I am pretty sure that Fall is my favorite season. We have thoroughly enjoyed apple science, pumpkin science, Fall STEM, and spooky Halloween science {try out all those orange links!} together. Fall dissolving candy is a neat science experiment that is easy to set up with only simple supplies needed! Dissolving candy science is also a great activity to set up around times when your stock of candy is abundant! Candy corn, peeps, gum drops, there’s so much to explore!

FALL DISSOLVING CANDY CORN STEM ACTIVITIES

Our fall dissolving candy is a great visual science experiment which you can also add some math too. You can do more than dissolving candy as well with your left over goodies! Check out our peppermint oobleck, and candy math ideas for more candy STEM activities!

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FALL DISSOLVING CANDY EXPERIMENT AND CANDY STEM IDEAS

All you need for these dissolving candy and STEM activities are a few ingredients from the pantry and your favorite Fall candy. My husband is big on peeps and candy corn. Neither are my favorite but somehow, as soon as the grocery store stocks them, so do we! This was the first time my son tasted either of them and he was hooked! Perfect time to use up some of what brought home and have a little STEM fun!

SUPPLIES

Candy Corn

Peeps {ghosts and pumpkins},

Water, vinegar, oil, seltzer, cornstarch,

Toothpicks

Clear cups

I also used my iPhone as a timer for the dissolving candy experiment but any timer will do.

FALL DISSOLVING CANDY EXPERIMENT SET UP

We used 5 liquids: cold water, hot water, oil, vinegar, and seltzer as our potential dissolvers. We did two rounds. The first round we did peeps {both pumpkins and ghosts}. The second round we used our candy corn. It was perfect to use to different candies because we quickly found out that the peeps simply floated, but the candy corn sank. They also have two very different dissolving candy times which raises some interesting questions.

Extension: For an older child, this dissolving candy activity would make a great entry for a science journal where he or she can take notes and record times!

Within minutes are dissolving candy science experiment was well underway with the candy corn!

It was particularly interesting how the waxy layer on the surface pulled away from the candy first. We actually repeated this a couple times since my son was so interested in it! Which liquid will dissolve the candy corn the fastest. Make your predictions and test your theories! This is a much quicker dissolving candy experiment if you need results right away!

We did the exact same experiment with pumpkin and ghost peeps! I left the timer running for quite a long time! Peeps float which creates a whole new kind of experiment. Would you do anything differently to change the experiment? The results over an extended period of time were interesting.

CANDY CORN STRUCTURES

While we had the candy corn bag out and we were watching our candy dissolving activity unfold, I grabbed a container of toothpicks to see if we could build structures with candy corn. It is challenging but not impossible. There was some trial and error and the candy corn will break if you are not very careful. We discovered some techniques for making it work though. Overall the building activity taught problem solving skills, creative thinking, and patience even if it did not yield incredible structures. Gumdrops are much less frustrating for structure building if you need an alternative!

CANDY CORN OOBLECK

One of our other favorite dissolving candy science activities is to test them out with a non-newtonian fluid! Our peppermint oobleck was a hit! Check out the recipe to make this Non-Newtonian fluid and read about the science behind it. Add a handful of candy corn and observe both the cool science behind the activity and the dissolving candy! Makes great tactile sensory play too.