Welcome to this month’s Simply STEM activity! Today, we are going to test how different liquids react with marshmallows! This fun and easy activity is perfect for your students to practice their observation skills while using the scientific method. A bonus to this experiment is that you can eat any marshmallows that are leftover! This activity could also be fun to do with kids after Thanksgiving dinner! For more Thanksgiving themed activities check out this link.
Time: 23 minutes
Description: Marshmallows are made out of 3 ingredients: corn syrup, gelatin and sugar. How will these ingredients react when mixed with different liquids? For example, milk’s acidity on the pH scale is around 6.7 to 6.9 while tonic water’s acidity is around 2.5 to 3.5. How will the Peeps react to being in different levels of acidity? To add a fun fall twist to this activity, you can use pumpkin or ghost-shaped Peeps marshmallow candy! If you can’t find those, regular marshmallows will work too. For more fall-themed activities you can click here!
Materials List:
- ¼ cup of milk, water, tonic water, oil (any) and vinegar
- Fall themed Peeps or regular marshmallows
- 5 small clear glass cups or jars
- Timer
- Pack of toothpicks
- Marker
- Paper
- Scissors
- Tape
Step 1: Cut 5 small strips of paper and label each piece with the name of each different liquid. Tape the labels on each glass.
Step 2: Fill your 5 small cups or jars with the same amount of liquid in each glass.
Step 3: Place a Peep (or marshmallow) in each glass.
Step 4: Your Peeps will float, so make sure you have 5 toothpicks to occasionally move the Peeps around in each glass. Make sure each glass has its own toothpick so that you don’t cross contaminate the liquids!
Step 5: Start a stopwatch and write down your observations for each glass! What do you notice? Which liquid is dissolving the Peep the fastest? How is the Peep reacting with each liquid? What have you learned about peeps and each liquid? What else does it make you want to learn?