form of bubbles. They could also hear the crackling of the gas breaking out of the candy.

     Next to actually show them the gas I decided to combine Pop Rocks and Pepsi to blow up a balloon.  I did one with baking soda and vinegar as well for comparison.  I started by putting baking soda in one balloon and Pop Rocks in another.  I added vinegar to one bottle and Pepsi to another.  I didn't use any exact amounts, but you definitely don't need much vinegar and baking soda!  Here is a site with more exact amounts for your vinegar and baking soda (Balloon Blow Up).

     I put each balloon on the top of their respective bottle and had each girl hold the end of a balloon. When we were ready I had them both hold the balloon up straight to dump the contents into the bottle.

                                                 

 Both balloons inflated although you can see the Pop Rocks balloon didn't get nearly as big as the baking soda balloon.

    

Growing, Disappearing, and Rubberizing Gummi's

     I had considered doing the expanding gummi bear experiment for a while, but never remembered to until seeing it the other day on pinterest. So while it was fresh in my head (and I was headed out of the house) I bought gummis. We ended up with dinosaurs, but I figured they would work just as well as bears.

     When i asked the girls what would happen when we put the dinosaur in water they quickly remembered our naked egg experiment (Naked Eggs) and said they would grow.  So I decided we would also try the vinegar and corn syrup like we did with the eggs.  They thought they might grow with the vinegar and they would shrink with the corn syrup.  We started with three bowls: one of water, one of vinegar, and one of corn syrup.  The girls each ate a couple dinosaurs and then each chose one to put in each bowl.  

Water

Vinegar

Corn Syrup

     After just a few hours you could already see some changes. The dinosaurs in the water were larger. The ones in the vinegar were smaller and the vinegar was changing color. The ones in the corn syrup appeared the same.

Water

Vinegar

Corn Syrup

     Left overnight you could really see changes. The dinosaurs in the water were bigger, and when you felt them they were squishy and broke apart easily.  The dinosaurs in the vinegar had completely dissolved. The dinosaurs in the corn syrup still appeared the same. However when you took them out to feel them they were pretty hard and rubbery.

Water

Vinegar

Corn Syrup

     So really the dinosaurs worked similar to our egg. The water flowed in by osmosis making the gummis bigger, the mild acid of vinegar dissolved them, and the corn syrup sucked out the small amount of water in them (again through osmosis)  leaving behind very tough gummis.  So it isn't really rubber, but it sure felt like it trying to stab it with a fork. Nadia also wanted eat them. She had a real hard time getting a bite!