Skittles Science Experiment!

Key Concepts

Materials: 
2                   large plates
80                skittles (or 1 large pack of skittles)
1 cup          warm water
1 cup          ice cold water

Activity Directions:
  1. Arrange the skittles on the plates, forming a circle inside of the edge of the plate. The skittles can be ordered randomly or by color, any order is fine!
  2. Pour the warm water into the center of one plate.
  3. Pour the cold water into the center of the other plate. 
  4. Observe!

Discussion Questions & Science Explanations:
  1. What’s happening to the skittles?
    1. Skittles are made up of sugar molecules that are then coated in food coloring and more sugar. When we soak the skittles in water (or pour water into the plate), that coating of food coloring and sugar dissolves.
  2. What is diffusion?
    1. Scientifically, diffusion is defined as the movement of molecules from a place where they are highly concentrated to a place where they are not as concentrated. 
    2. When you spray perfume into the air, the gas molecules that are initially concentrated in a tiny space diffuse throughout the room. You can smell perfume from all over the room! This is diffusion.
    3. Notice that the food coloring moves and expands towards the center of the plate in order to occupy the entire plate. 
  3. Was there a difference between how fast the skittle coatings dissolved in warm versus cold water?
    1. Yes! The skittles that were soaked in warm water had their coatings dissolve faster than the skittles soaked in warm water.
  4. Why do things generally dissolve faster in warm water than in cold water? 
    1. When something is “hot,” its molecules have more energy and move around faster. 
    2. When we compare warm water to cold water, the water molecules in warm water move around much more energetically and come into contact with the coating of the skittles more often. This means that the water can “pull” the coating off of the skittles at a faster rate.

Additional Experimentation:
  1. Try repeating the same procedure with a  different type of colored candy such as M&Ms. 
  2. Does changing up the ordering of the skittles change how fast the coating on the skittles dissolves?
Suggested video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkruWsAFaHo

​Published 7.24.2020

Author: Alex Zhang