Valentine’s Day Candy Heart Experiment

Combine science and holiday-themed fun with this Valentine’s Day kids’ candy heart experiment. Chances are you have plenty of candy conversation hearts around the house right now. It’s the time of year to hand them out, making them overly abundant. Instead of eating all the hearts, use a few for a sweet science exploration. This experiment gives your young child the chance to make predictions, observe and test different theories.

Materials You’ll Need

Candy conversation hearts
Clear plastic cups
Different liquids- water, vegetable oil, juice, soda, tea
A notepad
A pencil

How-To Steps

Pour each liquid into its own cup.
Ask your child to predict what will happen when they put the candy hearts into each cup. Write down the predictions on the notepad.
Place one or two candy hearts into each cup.
Observe what happens. You can time the changes that happen to the hearts with a stop watch or your cell phone’s timer app.
Help your child to write down their observations. These may include changes in color, shape or size, or anything else that happens.
Compare the predictions with the observations, asking your child what changes they saw. Note how many of the predictions were correct. You can also discuss why the predictions were or weren’t true.