At Esplora, we get curious on several things and subjects. Today, we were enjoying some Christmas treats and thought about the time it takes for different sweets to dissolve. Some of our staff prefer chocolate over gummies, some prefer dark against white or milk chocolate, some really like the Christmas candy canes. Therefore, we decided to do an experiment on this and so we asked our fellow colleagues to donate some of their treats for science. We will investigate which treat dissolves the quickest in different liquids. Since Santa likes to drink milk and the Reindeer crew prefer water, we decided to do this experiment using milk and water.
Step 1
Print out this record sheet or if you don’t have a printer you can make your own chart.
Step 2
Prepare your treats for the experiment and make sure that you test out the same quantity. For example, if you are testing 10g of milk chocolate, make sure that the other ingredients are in portions of 10g too. This way, you will reduce the errors in measurement.
Step 3
Prepare 4 bowls and place an equal amount of milk chocolate in each.
Step 4
If you’re a kid, you might want to ask an adult’s help to do this part. Boil some water using a kettle and heat up some milk in a small pan or in the microwave.
Step 5
Drop a milk chocolate ball in each of the bowls and give it a quick stir.
Step 6
Measure the time it takes for each chocolate ball to dissolve and record the readings on the record sheet. Pay close attention to them as you might not be able to realise it has dissolved unless the liquid changes colour.
Step 7
Repeat steps 3 to 6 for each Christmas treat you have and remember to write down the time each of them took on the record sheet.
Step 8
Check out your results and see which treat took longest to dissolve or which one was the quickest.
Ask yourself the following questions to explore more the science behind this experiment:
Which type of treat was the first to dissolve?
In which liquid did it dissolve? In water or in milk?
Which temperature was the best to dissolve the treats? Warm or cold?
Did you notice any differences in milk and water when it comes to dissolving the treats?
Show us what you’ve made! Take a photo of at least 4 of your favourite activities from Esplora’s Science Advent Calendar. Trust us, you’ll need them 😉
Share your experiment with us on social media
by tagging us on social media @esploramalta #esploramalta #getcuriousgetinspired
