Summer SE #1: Gummy bears in the water

The beginning players include gummy bears, a glass of water (enough to cover the gummy bears by at least one inch) and a scale. Weigh some gummy bears. We found that five gummy bears were 1/2 ounce. Then place gummy bears in glass of water and let them soak for 24 hours.

(This post is loaded with pictures!)




The bears will expand exceedingly! It's hard to tell from these pictures but the bears tripled in weight. They went from .5 ounces to 1.5 ounces and it looks like they almost quadrupled in size. They were slimy and bouncy from all the water absorption from the osmosis process. (The smaller red and green bears are examples of bears not placed in water and not expanded like their water-bloated companions.



The water concentration was higher outside the gummy bears so the water moved into the gummy bears and expanded them. This particular experiment might be good to try with other items to see what is impervious to water.



As part of the experiment I asked everyone to come up with a gummy bear art pose. Mica shows us a giant yellow gummy bear. Hedgehog chose a scene of a gummy bear battle. The vanquished gummy bears floated down the "paper river" for the consumption of the local giant human (Hedgehog). Daisy is displaying "Gummy Bear on Nose" in reference to the oft depicted "Bumblebee on Nose". Jean chose a simple design of gummy bears reading.




Thank you to Salvatore Tocci and his book, More Winning Science Fair Projects-Grades 5-7, for the idea.


(Yes, this post is antedated. I meant to get it up last week-we're going for several science experiments this summer-we'll see how many actually get done and posted.)