We know what to do with gumdrops! Gumdrop science is especially fun because it’s all about candy! Perfect any time of the year, but we chose Christmas time to experiment with gumdrop science activities. We have already used them for gumdrop bridge building activities {awesome STEM play}! We explored change by heating our gumdrops to make beautiful decorations and exploring a great science concept too! These are some great Classic Science Experiments with a festive twist.
Gumdrop Dissolving Science Experiment
GUMDROP STEM
If you want awesome hands-on STEM activities…match them to the season or holiday! Kids will love the fun themes, colors, and textures. Plus, it makes repeating new concepts easy and you can watch the kids make connections between similar experiments such as this one and the classic skittles experiment.
Exploring change with young kids is so much fun and so easy to do! Simple dissolving experiments like our Christmas candy dissolving activity and our Peppermint Oobleck science sensory play are a real hit and use up some extra candy! Christmas science activities make early learning fun and novel! Â Explore solids and changes to solids with heat in our easy gumdrop science activity!
Don’t forget to grab your FREE set of Christmas STEM challenge cards…
GUMDROP STEM ACTIVITY
Science concepts to explore: What is a solid? What happens when we put it in water? Will it change? Make sure to ask lots of questions and give your child time to observe and compare what are you presenting to them.
Supplies Needed:
- gumdrops big or smallÂ
- pie plateÂ
- water
- dollar store section serving platterÂ
We began our candy STEM play with simple color sorting and counting activities. Additionally, we compared quantities of colors and sizes of gumdrops. Then we moved on to dropping them into room-temperature water. Leave it somewhere convenient to check on throughout the day.
Here are our simple results. The sugar and the coloring certainly dissolved but the candy remained the same shape. We cut open a few and compared them to a few regular ones we had left as a way to compare and contrast our gumdrop-dissolving activity.
The gumdrops left beautiful colors in a pretty pinwheel pattern. Gumdrop dissolving science is really quick and simple and a great starting point for questioning what will happen and how things change. Our bag of gumdrops had so many possibilities for candy STEM play and learning!
Here are a few more Gumdrop STEM ideas to try
- Gumdrop bridge challenge
- Gumdrop tower challenge (Santa’s chimney)
- Gumdrop melting STEM activity
Go ahead and have a day filled with GUMDROP STEM fun! If you can’t get enough of Christmas science… Click here or on the image below for even more great ways to explore STEM this holiday season.
 
 
 
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