Second Grade Science Behind Candy Magic

As a fun experiment for St. Patrick’s Day, the Second Grade experimented with Skittles!

To begin this science experiment, they first explored what happens. For this, the girls were asked to make predictions of what they thought would happen when the skittles were placed in the water. They first said they would dissolve and then were encouraged to think deeper about their answers: Would the colors mix? How long would they take to dissolve? What did they think the center of a skittle looked like?

Once they had their guesses they began their experiment.

They placed 3-4 Skittles around the edge of a bowl of water.

Within a matter of minutes, our Skittles has dissolved into this beautiful and bright display. And almost simultaneously every single child watching this science experiment gasped-

Then the questions began to pour.

Why didn’t the colors mix?

How did the colors meet at a point?

Why didn’t the water absorb the colors?

Why did the colors dissolve but the candy didn’t?

A million and one questions and a table full of curious and engaged minds.

The kids thought it was awesome to see a floating S in this bowl. They had to be careful not to shake the desks to see it float to the top. Many fell apart before or as they reached the surface, but each group was able to see at least one in their bowl.

Mrs. Thompson and the girls discussed that the first thing to come off the skittles was a layer of waxy grease. The layer of wax is what was used to trap the colors until the wax fully dissolves. To test this hypothesis, the girls added in a couple more skittles to see what happened. They loved seeing the colors swirl together!

What a sweet and colorful way to have fun with science!