Jelly Bean Science Experiment

Simple science experiments are a meaningful way to get kids into the habit of thinking like scientists. It’s especially helpful when kids can take the lead in determining the steps and make their own observations. That’s exactly what Tinker did in this jelly bean science experiment.

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I’ve mentioned before in our bubble science post how much we love The Curious Kids’ Science book (affiliate). Since Tinker did the gummy bear exploration in that book, she’s been curious to see how different items react in different liquids. So when I brought home some jelly beans recently, I wasn’t surprised at all when she started pulling out different liquids to do her own little science investigation.

She chose to sort the jelly beans by color. Then she placed four jelly beans in each small container. I helped her measure liquids to pour into the container.

She chose: warm water, water with salt, milk, orange juice, and vinegar. After pouring in all the liquids I asked her how long we wanted to wait to observe, and together we decided to set a timer and check the jelly beans at 15 minutes, 1 hour, and 24 hours.

She quickly noticed that most of the liquids were changing color, and early on she observed that the jelly beans in the vinegar were changing more rapidly than the others.

The next day we removed two jelly beans from each container and placed them next to a jelly bean that had not been in any liquid so that she could compare them.

She noticed that all the jelly beans had lost most of their coloring and all that was left was a white piece that was softer than the original jelly beans. When she squeezed them all she noticed that the ones that had been in the vinegar easily squished between her fingers and fell apart.

She considered tasting them, but then decided that wasn’t a good idea. I was relieved. 😉

More Playful Easter Learning

Get hands-on math fun with our 29-page roll and color Easter egg math set. Practice early math skills with these fun games kids love.

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