Gummy Bear Experiment

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a gummy bear experiment I did with my two daughters.  The goal was to make a gummy bear expand in size by heating.  Instead, the gummy bears simply melted, as I expected.  Turns out that I did not follow the experiment's procedure correctly!  The heating part was just a simple test to see how quickly gummy bears melt.  To make a gummy bear expand, you're supposed to put it in water.  This makes much more sense.  I was very confused when I thought that the experiment was telling us to heat gummy bears to make them expand.  So here are a few pictures of us doing the experiment correctly.  All you do is take a gummy bear and drop it in a glass of water.  Let it sit for a couple of hours and you'll notice a big change in the gummy bear size.

Gummy bears will absorb water and thus increase in size.  They also have a more jelly/wiggly texture.  Both of my daughters thought this was cool.  They enjoyed playing with and then eating the larger, jelly like gummy bear.  :-)