Edible Science Experiments

Welcome to Summer School! Glad you could join me virtually. In this course you will get to mix, combine and create lots of fun things using food items. So if you lick your fingers....no big deal. Some of the edible experiments we will do in this course you won't want to necessarily eat, just because it might be too sugary etc. But all the ingredients we will use are 100% edible.

There are some YouTube videos in this course as well as books from Epic Books. When accessing these books you will need to use my class code: CUY3130.

Materials Needed For this Course

Edible Science Experiments Materials list

Safety First:

Anytime you are working with your hand and food you definitely want to make sure that you are working with clean hands, clean tools and a clean work area. So wash before you start!

Some of the experiments you will participate in will require use of the stove or microwave. Please ask a parent for help when doing these activities.

Day 1-Edible Sour Gummy Worm Putty

Edible Sour Gummy Worm Silly Putty

What you’ll need: 1 Bag of sour gummy worms, Cornstarch, Powdered sugar, Microwave, Bowls, tablespoon, mixing spoon

Instructions:

1. Begin by placing your bag of sour gummy worms into a microwave safe bowl.

2. Place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, and check to see if the gummy worms are starting to melt. If they are not, continue to microwave at 10 second intervals until they are. (It took our gummy worms 40 seconds to melt in a microwave that is 1,000 watts, you can adjust your time according to your microwave’s wattage.)

3. Once the gummy worms have melted, stir them thoroughly with a spoon to mix the colors well.

4. Add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to your bowl and mix well.

5. Add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar to your bowl and mix thoroughly.

6. At this point the mixture will become hard to stir, just do the best you can, smooshing the mixture with the back of the spoon to expose new sticky areas to the powdered sugar and cornstarch in your bowl.

7. Slowly add in more cornstarch ½ tablespoon at a time until your mixture is no longer as sticky. (It took us 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar and a total of 2 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch before our mixture reached this stage.)

8. Place some corn starch on your hands and take your mixture out of the bowl. Work it in your hands, adding a dusting of corn starch as needed, until it is no longer tacky.

Since this is an edible silly putty, it really does not store well. You should discard it after you are done playing with it.

Day 2 - Edible Oreo Moon Phases

Yum! Let’s enjoy a bit of edible astronomy with this Oreo moon phases activity. Have you ever noticed the changing shape of the moon? Let’s explore how the moon’s shape or moon phases change over the course of the month with a favorite cookie sandwich.
What causes us to see only part of the moon at certain times of the month?

The Moon

by Grace Hansen

Check out this book about the moon.

https://www.getepic.com/app/read/59217

Background info: The phases of the Moon are the different ways the moon looks from Earth over the course of about a month! As the moon orbits around the Earth, the half of the moon that faces the sun will be lit up. The different shapes of the lit up portion of the moon that can be seen from the Earth are known as the phases of the Moon. Each phase repeats itself every 29.5 days. There are 8 phases that the moon goes through.

Oreo Moon Phases

What you’ll need: Oreo cookies or similar generic brand, Paper plate, Marker, Plastic knife, fork, or spoon (for carving out the moon phases), Glass of milk (optional for dunking the Moon)

HOW TO MAKE THE PHASES OF THE MOON WITH OREOS

1: Open up a pack of cookies and twist 8 cookies carefully apart.

2: Use the edge of a fork to draw a line down the center of the icing, carefully scrape off half the icing, and set onto the top of the paper plate to begin your first quarter Moon cycle.

3: Work from left to right on your cookie moon cycle, with next being waxing gibbous. Use the fork to draw the line, scrape off the icing, and

4: Work your way around: full Moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, new, waning crescent, and back to the first quarter.

5: Once all the Moon’s are on the plate in a circle, carefully draw the Earth in the center with markers.

6: Use a marker or pen to write which Moon phase each cookie represents next to the appropriate Moon cookie model.

HERE ARE THE MOON PHASES (IN ORDER)

NEW MOON: A new moon cannot be seen because we are looking at the unlit half of the Moon.

WAXING CRESCENT: This is when the Moon looks like a crescent and gets bigger in size from one day to the next.

FIRST QUARTER: Half of the lit portion of the Moon is visible.

WAXING GIBBOUS: This occurs when more than half of the lit portion of the Moon can be seen. It gets bigger in size day by day.

FULL MOON: The entire lit portion of the moon can be seen!

WANING GIBBOUS: This occurs when more than half of the lit portion of the Moon can be seen but it gets smaller in size day by day.

LAST QUARTER: Half of the lit portion of the Moon is visible.

WANING CRESCENT: This is when the Moon looks like a crescent and gets smaller in size from one day to the next set on the left of the first quarter Moon.

Day 3 - Edible Crystals (Rock Candy)

Got sugar? You can grow big, edible sugar crystals, commonly called “rock candy,” in your own kitchen. Like bricks in a wall, crystals are solids formed by repeating patterns of molecules. Instead of mortar, the atoms and molecules are connected by atomic bonds. They can be big or small, but crystals made from the same atoms or molecules always form the same shape. Table sugar, or sucrose, is made up of a molecule composed of two sugars, glucose and fructose. The crystals formed by sucrose are hexagonal (six-sided) prisms, slanted at the ends.

Crystals

by Rebecca Pettiford

Check out this book about crystals.

https://www.getepic.com/app/read/57580

Here is my rock candy after 3 days.

What you need: 1 cup water, small pot, 3 cups sugar, spoon, food coloring(optional), clean glass jar, string(not nylon) or yarn, pencil

Pour about 3 cups of granulated cane sugar into a large glass container.
Add 1 cup (237 ml) of water to the sugar. Watch what happens as the water bubbles through all that sugar. There’s a lot going on in the container already. Use a heavy spoon to thoroughly stir the water (a solvent) and the sugar (a solute) together to make a solution. It will be very viscous (thick) and heavy because there’s a lot more sugar than water in there. Stir it well!
An adult must help with this Step! You need to give the water some help with all that sugar so warm up the water. If the container is microwave-safe, put the solution in the microwave and heat it for two minutes on high. (You can use a cooktop to heat the solution if you prefer.) Heat the solution to the boiling point. CAUTION: An adult must handle the hot solution and move it to a stable, heat-safe location. Use the heavy spoon to thoroughly stir the solution again. Make sure all the sugar is stirred but watch out for splatters of hot liquid. Notice how the solution is changing by just using heat.
An adult must help with this Step! Move the stirred solution to the microwave (or cooktop) again and heat it on high for another two minutes. Don’t let the solution boil over. CAUTION: An adult must handle the hot solution and move it to a stable, heat-safe location. Use the spoon to carefully stir the hot solution again. Stir gently because the solution is less viscous (more runny) than before you heated it.
Add 3-7 drops of any food coloring to the mixture and stir it in thoroughly.
Pour the colored solution into the smaller glass container.
You need to use clean string and that’s why new is preferred. On an old roll, unroll some until you get a layer or two under the top layer. Tie the string to the middle of the pencil. Use the scissors to cut off a length longer than the small container is tall. Lay the pencil on top of the small container and trim the string so it’s about ²/₃ the height of the container. You want it shorter than the container.
Holding the pencil, lower the string into the solution and let it soak for a short time. You want the solution to soak through the string. Lay the pencil and soaked string on a piece of wax paper so the string is perpendicular to the pencil. Allow the solution to cool to room temperature and the straight string to dry completely.
As it cools, the solution becomes more viscous so it might be a trick to push the dried string into it again. You may have to use a slow steady pressure to get it to sink deeply into the solution. You’ll need to allow the string to soak in the solution for a week, too. A paper towel over the container will keep dust and goobers away from your candy – uh, your science experiment. Keep track of changes in the solution and the growing crystals in the solution but don’t disturb them by moving them. Pictures are a good idea! When you’re ready for the big reveal, lift the pencil and pull the string loaded with crystals out of the jar. Lay them on some wax paper and look closely at what grew on the string. Of course, a taste test will have to be a part of your analysis.

So, you dip a string into a solution of sugar and water and it seems pretty uneventful. It’s kind of like watching paint dry. How in the world did it turn into a beautiful crystal of candy on a string?

When you mixed the sugar with the water and then heated and stirred the solution repeatedly, you created a supersaturated solution. This means there are far more dissolved particles of solute (the sugar) than the solvent (the water) can normally dissolve and hold at a given temperature. By stirring the sugar in hot water instead of room temperature or cold water, the sugar is dissolved faster in the fast moving (heated) water molecules. As the water cools, the huge amount of sugar particles remains in solution (a supersaturated solution) and it contains more sugar than can stay in the liquid. The sugar falls out of the solution as a precipitate (particles). These connect with other sugar particles, and a crystal begins to grow.

You gave the suspended sugar paticles a great place to begin crystallizing when you dried some crystals onto the string ahead of time. These are “seed” crystals. As sugar particles begin to settle (the precipitate), they join and form crystals quickly with other sugar molecules. You see this crystallization on both the bottom and sides of the jar as well as on the string. Sugar molecules continue to settle and crystalize on the string and on top of other sugar molecules until you pull it out of the solution and enjoy the candy.

Day 4 - Edible Soil Layers

This experiment demonstrates the different layers of soil and encourages discussion on soil’s vital role in sustaining plant and animal life on our planet.
What makes up soil? Soil is so much more than what’s under our grass. Each layer of earth is defined by its own “horizon”. These horizons run parallel to the ground and serve up distinct characteristics that aid the layers above and below. When a vertical section of these many horizons is taken, it’s known as a soil profile.

Looking at Layers: Looking Into Soil

By: Emma Huddleston

Check out this book about soil layers.

https://www.getepic.com/app/read/72173

Now watch the video below about the layers of soil.

Soil Layers.mp4

Make Your Own Edible Soil Layers

What you will need: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, chocolate pudding(snack pack), Oreo cookies, shredded coconut, green food coloring, gummy worms, clear glass or cup, plastic spoons

*You can use different ingredients to represent each layer.

Beginning with your empty glass, drop an entire Oreo into the bottom. This represents bedrock. Bedrock: Bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose or softer material. It is the outermost layer of the Earth’s crust. Nothing can grow in bedrock, but it supplies the soil with components important to its future.
Grab your chocolate and butterscotch chips and layer them on top of the Oreo. The chips characterize parent material. Parent material: Parent material is formed from bedrock after a long weathering process, either by natural or chemical means. This is the spot where the soil layers above will be formed – it is part weathered rock and part weathered soil.
Spoon in the chocolate pudding to represent subsoil. Subsoil: Subsoil is not high in organic matter concentrations but offers rich minerals for plants and trees searching for root systems. This layer is hidden, though it is directly affected by water movement.
On top of the subsoil goes the crushed up Oreos, portraying topsoil. Stick the gummy worms out of the topsoil. Topsoil: This is the top layer of soil. Topsoil provides the richest amount of matter for germinating seeds. Nutrients, bacteria, fungi, and life are abundant here.
Sprinkle your colored coconut on top, allowing your worms to poke out. Organic Material: This layer is usually less than an inch thick. It consists of plant and animal residues at various stages of decomposition.
You can add post-it labels to each layer, take a picture and send it to ddorner@mishicot.k12.wi.us
Now that you have learned all about the layers of soil you can eat your "edible soil"!

Day 5 - Solar Oven S'mores

Harness the energy of the Sun to make the best snack ever invented, S’mores!

A solar oven is a box that traps some of the Sun’s energy to make the air inside the box hotter than the air outside the box. In other words, the solar oven is like a super greenhouse.

My solar oven made from a shoe box.

Solar oven s’mores

What you will need: Cardboard pizza box, Aluminum foil, Plastic wrap or bag, Black construction paper, Tape, Glue stick, Pencil or wooden skewer, Scissors or utility knife, S’mores supplies: chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows

Variations: vary factors like the box size, oven door size, construction paper color, cooking time, outside temperature, etc.

1) Cut the “oven door” flap on the box. The size depends on what you are cooking and how much access you need. Our door was large to maximize our s’mores capacity!

2) Decorate your solar oven with sharpies. This is a fun *optional* step.

3) Glue black construction paper to the bottom of the box. The black color absorbs the heat.

4) Glue aluminum foil to the inside of the door. The foil reflects the sun into the oven.

5) Tape the plastic over the opening of the door. This will allow the air inside the box to heat up but keep the heat trapped inside the box.

6) Add a graham cracker, marshmallow, and chocolate inside the oven.

7) Place your oven outside in the sun. I taped a wooden skewer to prop the lid open at an ideal angle.

The chocolate naturally started melting quickly. So our indicator was the marshmallows, we waited until they had puffed up from the heat. It took about 90 minutes to bake our s’mores. When making these in less extreme temperatures, we just waited until the chocolate melted and called it good enough.

Day 6 - Edible Structures

Edible structures snack time STEM activity for young engineers. Build structures with toothpicks and apples, cheese, or marshmallows.

Edible Structures

Listen to the story Iggy Peck, Architect By: Andrea Beaty Illustrated by: David Roberts
What you will need: Toothpicks, Common snack foods such as apples, cheese, and marshmallows (for fun). Crackers to use as bases or platforms. The possibilities are endless! You could also use other fruit. Be creative!

Let the Engineering fun Begin! Make geometric shapes, built towers, make sculptures while counting, designing, and problem solving. When using the various building materials altogether, you will need to account for the different weights of the snacks and the shapes of the snacks when trying to build a stable base.
Can your structure hold any weight? Try it!
See some edible structures that we built at our house below.
Design and take photos. Share your photos with me at ddorner@mishicot.k12.wi.us and I will share them with our class. It’s a great way to learn from each other.
Finally, EAT your structure if you would like:)

Structure 1

Structure 1 holding 4 snack size Hershey bars

Structure 2

Structure 3

Day 7 - Layered Lemonade

Layered lemonade

Background: This experiment incorporates a Math Sequence called the Fibonacci sequence which simply means each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, starting from 0 and 1.

Fibonacci Zoo

By: Tom Robinson

Illustrated by: Christina Wald

Check out this book about the Fibonacci sequence.

https://www.getepic.com/app/read/44031

Layered lemonade

What you need: Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup (1 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup water), Water, Food Coloring (optional but makes it pretty), Ice, 2 large clear glasses
See video to the left to watch as I make the layers.

*Ask a parent to help you with this step.Start by making the simple syrup. In a high-sided saucepan over medium-high heat, bring 1 cup cold water and 1 cup sugar to a boil. Turn the heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture is clear, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. To test if the sugar is completely dissolved: Using a spoon, scoop up a small amount of the syrup. You should not be able to see any sugars crystals in the liquid. If you do, boil a little longer.
After boiling, let the syrup cool to room temperature.
Now add 2 or 3 ice cubes to your glasses. The ice will help keep the layers separated when pouring in the liquid. When you pour the layers you will want to pour onto the ice to slow it down.
Add the proportions of lemon juice and simple syrup indicated below to your liquid measuring cup. You NEED to work backwards. Start with layer 7 and work backwards. It is okay to leave out the last layer(layer 1) if you run out of room.....I did!
Add food coloring if desired. This will make pretty layers. One or two drops are enough for each layer.
Fill the measuring cup the rest of the way with water to the 4 oz. (1/2 cup) line.
Slowly pour a layer from your measuring cup into your drink glasses. You want to pour directly onto an ice cube, the ice cubes are there to slow down your liquid as it goes down the cup and to help keep the layers distinct. (You can pour the first layer normally)
Take a picture.... then stir your layered lemonade if you would like to blend all the ingredients in your glass. It won't look pretty anymore but this will mix all the layers so that all the flavor is mixed together..
Finally, sip your mathematical masterpiece.

The Layers

1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. simple syrup
1 tsp. lemon juice, 1 tsp. simple syrup
1 tsp. lemon juice, 2 tsp. simple syrup
2 tsp. lemon juice, 3 tsp. simple syrup
3 tsp. lemon juice, 5 tsp. simple syrup
5 tsp. lemon juice, 8 tsp. simple syrup

Send me a picture of your lemonade to ddorner@mishicot.k12.wi.us

Day 8 - Clouds and Rain

How does heavy rain stay up in the clouds?

Watch: Dear Science: How does all that water defy gravity before it rains? (Gillian Brockell, Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/08/15/dear-science-how-do-heavy-water-droplets-stay-up-in-the-clouds-until-it-rains/

Learn About Clouds

By: Golriz Golkar

Check out this book about clouds.

https://www.getepic.com/app/read/71865

Experiment one: Make is rain (see video under Day 8)

What you will Need: Hot water, Jar, Bowl, ice

Put the hot water into a glass jar (ask an adult for help)
Put a glass bowl on top of the jar….steam will build up
Add ice to the bowl...watch it Rain

Experiment two:

What you will Need: Clear jar or glass, Water, Canned Whipped Cream (like Reddi Wip), Blue Food Coloring

1. Fill the clear jar almost to the top with water.

2. Spray the whipped cream on top of water.

3. Squeeze a couple of drops of blue food coloring on top of the whipped cream.

4. Watch the blue food coloring “rain” down from the whipped cream.

5. You might not want to eat the whipped cream with all the blue food coloring that you used for this experiment but maybe a few squirts of Reddi Wip on your tongue could be fun:)

Day 9 - Marshmallow Constellations

A fun way to learn about the stars you can see in North America during the summer?

Destination Space: Stars

By: David Armentrout, Patricia Armentrout

Check out this book about stars.

https://www.getepic.com/app/read/61757

mrprintables-constellation-map-summer-stars-a4.pdf

Summer skies marshmallow constellations

What you will need: Marshmallows, Food coloring (optional),Toothpicks, Constellation guide (we used this one), Black paper, Zip lock bags

Print your constellation guide and choose the summer skies marshmallow constellations that you want to make.
Break your toothpicks to the necessary size and use a marshmallow for each star in the constellation.
Photograph your efforts on black paper just for fun.
Memorize the name and shape of each constellation so that next time you are star-gazing in the summer, you can impress your friends with your star knowledge.
Send me some pictures of the constellations that you make to ddorner@mishicot.k12.wi.us
Eat the stars in your constellation if you choose.

Guide to summer stargazing

First, The Summer Triangle

Start with the Summer Triangle – the three brightest stars in the summer sky in the Northern Hemisphere. The easiest one to spot is Vega, the brightest of all, just above your head. Next, Deneb is above Vega, to the east. Completing the triangle is Altair lower than the other two at the bottom of the triangle.

Now, you can find Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila and the rest of the constellations on the map!

Stories Behind The Constellations

Here are some stories from Greek Mythology. See how they imagined and invented these fantastic stories! Look for other myths from different cultures too & maybe you can invent your own stories around the stars…!

Lyra (Lyre)

Orpheus, the musician, famously played his lyre and even the beasts would be charmed and listen to his beautiful music. When he died (killed by a mad woman!), his lyre was put in the sky by Zeus.

Cygnus (The Swan)

Orpheus, after his death, was transformed into a swan and placed next to his lyre. In other stories, this is Zeus who disguised himself as a swan to seduce a lady called Leda.

Aquila (The Eagle)

Zeus had an eagle who carried his thunderbolts. This is the eagle abducting the shepherd boy Ganymede to Mount Olympus by the order of Zeus, who did many mischievous things.

Pegasus

Pegasus is the famous winged horse. The greek hero Bellerophon captured him and rode to defeat a monster. However he fell off Pegasus one day and Zeus picked him up and transformed him into the constellation Pegasus. You can see the horse shape is upside down as if falling from the sky.

Hercules

Hercules is one of the most famous heros of Greek mythology. He was the son of Zeus and extremely strong. (He is also upside-down in the sky!)

Ophiuchus (Serpent Bearer)

This is a man who holds the long snake (Serpens Cauda & Serpens Caput) on both sides and is also stamping on a scorpion (Scorpio) under his feet.

Sagittarius (The Archer)

Sagittarius is a centaur – half human, half horse, holding a bow and arrow. The arrow is pointing at the heart of the scorpion (Scorpio) in the sky.

Capricornus (Capricon)

Capricornus is a capricon, who is a half-goat and half-fish. Pan, the god who was half-man, half-goat, was running away from a monster and he tranformed to a half-fish and dived into a river to save himself. And he ended up half-goat & half-fish! (‘What was I thinking?’ was what he said later… ) Or in another version, this constellation just depicts the horn of the capricon – ‘horn of plenty’.

Explore Greek Mythology for more fantastical stories like these!

Day 10 - Pop Rocks Science - Free Exploration

Have you ever tried Pop Rocks candy? If you haven’t had them before, they are an awesome experience for everyone. Every kid should try eating some Pop Rocks at least once! We are going to use them to do some Pop Rocks science! Now that’s science you can eat!

POP ROCKS SCIENCE.pdf

Pop Rock science

What you will need: Pop Rocks candy (sold in 3 packs at the dollar tree), Cups, Magnifying glass, 5 Senses Printable(just click on this link), Optional: soda bottle, balloons, Vinegar, water, funnel

1. Empty the pop rocks candy into cups and print out our pop rocks 5 senses sheet! (I have included this sheet in the packet that you received in the mail.)

2. Explore the pop rocks by touching them, smashing them etc. and Fill in the 5 senses sheet by answering the following questions: