Floating M M&M Candy Experiment Science Activity

Have you ever tried to make the M of an M&M candy float? We did! The floating M is easy, quick, and pretty cool! We went crazy with the candy science and the candy math activities this Fall. We had tons of Halloween candy leftover. Since we don’t need to eat all of it {but we enjoyed some of it}, we can use it for learning and experimenting instead.

Floating M Science Experiment with M&M’s Candy

Candy science is hands on learning that’s tasty, fun, and educational too. Of course you might have to try a piece or two in the process like we did with our Candy Taste Test Experiment! Now that was a science for the senses! Our last candy science experiment with our leftover candy was to see if we could get a floating m off of an M&M.

More fun Candy Science and Math Activities

Supplies Needed:

M&M’s in all colors. Making a rainbow is fun.
Water
Shallow bowl or mini cups

So how does a floating m happen? First you need to fill your container{s} with water. Place M&M’s m side up in the water. What happens to the M&M? It sinks. Have your kids make a prediction before dropping them into the water.

The floating m doesn’t happen immediately, but the color dissolving off of the M&M happened almost immediately. The materials used to color the m&m aren’t afraid of water, so they dissolve quickly and make rainbow colored water! The chocolate on the other hand did not dissolve quickly, but we wanted to see the floating m!

And there it is! The floating m! Why does the m float? It’s made out of edible paper. You can also see this paper on cakes. My son wanted to go out and get a piece to eat, but I convinced him it wouldn’t taste that great.

The first to float was the red m&m. They did not all have a floating m immediately. In fact, the last to go was the blue. It took about 10ish minutes to see the first floating m. They all floated by 20 minutes. We didn’t set a stopwatch, but that would be a fun addition for STEM learning.