Dissolving Candy Cane Science Experiment

 

With the festive season being here, you may already have a packet of candy canes laying around, if not, they are not too hard to find. You will need some candy canes and a variety of different liquids to complete this STEM challenge. 

 

There are many different ways to complete this dissolving candy canes science experiment, and you will find a printable worksheet at the bottom of this post to help your children to record their findings. If you want, you can adding weighing and recording the weight of the candy canes before the experiment, which can be recorded in the before section on the worksheets. 

 

You can also choose to time this experiment, recording the time taken for each candy cane in the specific liquid to dissolve under the after section on the worksheet.

To complete this experiment, you will need:

To Complete this experiment, first, label your cups or bowls with the liquid that you are going to use in them.

 

If using the worksheet, record the weight and draw a picture of the candy canes or peppermints that you are going to be using.

 

Place the same amount of liquid into each cup or bowl. eg. 1 cup in each bowl.

 

NOTE: Young children will need help when handling the boiling water.

 

 

Carefully add one candy cane to each of the cups or bowls. 

 

NOTE: You could also use round peppermints instead of or as well as the candy canes.

 

Set the timer to record how long each peppermint or candy cane takes to dissolve. Or, you could set it for 2 minutes than check to see how the candy canes / peppermints are going and then keep checking every 2 minutes until they are completely dissolved.

Once you have completed the experiment, record your results and discuss why candy canes dissolving at a different rate in different liquids.

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