Gummy Bear Experiment: Dissolving Gummy Bears

We don’t tend to purchase candy but my son loves his gummy bear snacks and thinks those are his candy treats! I needed a quick activity to keep us busy. This is easy and fun to set up in the kitchen and check on through out the day. If you have left over candy from a holiday or party it is also the perfect kitchen science experiment to use some of it rather than eat it all!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT A GUMMY BEAR IN VINEGAR

Simple Science Around the House

A fun gummy bear experiment all in the name of science and learning! There are so many simple kitchen science experiment activities that are quick and easy to set up for young children. Older children can easily add data collection, graphing and charts to turn this simple edible science experiment into more of a challenge!

Make your own homemade gummy bears with our easy 3 ingredient gummy bear recipe. Then head into the kitchen to grab your supplies and let’s find out what happens when you add gummy bears to a variety of different liquids. I wonder which liquid will dissolve the gummy bear the fastest.

GUMMY BEAR EXPERIMENT

YOU WILL NEED:

a variety of different liquids (water, salt water, vinegar, oil and ice tea)
5 to 10 gummy bears (Plus a few extra to snack on, of course!)
5 small containers

GUMMY BEARS EXPERIMENT SETUP

STEP 1. Carefully measure and pour 5 different liquids: water, salt water, vinegar, oil and ice tea into your containers.

STEP 2. Put one or two gummy bears into each liquid.

STEP 3. Then set the tray aside and wait to observe what will happen.

OUR DISSOLVING GUMMY BEAR OBSERVATIONS

After about 15 minutes we took a look at our results and then we checked again in a half hour and an hour. The salt water was the winner and dissolved the gummy bear the fastest. The oil did not change the gummy treats at all.

He really enjoyed getting up on his little chair at the kitchen counter to see which ones were changing and dissolving or disappearing as he likes to call it.

From top to bottom and left to right; water, salt water, oil, vinegar and iced tea

Our observations after a hour. See below.We observed the oil remained the same and the vinegar was not as fast as the water or saltwater. The tea also took a bit longer but did completely dissolve the bunny gummy.

Check out what’s in your pantry and you can probably throw together a pretty easy dissolving kitchen science experiment right away. Any left over candy you want to use up?