Who doesn’t love making candy? And what better way to include something you love into a science lesson! This month we made ROCK CANDY! I found this experiment idea over at Wiki How. I tweaked it a bit to suit us.

Rock Candy

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1/2 cup (120 ml) sugar
Food colouring
6 inches (15 cm) unflavoured dental floss, thread or string
Pencil or popsicle stick (we used a kebab stick)

Method:
1. Place the water in the beaker. Have an adult help you heat the water by putting the beaker in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. Be careful when removing it, it will be very hot.
2. Add the sugar and a few drop so food colouring to the water. Stir until most of the sugar dissolves. There may be some sugar left undissolved at the bottom of the beaker.
3. Carefully tie one end of the dental floss to a pencil or a popsicle stick. Place the pencil over the top of the beaker, suspending the floss in the liquid. Make sure the floss doesn’t touch the bottom or sides of the beaker.
4. Set the beaker aside for a few days and watch the crystals grow. (We placed the beaker in a sunny window sill to speed up the process.)

Side note:
If you have trouble growing crystals, you may have better luck getting them to form around a paper clip. Attach a clean paper clip to the dental floss and suspend it in the water.