Best At Home Science Experiments for Kids

One of the best at-home science experiments for kids is rock candy making. It's an edible experiment that needs only water, sugar, vanilla, food coloring, a clothespin, a pot for boiling, and wooden sticks to grow rock candy.

This would show the kids how the crystallization process works firsthand while making some sweet delicious treats.

How to Make Rock Candy

Gather your ingredients and tools like water, sugar, vanilla, a clothespin, a pot for boiling, and a few wooden sticks to grow rock candy crystals in your kitchen. Get your food coloring too. You could choose your favored color.

Create your sugar solution - Boil two cups of water in a large pot on the stove. Next, stir in four cups of sugar. Boil and continue stirring until sugar appears dissolved. This would then result in a supersaturated sugar solution. Also, add in the vanilla flavoring. Allow the mixture to cool for 15-20 minutes. 

Prepare the sticks for the candy - Prepare your wooden sticks for growing the rock crystals. You need to wet the wooden sticks and roll them around in granulated sugar. Make sure you allow the sugared sticks to completely dry before proceeding to the next. You'll need one stick per jar.

Add the food coloring of your choice - When the sugar mixture is cool, add in the food coloring to create rock candy of your chosen color.

Pour in the cooled solution into a jar for the final candy-making process - Pour the cooled solution into a glass jar or jars and position the sugar-covered wooden stick into the center of the glass. Be sure that the stick is not touching any part of the jar. If it does, your candy crystals would get stuck at the bottom or on the sides. You could therefore divide the sugar mixture into several smaller jars or use one large jar. The size of your jar would depend on how many sticks of rock candy you'd like to put in it.

Once all the sticks are in place, secure all the sticks using a clothespin. You should cover the top of the glass with a paper towel. You could also make a hole in the paper towel for the wooden stick to go through. 

Let your candy crystals grow in a quiet and dark place - Place the glass in a cool and quiet place. All distractions like loud noises and movements could disturb the crystal making process. Each day, the candy crystals would grow larger. They would reach their maximum growth limit by two weeks. When you see that you have a good amount of rock candy crystals, remove the sticks and place it on a sheet of wax paper to dry it thoroughly before eating them. Enjoy!

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