salt water gummy bear experiment

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Stay-at-home science project: Enlarge gummy bears to reveal the secrets of osmosis

By Rachel Feltman

Posted on May 4, 2020 4:00 PM EDT

6 minute read

Welcome to PopSci’s at-home science projects series . On weekdays at noon, we’ll be posting new projects that use ingredients you can buy at the grocery store. Show us how it went by tagging your project on social media using #popsciprojects.

Gummy bears are delicious. That’s not up for debate (though you’re welcome to eat a few to prove the hypothesis). But they’re also the perfect critters to help demonstrate a process that makes life as we know it possible: Osmosis.

Believe it or not, osmosis also happens when you drop gummy bears into water, revealing the most basic inner workings of your body’s cells. Just add water and a spoonful of salt to see it happen before your eyes.

Time: 5 minutes of prep, and 3 to 9 hours of waiting
Difficulty: easy

What you’ll need

Gummy bears, preferably dark in color
Three small bowls
2 tablespoons of salt
(Optional) Ruler
(Optional) Kitchen scale

Instructions

1. Fill two of your bowls with cool water. Room temperature is fine, but keep away from hot water—it’ll melt your gummy bears.

2. Add the salt to the first bowl. The second should just contain water.

3. Plop one gummy bear into each bowl. Make sure they’re fully submerged. Leave the bowls somewhere they won’t be disturbed. Gummy bears are tempting—even when they’re salty and soggy!

Note : We tried different types of gummies (including the sour kind coated with mouth-puckering crystals), and we came to the conclusion that the ideal gummy bears for this experiment are dark in color and chewy instead of soft—just the classic gummy bear . A darker color will not dilute so much as to turn the gummy bear totally clear as it absorbs water, and the thicker gelatin mixture will make the candy less likely to fall apart when you take it out for observation. Also, stay away from sour gummies and those with unusual flavor additives, since they are less likely to yield the intended results.

4. Set aside a third gummy as your experimental control. We recommend you do this before you even think about eating the rest of your gummy bears. It’d be tragic to suddenly realize you ate them all and you no longer have a control for your experiment. Keep it dry.

5. Wait for three hours.

6. Check back in on your waterlogged candies. You can scoop them out with a spoon and observe them on a paper towel if you so choose, but be sure to return them to their proper bowls. Take note of how the gummies have changed—write down your observations so you can contrast them with the end results. You can check in again after the next three hours.

7. (Optional) Take some measurements. If your little experimenters need more of a challenge, you can have them measure the bears with rulers and/or kitchen scales, and calculate just how much size and mass the bears have lost or gained.

8. Wait another six hours. The full transformation should be complete around hour nine.

9. Retrieve your bears from their bowls. Use a small spoon and line them up on a plate or paper towel to see how much they’ve changed. The gummy in plain water should be much larger than the unsoaked candy, while the salted water should have kept its bear roughly the same size—unless it’s caused it to shrink. More on that later.

10. Fill a third bowl with cool water and a tablespoon of salt. Place the expanded, waterlogged gummy bear into it and observe it every few hours. It should get noticeably smaller as it soaks.

How it works

Osmosis is the movement of water through a semipermeable membrane—that is, a material with holes large enough to let some things in, but small enough to keep others out. In this process, water moves through the membrane without force or energy, to make water concentration versus other molecules roughly the same on either side.

This process is important in keeping us alive. The outer membrane of our cells is semipermeable and allows small molecules like water and oxygen to pass through while keeping all the cell’s organelles protected and in place. When it’s time to eliminate waste, the cell will start pushing the toxic molecules out, while absorbing water from our blood through osmosis. Once the cell has balanced its water concentration to the one outside of it, it will stop taking in more liquid, thus preventing the cell from bursting.

Gummy bears are made of gelatin and sugar, and the proteins that make up gelatin are very similar to the outer membranes of our cells. Just like them, the gummy bear’s gelatin “skin” will allow water and other small molecules to pass through while keeping larger ones contained—in this case, those larger molecules are the sugar that make gummy bears taste so good.

When you place a gummy bear into water, the sugar molecules will try to spread out and disperse evenly through the water bowl. But the gelatin membrane won’t let them out. That sugar also makes the gummy have a relatively low concentration of water compared to the liquid around it. Osmosis seeks to correct this imbalance, so water will keep pushing into the gummy and through the membrane until the concentration is the same on either side of the gelatin. This means your gummy is going to absorb lots and lots of water.

In a solution of water and salt, the bowl and the bear have similar water concentrations, so the candy may stay about the same size or even shrink, if the water is salty enough. Just as the sugar in the bear lowers its water concentration, the salt in the bowl means a lower ratio of water to other molecules. As a response, the bear may push out water in order to dilute the liquid inside the bowl. If you place the water-swelled bear into a salt solution, those extra water molecules will leave the bear to lower the salt concentration in the bowl.

If you have time (and gummies) to spare, you can elaborate on this experiment by testing different salt concentrations. You can line up several bowls with increasing quantities of salt in the same amount of water. The more salt you add, the more your candy should shrink.

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Science Fair Project Ideas for Kids, Middle & High School Students ⋅

Osmosis Experiments With Gummy Bears

Gummy Bear Science Experiments

Gummy bears offers kids a way to get interested in and understand osmosis – something about the brightly colored, tasty candy captivates young students. In osmosis experiments with gummy bears, the bears swell up to several times their normal size, which can be quite amusing and unexpected for kids and adults alike. Teachers like gummy bear osmosis experiments because they are simple, entertaining and easy to explain and understand.

Osmosis Terms

Understanding key terms is crucial to learn what happens during gummy bear osmosis experiments. Osmosis occurs when liquids flow through a semi-permeable membrane from a diluted to a concentrated environment. Semi-permeable membranes allow some molecules to pass through them – most frequently liquids – but not others. Scientists explain this by using the terms hypertonic and hypotonic: hypertonic solutions have higher concentrations of solutes – solids dissolved in liquids – while hypotonic ones have a comparatively lower concentration. Diffusion is the active movement of a substance from hypertonic to hypotonic, until an isotonic solution – equal concentration – is reached.

Gummy Bear Composition

Made from gelatin, water and a sweetener like sugar or corn syrup, gummy bears start as a liquid and cool into a chewy, gummy solution. The chewiness of gummy bears is due to the presence of gelatin, whose molecules are chain-like and create a solid matrix.

Gummy Bear Experiment: Tap Water

The first experiment involves soaking your gummy bears overnight in plain water. Prior to soaking, have your students measure the height, width, and depth of the gummy bear, and record this information in their lab books. Place the gummy bears in cups of water – one per student – and set aside. Then discuss hypotheses – what do the students think will happen to the bears? The next day, the bears will have expanded, as water moved by diffusion through the bear's semi-permeable membrane to reach an isotonic state where the concentration of water molecules inside and outside the bear were the same. The students should measure the bears again and use their before-and-after data to calculate the percentage of growth.

Gummy Bear Experiment: Salt Water I

Conduct the same experiment, this time soaking new gummy bears in salt water. Again ask your students to predict the outcome: Will the addition of salt change the outcome of the experiment in any way? Your students may be surprised at the results. New gummy bears soaked in salt water will shrink, but imperceptibly so. The bears' gelatin construction will cause it to hold its shape and size, for the most part, even when water leaves the bear.

Gummy Bear Experiment: Salt Water II

Soak the original, water-expanded gummy bears from your first experiment in salt water, and ask your students to predict the outcome. The bears will shrink as osmosis causes water to leave the gummy bear.

How to make an egg float using salt for a science project, osmosis science activities for kids, egg flotation science project procedures, osmosis egg experiments, second-grade science lessons using salt, why does an egg shrink in different solutions, science projects and research with salt, sugar, water..., science projects for 7 year olds, science project egg experiments, how to make an experiment with corn syrup, science project on how to float an egg, chemistry projects for diffusion in liquids, density experiments for elementary, density experiments for kids, experiments with salt melting ice, how to write a protocol for biology experiments, rock candy science project, how to measure heat of fusion of ice.

Minnesota Science Teachers Education Project: Investigating Osmosis Using Water and Gummy Bears
k20alt: The Gummy Bear Lab

About the Author

Based in northern Virginia, Rebecca Rogge has been writing since 2005. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Patrick Henry College and has experience in teaching, cleaning and home decor. Her articles reflect expertise in legal topics and a focus on education and home management.

Photo Credits

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Elementary Homeschool

Gummy Bear Science Project

Are you wondering what a gummy bear experiment is? What liquid makes a gummy bear grow? Or what happens when you put gummy bears in water?

Did you know a gummy bear will grow when placed in a variety of liquids by using the process known as osmosis? Since the gummy bear water was removed when it was created, when you place a gummy bear in water the water will move into the bear by osmosis. But in which liquid will the gummy bear grow the most? Find out as we use the scientific method in this gummy bear science experiment !

Undoubtedly, this is one of our favorite science experiments of all time, we call it Gummy Bear Osmosis. One of our contributors, Jordyn C. Jordyn , performed this gummy bear osmosis experiment with her children, and we will share her results with you below, but if you’d like to perform your own experiment, here is what you will need.

Scientific Terms to Know For the Gummy Bear Science Experiment

osmosis – passing of a material (like water) through a membrane (a gummy bear)
equilibrium – a state where opposite forces are balanced so one isn’t stronger than the other
membrane – a thin, soft layer of material that separates two things
cells – basic building blocks of all things
semi-permeable – only certain, small molecules can get through
solute – a substance that dissolves (like sugar in water)
solvent – a substance that is able to dissolve other substances (like the water that dissolves the sugar)
gelatin – a food ingredient made from collagen that makes liquids become squishy solids (like jello, marshmallows, gummies, etc.)
gummy bear – a gelatin substance with no water

Science Behind the Gummy Bear Experiment Explained

This science experiment lab is supporting the concepts of osmosis, equilibrium, solutions, solutes, and solvents . A solution is a homogenous mixture of one or more substances. The parts that are mixed to achieve a solution are called the solute and the solvents .

In most cases, a sugary substance (sugar or even sugary candy) will dissolve quickly and easily in water. When you dissolve sugar in water, the water becomes the solvent and the sugar is the solute . While there can only be one solvent in a solution, but there can be many solutes (gummy bears, sugar, candy, etc). However, in this science lab, we will be using water and several other types of solvents like vinegar, milk, saltwater, or other solvents (liquids) you have on hand to use in the experiment.

What Is Happening In this Gummy Bear Experiment

In this experiment, the water or liquid can enter the gummy through the membrane without letting out the sugar. The change that will occur to the gummy bears is osmosis and the process that it uses is equilibrium . This process of equilibrium allows water to diffuse from a higher area of concentration to a lower area of concentration. For a visual explanation, you can watch this science experiment video , or use this Gummy Bear Chemistry PowerPoint .

The point of this science lab experiment is to understand the process of osmosis and equilibrium . Watch this video on osmosis before the experiment to help the kids understand the background concepts thoroughly. Then take time to print out the Gummy Bear Osmosis Lab Printables or the Science Experiment Journal Kit at the bottom of this post. In additon, you may also want to discuss the concept of semi-permeable membranes and, if your homeschoolers are old enough, you could even try this experiment using eggs and other solvents as well! In fact, we really enjoyed this osmosis experiment using eggs .

Additionally, it is a good idea to use the same color gummy bear throughout the experiment. We know colors are fun, but when you use different colors, that adds a variable to the experiment. Or in other words, it adds another option or reason for a difference in the end result. However, if we use all the same color and same size gummy bears, then the end results of our experiment will be more reliable.

Materials You Need for The Gummy Bear Science Project

Gummy bears (for experimentation and comparison…and maybe an extra pack for snacking)
A small glass for each water/solution
Baking soda
Paper towels
Kitchen scale

Instructions for Gummy Bear Experiment

Then, add a half cup of water to the tap water glass.
Then, add a half cup of water and 1 tablespoon of salt to the saltwater glass. Stir the salt until it is dissolved.
Next, add a half cup of water and 1 tablespoon of sugar to the sugar water glass. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Then, add a half cup of water and 1 tablespoon of baking soda to the baking soda water glass. Stir until the baking soda is dissolved.
Then, add a half cup of your soda of choice to the soda glass.
Next, add a half cup of vinegar to the vinegar glass.
Finally, add a half cup of milk to the milk glass.

**Any of these liquids can be omitted or changed according to your preference.**

Weigh and measure a gummy bear and record results.
Add one gummy bear to each glass of liquid.
Set a timer for 12 hours.
After the timer goes off, remove each gummy bear from its solution, weigh, measure, and compare to a new gummy bear.
Discuss the results and complete the worksheet (found below).

**To extend the experiment, return the gummies to their original glasses for an additional 12 hours and check results again.**

One Family’s Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

“Science is fun at our house, and we decided to try the dissolving gummy bear experiment. We decided to try different liquids and solutions to see if we would get different results. First, we measured and weighed the gummy bears and recorded our results. Next, we put a gummy bear in plain water, sugar water, saltwater, vinegar, milk, and baking soda water. We let them sit for 12 hours and then checked on them the next morning to see what had happened. Testing Our Gummy Bear Osmosis Lab Results We decided to try different liquids and solutions (further expanding on our solubility lesson a.k.a. gummy bear experiment) to see if we would get different results. First, we measured and weighed the gummy bears and recorded our results. Next, we put a gummy bear in plain water, sugar water, saltwater, vinegar, milk, and baking soda water. We let them sit for 12 hours and then checked on them in the morning to see what had happened. The results were quite surprising! The kids all wanted to know what had happened and why they hadn’t dissolved like other water experiments we had tried. Scientific Conclusions For The Gummy Bear Experiment The results were quite surprising to my kids! Instead of dissolving, the gummies grew, some to almost triple their original size! We compared our new gummies to their unchanged counterparts and noted our scientific observations including weight and measurements. The gummy bear that absorbed the most was the one put in plain water. The one that grew the least was the one put in saltwater. Interestingly, the gummy bears remained completely intact, just larger, with the exception of the one put in vinegar. The gummy bear we put in vinegar did expand, but lost all of its gummy bear shape and just became a blob. We believe that the acid in the vinegar dissolved the gummy bear completely. The answer to our gummy bear experiment was simple. Osmosis ! I explained that osmosis is when a liquid (usually water) moves from one side of a membrane to another. Science is All About Trying Again I was met with blank stares and crickets….hmmmm….let’s try this again…..I told them to imagine themselves at the Haunted Mansion at Disney on a really crowded day. They take you into the little room and cram you all together before the ride starts. Think of how uncomfortable you feel pushing against other people, just wanting to get out, when finally they open the door and you are able to move away from other people and through the door. This is exactly the same as osmosis . You are water molecules , with the door being the membrane . The water molecules are all crammed up, so they move to where there are none of them, through the membrane. Then they got it! I explained that the gummy bears were not solutes, they were actually polymers and therefore were able to absorb the water by osmosis. Cool!! We got out our sheet and compared our new gummies to their unchanged counterparts and noted our scientific observations including weight and measurements. You can clearly see that the gummy bear that absorbed the most was the one put in plain water, while the one that was the one put in saltwater changed the least. Interestingly, the gummy bears remained completely intact, just grew larger, with the exception of the one put in vinegar. We posit that the acid in the vinegar dissolved the gummy bear completely into this gummy blob. This science experiment was so easy and so much fun! The kids loved it, and it was awesome to see that they actually retained what they learned. It was the perfect way to bring in some fun STEM learning to our homeschool science. Our gummy bear science project was a success!” – Jordyn C.

Gummy Bear Science Project Results. Why Did the Bears Get so Big?

Well, we already know from the introduction that water diffuses from an area of high concentration of water molecules to an area of low water concentration. At the beginning of the experiment, there is less water and more gelatin inside each gummy bear. As time goes on, this changes and the gummy bear begins to act as a sponge.

In the last part of this experiment, water moves into the Gummy Bear, clearly where there are fewer water molecules. Therefore, making it swell up. In fact, the water keeps moving until the water molecules are evenly spaced out (for example: when they have reached equilibrium). In the end, the molecules will stop diffusing when they reach equilibrium or when there is the same concentration of water molecules in the gummy bears as there are outside of the gummy bears.

Start Here: Print Your Gummy Bear Experiment Worksheet pdf

Obviously, every good experiment makes use of lab notes. Along with the steps above, we’ve compiled gummy bear experiment notes that will help you work through this experiment and learn the science behind it. This set includes Gummy Bear Science:

Terms to define
Experiment chart
Experiment Follow-up Questions

Additional Science Lab Experiments To Try After The Gummy Bear Experiment

If your kiddos loved doing this lab, then you’ll want to explore our collection of fun and free science-based lesson plans for kids who hate science ! We know how difficult it is to plan and execute science experiments while you are homeschooling multiple children. It’s so important to make the experience unbelievably fun homeschool science and to fun ways to bring science labs into everyday life. We have three homeschool science experiments that are sure to help you do that with minimal effort. Our simple home science experiments will have your kids laughing and wanting more. Try our science slime experiments and the soggy cereal science experiment as your next adventure in homeschool science labs!

Jamie Gaddy

Jamie Gaddy, B.S., M.Ed., Ed.D. has been a college education professor for over 17 years. Education has been a part of her life in both the classroom and as a principal. Six children later found her dissatisfied with traditional school and homeschool became the better fit. She is also a pastor’s wife, editor, and entrepreneur who now homeschools four of her six children in Georgia. Jamie loves to share about her homeschool experience to help other homeschoolers find success. Connect with her at [email protected] .

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Gummy Bear Science Experiment: DIY Science Project Ideas for Kids

Gummy bears sure are yummy, but they are tiny. What if you could grow a huge gummy bear? Do you think that’s possible? Will the large gummy bear be as yummy as the regular one? Perform the gummy bear science experiment with your little ones to find out. Science experiments for kids are a great way to help children understand difficult science lessons, like the concept of osmosis.

Step-by-Step Instructions on Gummy Bear Science Experiment

Here is a step-by-step guide to performing the growing gummy bear science experiment at home.

What You’ll Need?

The growing gummy bear experiment is not only fun but inexpensive too. All you need are:

3 gummy bears, one red, one green and one yellow (you can use any color of your choice)
3 glasses filled with water
¼ cup of sugar
¼ cup of salt
Pen and paper

How to Perform Gummy Bear Science Experiment?

Setting up the expanding gummy bear experiment is very easy. Follow these instructions to perform the experiment:

Place the 3 glasses of water on your work surface. Ensure that the level of water in all 3 glasses is the same.
Add ¼ cup of sugar into the 1st glass of water. Stir with the spoon until it’s completely dissolved.
Now add ¼ cup of salt to the 2nd glass of water and stir till it is completely dissolved.
Using the ruler, measure the height, length and width of each of the gummy bears and write it on the paper.
Now, measure the weight of each gummy bear using the scale and note it down.
Now, add the red gummy bear into the glass with sugar and the green gummy bear into the glass with salt. Finally, add the yellow gummy bear into the glass with plain water.
Note down the time and allow the gummy bears to sit undisturbed in their water bath for 12 hours.
After 12 hours, check the gummy bears. Take them out of the water and measure and weigh them.

What You’ll See?

After 12 hours, you’ll see something magical in the 3 glasses.

You’ll notice that the yellow gummy bear, which we put in the plain water, has expanded and grown into a big gummy bear.
The green gummy bear, which was in the salt solution, has barely grown.
The red gummy bear, which was in the sugar solution, has shrunk.

Science Behind Gummy Bear Experiment

So, why did the 3 gummy bears behave differently? Let’s find out by learning the science behind the expanding and shrinking gummy bears.

Why did the gummy bear in plain water become bigger?

When the gummy bear is added to the plain water, it expands because of a process called Osmosis.

Gummy bears are made of gelatin, sugar, and flavoring, which are dissolved in warm water. A bit of the water leaves the solution as it cools leaving a firm but chewy candy bear. When you add the gummy bear into the water, the water moves into the gummy bear to balance the amount of water and sugar. With more and more water moving into the gummy bear, it expands and grows bigger.

Why did the gummy bears in the sugar solution shrink?

In the glass with the sugar solution, the concentration of sugar is greater than the amount of sugar in the gummy bear. So, the water in the gummy bear moves out to balance the concentration of sugar, which makes the gummy bear shrink.

Why did the gummy bear in the salt solution not grow much?

Salt molecules are much smaller than gelatin. So, the concentration of salt in the salt solution is greater than the salt content in the gummy bear. As a result, the water in the gummy bear moves into the salt solution to balance out the concentration of salt. This is why the gummy bear in the salt solution doesn’t grow much.

What is Osmosis?

Osmosis is the process where water molecules or any solvent moves from an area with a lower concentration of solute to an area with a higher concentration of solute to balance the 2 solutions.

Other Way to Perform Gummy Bear Science Experiment

Now that we know how gummy bears behave in water, sugar, and salt, let’s see how they behave with other solutions. Let’s perform the gummy bear science experiment with liquids other than water.=

Here is what you need to perform this experiment:

Gummy bears

How to Perform Gummy Bear Science Experiment for Kids?

Check out stepwise instructions on gummy bear science experiment for kids below.

Place the vinegar, milk and olive oil in 3 different bowls.
Now, measure the height, length, width and weight of each of the gummy bears. Note the measurements down.
Then, place 1 gummy bear in each of the 3 bowls. Note the time.
After 12 hours, check the gummy bears. Note down the changes in each of the gummy bears.
Ask the children to check how the gummy bears behaved differently in each of the liquids.

Check Osmo for more experiments, activities, games, and worksheets to aid in your kids learning .

Frequently Asked Questions on Gummy Bear Science Experiment

Why should you do the growing gummy bears science experiment.

The gummy bear science experiment is a wonderful way to help little children understand the concept of osmosis.

What do you need for the expanding gummy bears experiment?

The gummy bear in the water science experiment is very simple and needs very few things. All you need are 3 glasses of water, gummy bears, sugar, salt, scale, ruler, pen, and paper.

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Home » Free Homeschooling » Gummy Bear Osmosis

Gummy Bear Osmosis

Check out our FUN Gummy Bear Osmosis experiment!

This is a simple and fun experiment for children 12 and under (and their moms).

A quick safety note:

Don’t let your kids eat the gummy bears after they’ve soaked in the various solutions. The ones in baking soda and vinegar will taste awful, and they will all contain bacteria as your kids will be handling them and then putting them back in the fluids.

AND, if you have a cat like we do, the cat might lick from the containers and/or drop a hair or two among the various solutions.

BTW – because of our cat, I did talk about the importance of strict scientific procedures and how data can be contaminated. My kids know that our experiment was more of a fun experiment – and that some contamination undoubtedly occurred.

Just a thought – you might want to buy TWO bags of gummy bears – one for the experiment and one for nibbling.

_____________________________________________________________________

Some educational info before you start (so you can explain the science to your kids):

Most sugary candy dissolves in water. In fact, you might want to try this experiment first, so your kids understand that this is true.

Gummy bears are an exception – they don’t dissolve in water . This is because they’re made with gelatin . When gummy bears are made, gelatin and water are heated and mixed (like when you make gelatin at home). As the mixture cools, water leaves the candy and the candy hardens and becomes gummy/chewy.

When you put a gummy bear in water, it is a solute , and the water molecules are a solvent. Since the gummy bear does not contain water (remember, the water was removed when the gummy bear was made), water now moves into the bear by the process of osmosis . Osmosis is the process whereby water moves from a greater concentration of water to a lower concentration of water (from a container of water to the candy bear).

Also, gummy bears have a semi-permeable membrane – their surface has holes in it and these holes allow small, non-charged particles like water in, but don’t let larger particles (like sugar) out.

At the beginning of the experiment, there is less water and more gelatin inside each gummy bear. As time passes, this changes, as the gelatin makes the gummy bear act like a sponge, absorbing water rather than being dissolved in it (like other candies).

Try the Gummy Bear Osmosis experiment and see what happens!

_______________________________________________________________

This Gummy Bear Osmosis experiment takes less than an hour to set up, but the actual experiment runs for 48 hours.

Materials You Need for the Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

Gummy Bears
A glass container for each liquid/solution
One tablespoon of salt
A tablespoon of sugar
One tablespoon of baking soda
Kitchen scale
Paper towels
Clock or timer
Gummy Bear Experiment Sheet (included at the end of this post, although the spacing is slightly different)
Gummy Bear Scientific Data Table (included at the bottom of this post)

Instructions for the Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

Label each glass with its contents: water, salt water, sugar water, etc.
Fill the glass labeled water with one-half cup plain water.
Fill the glass labeled salt water with one-half cup water. Thoroughly mix in one tablespoon of salt (make sure all the salt is dissolved).
Fill the glass labeled sugar water with one-half cup water. Thoroughly mix in one tablespoon of sugar (again, make sure all the sugar is dissolved).
Fill the glass labeled baking soda water with one-half cup water and thoroughly mix in one tablespoon of baking soda.
Fill the other containers with their respective liquids.
Select a gummy bear for each glass.
Measure the length, height and width of each gummy bear, weigh each gummy bear and write this info on the Gummy Bear Scientific Data Table. If your scale isn’t able to weigh just one gummy bear you can still do this experiment. Visually, your kids will be able to see the difference in the bears pre- and post-experiment.
Check – and write down the time.
Now, add a gummy bear to each glass.
Wait 12 hours.
Remove the gummy bears from their respective glasses.
Let your kids ooh and ahh and talk about the differences in the bears.
Now, measure and if you can,weigh each bear. Use the Gummy Bear Scientific Data Table to write down your results.
Put the gummy bears back in their solutions.
Check back after 24 hours and again measure and weigh each gummy bear. Again, give your kids plenty of time to talk about the results.
Again, put the gummy bears back in their glasses.
Check back after 48 hours, measure and weigh each gummy bear. Use the Gummy Bear Scientific Data Table to write down your results.

What did you discover? Did your gummy bears GROW – by A LOT!?! Which gummy bears grew the most, without losing shape?

Explain scientifically what happened., check out our experiment below., this is the beginning of it..

Gummy Bear Osmosis Science Experiment - How to Homeschool

(our cat lost interest quickly)

Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment – After 12 hours

Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment – After 24 hours

Our water gummy bear has lost part of its leg! And I can clearly see gummy particles in some of the water solutions.

But our vinegar gummy bear isn’t a blob yet, and I’ve heard that’s what happens. I’m getting a little worried – did we do something wrong?

Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment – After 48 hours

A lot of the gummy bears are falling apart after 48 hours! I originally planned to check again after 72 hours – but they just won’t make it! The vinegar gummy is a blob (yeah!), and the water and soda gummy bears are literally falling apart. This gummy bear osmosis experiment was so much fun for the kids!

From http://mirada.oursciencefair.com/SchoolHome.aspx

I’ve included the forms I used below – in case you’d like to use them ____________________________________________________________________________

GUMMY BEAR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

Gummy bear osmosis.

TAP WATER

DISTILLED WATER

SALT WATER

BAKING SODA WATER

SUGAR WATER

SODA

_____________________________________________________________

Scientific Data Table

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Gummy Bears Osmosis Experiment

Today we will combine two fun activities from our childhood: eating gummy bears and learning about osmosis just kidding about osmosis being fun, back then it was a hard concept to grasp. but in today’s experiment, we will show you how to learn this important concept in a fun and easy way, article contents.

What is Osmosis?

Osmosis is defined as the movement of water molecules from a solution with a higher concentration of water molecules to a solution with a lower concentration of water molecules, through a cell’s semipermeable (partially permeable) membrane . What do we mean by the concentration of water? It’s the proportion of the water in a solution. Let’s talk about that next.

Solvent, Solute, and Solution

Speaking about Osmosis, you will probably often hear about solvent, solute, and solution. So let’s see what they are.

A solvent is any substance that dissolves other substances that we put in it. The most common solvent is water . We know that if we, for example, add sugar to the water, it will dissolve. This is important since, in our organism, water dissolves ions and proteins in our cells.

On the other hand, in our example above, the sugar would be a solute . The solute is a substance dissolved in another substance. So, sugar (solute) dissolves in water (solvent).

And the product we get is called a solution . Solutions can have different concentrations , depending on how much solute we dissolve in a solvent. If we add more sugar to the water, it will be sweeter and denser, more concentrated. However, this solution will now have a lower concentration of water molecules, since there are other things (sugar) in as well.

To summarise – when sugar (solute) dissolves in water (solvent) we get a mixture of water and sugar (solution) .

What is Semi-Permeable Membrane?

Think of the membrane as a wall with gaps (it’s semipermeable!). When solutions on both sides of the wall have the same concentration, nothing interesting happens – there is an equal probability water molecules will move from each side of the wall so in the end concentration will stay the same.

However, if we change the balance on one side of the wall, for example, add salt to one side – water molecules will now move from the place where there are more of them (ordinary water) to a place where there are fewer of them (salted water).

What is Semipermeable Membrane and how does she function

This state of different concentrations is also called osmotic pressure and therefore the amount of liquid will increase on the side with more salt, and decrease on the side where the salt concentration is lower until the osmotic pressure is equalized. The goal is to reach equilibrium, a state where concentrations are the same on both sides.

Here, we have 2 explanations of the process:

The Mechanical explanation is that molecules of salt are blocking the movement of the water molecules so they are less likely to move from that side.
The Chemical explanation is that salt molecules consist of ions – Na+ and Cl-. Since water molecules are also partially charged they are attracted to salt molecules and therefore don’t move through the membrane.

Why Is Osmosis Important?

Osmosis is essential for the survival of all living organisms . It allows nutrients and minerals to move inside the cells, through the cell membrane, and also for waste to move out of the cells. For example, plants absorb water from the earth through the process of osmosis.

Try to remember the last time you ate something salty, such as chips. You must have been very thirsty afterward. This is because salt prevents water from passing into the cell through the semipermeable membrane and no matter how much you drink, it is difficult to quench your thirst.

Let’s go now and demonstrate the osmosis process in a simple way using gummy bear candies and different solutions.

Materials needed for the Gummy Bear Experiment

Gummy bears (gummy candies) . You can buy gummy candy in any grocery shop. We have used Haribo gummy bears and they worked well for our experiment. It is not important which gummy candy you use, but we have got reports that some types/brands of gummy candy won’t work well and will just dissolve. Best to have at least 4 gummy bears to make easy comparisons of all experimental results and the original gummy bear.
Water . 2 deciliters of water will be enough. We will add 1 deciliter to 2 of our glasses.
Salt . One tablespoon of salt will be enough to act as a solvent and create a concentrated solution.
Vinegar . We will need 1 deciliter of vinegar to serve us as the second solution and we will add it to the last glass.
3 glasses . Since we will have 3 experimental groups, we will need 3 glasses. In the first glass, we will add pure water. In the second glass, we will add water and salt. And in the third glass, we will add vinegar.

Instructions for making Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

Check the video at the beginning of the article to see how to conduct this experiment. As mentioned in the required materials section, we used three types of solvent (water, salted water, and vinegar) but you can experiment with any type of solvent.

Prepare 4 gummy bears (one for every type of solvent, +1 for comparison). Gummy bears are excellent for this experiment because they are made out of sugar, water, and gelatine. Gelatine doesn’t dissolve in water, but it allows water to pass through so it functions as a semipermeable membrane.
Prepare your solvents. Put pure water in one glass, water with a big spoon of salt into the second glass, and vinegar into the third glass. 1 deciliter of liquid in each glass will be more than enough. You can also experiment with different mixtures, like oil, milk, or soda to see what will happen.
Put 1 gummy bear into each solution . Leave one gummy bear on the side so you can compare afterward. Leave the gummy bears inside their solutions for a few hours. Check every 3 hours to see the changes.

Results of the osmosis experiment

Results of gummy bear osmosis experiment

After 9 hours, we observed that the gummy bear left in pure water got much bigger than in the other solutions. The water went in! There is just a little bit of water in the gummy bear, so there was big osmotic pressure.
Gummy bear in salted water got just a little bit bigger . Osmosis at work! Salted water had a lower concentration of water than the pure one, so in this situation, less water went into the gummy bear.
In vinegar, the gummy bear got bigger , but it also started to fall apart, and that’s because of the acid in vinegar which can dissolve the gelatine.

What kind of solutions did you use and what are the results? Tell us all about your experiment in the comments!

What will you develop and learn?

Knowledge from chemistry and biology . Osmosis, semipermeable membrane, solutions, etc., all play a big role in the functioning of living organisms. Talking about them will help us in better understanding what is happening on the cell level.
What is osmosis and how does it work. Without osmosis, there would not be life. So understanding osmosis is important to understand biology.
Scientific method and conducting experiments. Here, we conducted a scientific experiment with 3 experimental variables (water, salted water, vinegar) and a control variable (gummy bear that we didn’t put into any solution). This enabled us to control every aspect that could influence the outcome of the experiment.
Learning by doing . We best learn through experience, and here, we conduct our own experiments. So new knowledge while having fun is guaranteed!

We hope you too were enjoying this experiment. If you are in the mood for more great activities, we have some to recommend.

If you are interested in learning about defusion, a similar process to osmosis, then you can check How to demonstrate diffusion with hot and cold water article.
We also recommend learning about oxidation and how oxygen reacts with electrons in the Apple oxidation experiment .
If you are interested in making your own sweet candy, you can learn How to make homemade sugar crystals (Rock Candy) .
And finally, if you are interested in learning about polarity, the chemical property of atoms, you can learn about it in a simple but fun Colorful milk polarity experiment .

Happy experimenting!

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Grow a Gummy Bear STEM Challenge

February 15, 2024 By Emma Vanstone Leave a Comment

Have you ever wished your sweets were bigger? One easy way to grow a gummy bear or any other jelly type sweet is to put it in water. The candy will grow but might not taste as good!

Water moves into the gummy bear through a process called osmosis . Osmosis is the movement of water through a semi-permeable membrane from an area of high water concentration to an area of low water concentration. Water moves across the membrane until the water concentration is the same on both sides.

We designed an investigation to find out what happens to a gummy bear in plain water and salt water.

You’ll need

Gummy bears or other jelly sweet

Kitchen scales – optional

Small bowls or cups

two cups containing water and a gummy bear for a science experiment

Instructions

Add enough water to two small bowls to cover the gummy bear completely. Each bowl should contain the same amount of water.

Add a tablespoon of salt to one bowl and stir well.

Weigh each gummy bear and record the weight.

Place one gummy bear into each bowl.

Keep a third gummy bear to one side. This is the control gummy bear.

Check every 30 minutes for about 3 hours.

Weigh the gummy bears again.

You should find that the gummy bear in plain water increases in size, and the gummy bear in salt water either shrinks or stays the same size.

A gummy bear sweet in a cup of water has expanded and a gummy bear in salty water that has shrunk

The biggest gummy bear was the one soaked in plain water and the one at the bottom the control.

Three gummy bears, one has absorbed water and expanded and one has shrunk after being placed in salty water

Extension Tasks

Add the expanded gummy bear to salt water and leave for several hours. It should shrink back down as water moves out of the gummy bear and into the salty water.

Set up an investigation with a series of bowls containing different amounts of salt. Watch what happens to each gummy bear!

What’s happening

Gummy bears and other jelly sweets are made mostly from water, gelatin and sugar. The concentration of water inside the gummy bear is low compared to outside the gummy bear, so water moves into the sweet by osmosis. This is why the gummy bear in plain water grows in size.

The concentration of the water in the salty water is probably similar to that inside the gummy bear, so this sweet does not increase in size. If you made the water extra salty, the gummy bear might shrink as water moves out of the bear into the water.

More science ideas

Learn more about osmosis with eggs ! If you remove the shell of an egg with vinegar to reveal the membrane and place it in water, the egg will grow in size as water moves into the egg.

Build candy towers, a candy house, try some candy chromatography and more with my collection of candy science experiments .

gummy bear sweets in water and salt water for an osmosis science experiment

Last Updated on February 16, 2024 by Emma Vanstone

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These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

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Short explanation

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How big will a gummy bear be after 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 hours in water?
Does it matter if you cover the glass or not?
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What other things swell in water?
What other things shrink in sugar water?

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Gummy Bear Experiment

Osmosis can be a difficult concept for kids to understand. I’ve always found that visual explanations really hit home with kids and help them to understand. Today we have a growing gummy bear experiment that is a perfect compliment to our Gummy Mummy experiment that explores the science of desiccation and diffusion. Because gummy bears are made of gelatin they will not dissolve in water like other candy will. They will however absorb liquids and change in shape and size. We’ve set up an experiment with four different liquids to see the difference in how the gummy bears are able to absorb each and how they change over the course of the day.

Great Growing Gummies – Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

What you will discover in this article!

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What is Osmosis?

Scientifically, Osmosis is when solvent molecules (usually water) cross a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration. This creates equilibrium between the solute and solvent, balancing the concentration of solutes on both sides of the membrane. Osmosis is a passive process in that it requires no energy from the cell to occur.

Now – that’s a lot of big words and concepts so let’s break down that vocabulary:

Solvent : substance able to dissolve other substances. Solute : a dissolved substance Membrane : a thin, soft flexible sheet or layer especially of a plant or animal part Semi-Permeable Membrane : a membrane that only allows certain substances to pass through. Concentration : the amount of a component in a given substance. Equilibrium : a state of adjustment between opposing or divergent influences or elements

Gummy Bear Osmosis Lab

Gummy Bears Small Clear Bowls or Jars Water Sparkling Water White Vinegar Oil

I like to start this in the morning so you can check on it throughout the day and see the changes in the gummy bears.

STEP 1: Lay out four bowls on the table and put a gummy bear in each bowl. Then beside each bowl put another gummy bear of the same color so you can compare the two easily over the course of the day.

STEP 2: Measure equal amounts of each of your solvents. We used a quarter of a cup of water, sparkling water, white vinegar and oil and poured them over the gummy bears in the bowl.

STEP 3: This is a great time to have a discussion about osmosis and have your kids make predictions about what they think is going to happen in each bowl and why. What effect might each substance have on the gummy bear? Have the kids write down their predictions.

STEP 4: Set a timer for an hour and let the bears do their thing.

STEP 5: Check back each hour for the rest of the day and write down observations over the course of the day.

Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment Results

Now the exciting part… the results of our experiment! Let’s take a look at the results individually first.

When gummy bears are soaked in water the bear will swell and grow in size. This is because the water will flow into the gummy bear through its semi-permeable membrane. The sugar molecules try to spread and dissolve but they can’t get out of the gelatin so they expand resulting in the gummy bear expanding.

Sparkling Water

Will have a similar result to water. The only difference is that the addition of carbon dioxide to the water can have an acidic effect on the bears which would cause the outside to soften allowing more water to be able to pass through the bear and it swells up more. You will also be able to observe the carbon dioxide bubble sticking to the outside of the bear.

White Vinegar

White Vinegar will have an acidic reaction with the gummy bear softening the outside of it, however the liquid is not as easily absorbed into the bear as water so the gummy may get softer but will not change in size as much as the bears soaked in water.

Because oil is polar it doesn’t mix well with water or other substances. The oil will have very little effect on the bears and you will not see much change if any at all. This gummy bear will also retain its color the best because the oil isn’t breaking down the bear or being absorbed into it so the structure and color will remain the same.

Comparing the Results

The most fascinating part of this experiment is comparing the results of the different solvents. Set the gummy bears out side by side with their controls so you can visually see the differences.

To get really scientific with your results, which is perfect for your older kids or kids needing more of a challenge, have them weigh and measure the gummies and compare results with the controls and each other.

You can also dissect the gummy bears and view them under a microscope to look for microscopic changes.

Extension Ideas

I think your kids will love this Gummy Bear Lab experiment on Osmosis! Encourage your students to get creative and add other variations like adding things like salt or baking soda to the water to see if it changes the results. Or try other solvents.

Want more osmosis experiments? Try this Rainbow Water Beads Experiment or the Bouncy Egg Experiment which involves a chemical reaction and osmosis.

Want more gummy science? Check out our Gummy Mummies . Or make your own gummies! You can check out these recipes on the site: Valentine’s Day Gummies , Star Wars Gummies , Rainbow Dragon Egg Gummies .

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Gummy bear osmosis

Follow FizzicsEd 150 Science Experiments:

You will need:

A packet of gummy bears
At least two bowls
Optional; sugar, stopwatch and either measuring scales or a ruler

A packet of gummy bears bext two white bowls, a glass of water and a salt container

Instruction

Pour the same amount of water into each of your bowls. You’ll want enough water to be able to immerse your gummy bears in this activity.

Add salt to one of your bowls of water and leave the other with just plain water. You could also make another bowl with sugar added to it too as an extra experimental test.

Place a gummy bear into each of the bowls. Keep a gummy bear aside as a control for measuring against later. Now it’s time to wait!

Swollen red gummy bear in a bowl of water

Over time you’ll find that one of your gummy bears will start to swell. How big can the gummy bear get? That’s up to you to find out!

Swollen gummy bear vs normal gummy bear in a child's hand

Look at the difference! Do you know why this worked? Read below!

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What is happening?

The gummy bear experiment is all about osmosis. This is the process where water will move into areas where there is less water, i.e. from a dilute solution to a more concentrated solution. The gummy bear is semi-permeable to water (i.e it can let water molecules into it but not larger molecules), which means the water was able to move into the gummy bear.

This process happened much faster when the gummy bear was in pure water, as the water concentration difference between pure water and the gummy bear was the greatest. The gummy bear in the saltwater didn’t swell as quickly as the water concentration difference between the saltwater and the gummy bear was less different. We call this difference a concentration gradient. The gummy bear in the saltwater didn’t get as large either as the water stopped moving into the gummy bear once the water concentration in the gummy bear and the saltwater became the same.

Application

Within your body, the cell membrane controls what enters and leaves your cells using osmosis. The different concentrations of sugar, proteins, DNA, and water between the inside and outside of the cell allow for the materials to flow in and out of the cell. But unlike our gummy bears, which are semi-permeable, our cells are selectively permeable; meaning that this process only allows specific material to enter and exit the cell membrane.

Variables to test

Try differing amounts of salt or sugar in the water. Can you predict the change in size as the salt or sugar concentration in the water increases?
What happens if you try hot, warm and cold water?
Does the colour of the gummy bear matter?

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17 thoughts on “ Gummy bear osmosis ”

Like the one on Osmosis and sinking the boat. Simple and easy for Content Language Integrated Learning in elementary school of Taiwan.

We’re glad that you enjoyed these experiments Joseph! There are over 150 free experiments on this site , all designed for elementary students using simple materials. Lots to do for curious minds!

Hi, I did this with a Yr 5 class. I am a casual teacher and there was no work left so as part of the day we did this. It does require a bit of time to set up and sit. We started in the middle session and looked at the results at the end of the day. We did instructional writing (Literacy), we measure the gummi bears before and after in cms (Measurement), we looked compared sizes before and after and engaged in scientific thinking on what else we could test this way. We had a wonderful time making predictions and then the students put the gummi bears back into the solutions to see what would happen overnight. In between other activities, this experiment kept the student focus throughout the day. Thank you Fizzics!

That’s fantastic to hear Katherine! We love that science can be used for multiple student outcomes and this is certainly a great experiment to watch over time. Love it 🙂

Glad you liked this science activity!

Good experiments to start basic chemistry ideas for my grandson.

That’s great to hear Sharon! We’re glad that you have found these free experiments useful for your family 🙂

What would happen if sugar was used instead of salt? Why would it Expand or Decrease size?

Try it out! This experiment is about water moving from higher concentration of water to lower concentration of water. Adding salt or sugar to the water still should change the water’s movement. Let us know the results!

Would this be good for a science fair

Sure would! Let us know how you go 🙂

This website helped me deffenitily

We’re glad it did, thanks for using it!

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Science Project Ideas

Gummy Bear Experiment

The gummy bear experiment is a fun activity that teaches the basic concept of osmosis to the little ones in an easy manner. They will also be thrilled at the idea that their favorite gummy bears could teach them a lesson or two in science.

Gummy Bear Science Project Instructions

Hypothesis for growing/shrinking gummy bears.

When a gummy bear is placed in a hypotonic solution (e.g. water) then it will increase in mass and volume. On the other hand, its mass and volume decrease when placed in a hypertonic solution (e.g. salt water). Hypertonic refers to a higher concentration of solutes and hypotonic is just the reverse.

Things Needed

Physical balance or digital weighing machine
Sieve, plastic fork or screen
Graph paper
Measure the dimensions (length, breadth and height) of the bear with a scale. Measure its mass with the balance.
Fill the bowl with water.
Completely immerse the gummy bear in the water.
Let the bowl sit overnight in a place away from direct sunlight.
Next day, lift the bear from the water with a plastic fork, sieve or screen.
Record the dimensions and mass of the bear again.
Do the same observation each day for a couple of days more.
Plot a graph with the time in hours along the X-axis (the dependent variable) and the mass or weight of the gummy bear along the Y-axis (independent variable). Check the nature of the graph.

Things You Can Try

Set up a series of bowls on the table and fill them with different solutions like that of baking soda, vinegar, salt, distilled water, etc. Make similar observations as above for each one of them. Compare your results.
Also, check if the taste and/or color of the bears have changed.

Gummy Bear Osmosis Video

How does it work.

The ingredients of gummy bears are sugar, water, and gelatin, with little water content. Due to the process of osmosis, i.e., the movement of water molecules through a selectively permeable membrane from an area of high concentration to that of a lower concentration, the bear starts to grow. However, it doesn’t get dissolved as the gelatin is insoluble in water.

On trying out the different ideas, you will find that the degree of expansion of the candy depends on the liquid on which it is kept. However, vinegar, which is actually an acid, can dissolve the candy .

This simple trick can prove to be a cool science fair idea. The kids will be enthralled to display their knowledge to the audience in a fun way.

References:

https://biozone.weebly.com/uploads/2/7/4/2/274298/gummy_bear_osmosis.pdf

https://tinkerlab.com/incredible-growing-gummy-bears/

https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/saturday-science-growing-gummy-bears

https://www.homeschool.com/blog/index.php/2014/04/homeschool-science-gummy-bear-osmosis/

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Cooking & Baking /
Kitchen science /

Gummy Bear Science Project

It is time for these little bears to grow up...and out with this gummy bear science project! Watch as gummy bears grow and shrink in different liquids in this kid-friendly experiment. This project is open for exploration and discovery, so kick things off by asking your child what they will happen to a gummy bear in water. Will it dissolve? Will it shrink or grow? Will it fall apart? How long will it take? Don’t forget to grab a notebook to write down their ideas so you can compare what they predicted with what actually happens! You’ll start to see results in just a few hours, and you’ll definitely see big changes in size in just a day.

Want to explore more kitchen science experiments? Explore the tastier side of learning with Science of Cooking: Ice Cream from the KiwiCo Store !

Ages: 5 - 11

<30 minutes

Grownup needed

Materials you'll need

gummy bears
water (3 cups)
food scale - optional

Step-by-step tutorial

After the bears go into the water (or salt water, or sugar water), do NOT allow your child to eat them. Bacteria could start growing in the water as the bears soak, making them unsafe to eat.

Spoiler alert: this experiment explores osmosis. That’s a chemistry term for the motion of water through a barrier (like a gummy bear). If you give this a try, you’ll see that the gummy bear in the plain water will grow — a lot! One question that might come up is why gummy bears grow when other candies (like peppermints) dissolve. That’s because gummy bears, unlike peppermints, contain gelatin (which doesn’t dissolve in water) as well as sugar (which does). If you zoomed way in to look at the individual gelatin molecules, you’d see that they’re all tangled together, with tiny pockets in between where liquid can get trapped. As you’ll see in this experiment, those pockets can hold a lot of liquid! This strong but flexible gelatin structure is what makes gummies, well, gummy. Give it a try and see what happens, or scroll to the bottom for more about gummy bear osmosis!

Heat 1 cup of water over the stove. Slowly add salt to it and stir. (You’ll need around 7-9 tablespoons.) Continue adding salt until it no longer dissolves and a few salt crystals remain at the bottom. You now have a supersaturated salt solution.

You can skip the heating step if you’re working with younger kids or if you just don’t want to spend the time. The experiment will still work and you’ll see similar results — the bears may just be somewhat different sizes as ours.

Pour the salt solution into a bowl. Let the mixture come to room temperature. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with sugar instead of salt to get a supersaturated sugar solution.

Finally, fill the last bowl with normal water. You now have three bowls filled with different solutions.

Take your gummy bears and place a few in each bowl. Remember to save a few as control tests. Let the bears sit in the bowls for 12-72 hours. How do you think the bears will react with each solution?

Now observe the bears! (These are our bears after 48 hours.) You can use a kitchen scale to see how heavy each bear is using the control bears as a reference point. Are some bears more jiggly than others? Did the color change at all? Can you find a way to shrink the largest gummy? Continue to experiment by soaking your bears in different liquids and different concentrations!

When you drop a gummy bear into plain water, you’ll see the bear grow and grow as water flows into the bear. Why? The water moves to even out the stuff dissolved in it. Outside the gummy bear, you have water with nothing in it. Inside the gummy bear (trapped inside those pockets in the gelatin), you have water + sugar. There’s more stuff inside the bear, so the water moves into the bear to try and make the proportion of sugar molecules to water the same in both places. (You can think about this like a sugar cube dissolving in a cup of water. If you let it sit for long enough, the water at the top of the cup will be as sweet as the water at the bottom.) So what about the salt water? You still have water + sugar inside of the bear. But outside of the bear, you have water + salt. Salt molecules are much smaller than sugar molecules, so more of them will dissolve in water. This means there’s more stuff in the water than there is inside the bear. So this time the water moves out of the bear to try and even things out. The sugar water is an interesting case because just like the salt, you have a lot of stuff dissolved in the water outside of the bear. But this time, we saw the water flowing into the bear, not out. That tells us that there must be more sugar inside the bear than there is in the water outside.

Final result!

You don’t need to stop here! You can try changing the amount of sugar and salt, or test out different liquids. Or, to add a little bit of math to the activity, weigh your gummy bears on a kitchen scale every day and make a chart of how it changes over time. Happy experimenting!

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Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

Learn about the process of osmosis when you try this easy gummy bear osmosis experiment with the kids. Watch your gummy bears grow as you investigate what liquid makes them grow the biggest. We are always on the hunt for simple science experiments and this one is just super fun and easy!

Explore Science With Gummy Bears

A fun gummy bear experiment all in the name of science and learning! There are so many simple science experiments that are quick and easy to set up for young children. Older children can easily add data collection, graphing and charts to turn this fun edible science experiment into more of a challenge!

Grab a bag of gummy bears or alternatively, you can make your own homemade gummy bears with our easy 3 ingredient gummy bear recipe .

Then head into the kitchen to grab your supplies and let’s find out what happens when you add gummy bears to different liquids. Watch your gummy bears as you investigate what makes gummy bears grow the biggest.

LOOK: 15 Amazing Candy Science Experiments

Set Up A Gummy Bear Osmosis Lab

Let’s find out what liquid makes gummy bears grow the biggest! Remember, the dependent variable is the size of the gummy bears and the independent variable is the liquid you use. Learn more about variables in science.

Gummy bears
baking soda
ruler or measuring scale
optional – stopwatch

TIP: Extend the experiment by using additional liquids such as juice, vinegar, oil, milk, baking soda mixed with water etc.

Instructions:

STEP 1. Carefully measure and pour the same amount of water into 3 cups. Add the same amount of distilled water to another cup if using. Pour the same amount of vinegar into another cup.

STEP 2. Add sugar to one cup of water, baking soda and salt in another. Mix well.

STEP 3. Weigh and/or measure each gummy bear beforehand. Use the printable worksheet above to record your measurements.

STEP 4. Add a gummy bear to each cup.

STEP 5. Then set the cups aside and wait to observe what will happen. Check them again after 6 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours.

TIP: This gummy bear experiment takes at least 12 hours to work!

STEP 6. Remove your gummy bear from the liquid and carefully measure and/or weigh each one. What liquid made the gummy bears grow the biggest? Why was that?

Free Printable Gummy Bear Lab Worksheet

Use the free gummy bear data sheet below to track your results! It’s perfect for older kids to add to a science notebook.

How Does Osmosis Occur In Gummy Bears?

The process of moving water across a semi-permeable membrane from a low concentrated solution to a high concentrated solution is called osmosis . A semi-permeable membrane is a thin sheet of tissue or layer of cells acting as a wall that allows only some molecules like water molecules to pass through.

The main ingredients in gummy bears are gelatin, sugar and flavoring. The semi-permeable membrane in gummy bears is the gelatin.

CHECK OUT: How To Make Slime With Gelatin

It is the gelatin that also stops the gummy bears from dissolving in liquids, other than an acidic solution such as vinegar.

When you place gummy bears in water, the water moves into them through osmosis since gummy bears don’t contain water. The water is moving from a low concentration solution to a high concentration solution.

Learn more about osmosis with our potato osmosis lab.

Using The Scientific Method With Kids

The scientific method is a process or method of research. A problem is identified, information about the problem is gathered, a hypothesis or question is formulated from the information, and the hypothesis is put to test with an experiment to prove or disprove its validity.

Sounds heavy… What in the world does that mean?!?

The scientific method can simply be used as a guide to help lead the discovery process. You don’t need to try and solve the world’s biggest science questions! The scientific method is all about studying and learning things right around you.

As kids develop practices that involve creating, gathering data, evaluating, analyzing, and communicating, they can apply these critical thinking skills to any situation.

💡To learn more about the scientific method and how to use it, CLICK HERE .

Even though the scientific method seems like it is just for big kids, this method can be used with kids of all ages! You can have a casual conversation with younger kids or do a more formal notebook entry with older kids!

Gummy Bear Science Fair Project

Science projects are an excellent way for older kids to show what they know about science. They can also be used in various environments, including classrooms, homeschools, and groups.

Kids can take everything they have learned about using the scientific method , stating a hypothesis, choosing variables , and analyzing and presenting data.

💡 Sample Hypothesis: If a gummy bear is placed in water overnight, then it will increase in size due to the process of osmosis, where water molecules move from an area of higher concentration (the water) to an area of lower concentration (inside the gummy bear).

Want to turn this gummy bear osmosis experiment into an awesome science fair project? Check out these helpful resources.

Science Project Tips From A Teacher
Science Fair Board Ideas
Easy Science Fair Projects

More Fun Candy Science Experiments

Try a candy taste test with chocolate.
Why do the colors not mix in this skittles experiment?
Dissolving candy corn experiment is fun to do !
Make a coke and mentos eruption !
What happens when you add pop rocks to soda?
Try this floating M&M experiment.

Helpful Science Resources

Here are a few resources that will help you introduce science more effectively to your kiddos or students and feel confident yourself when presenting materials. You’ll find helpful free printables throughout.

Best Science Practices (as it relates to the scientific method)
Science Vocabulary
8 Science Books for Kids
All About Scientists
Science Supplies List
Science Tools for Kids

Printable Science Projects For Kids

If you’re looking to grab all of our printable science projects in one convenient place plus exclusive worksheets and bonuses like a STEAM Project pack, our Science Project Pack is what you need! Over 300+ Pages!

90+ classic science activities with journal pages, supply lists, set up and process, and science information. NEW! Activity-specific observation pages!
Best science practices posters and our original science method process folders for extra alternatives!
Be a Collector activities pack introduces kids to the world of making collections through the eyes of a scientist. What will they collect first?
Know the Words Science vocabulary pack includes flashcards, crosswords, and word searches that illuminate keywords in the experiments!
My science journal writing prompts explore what it means to be a scientist!!
Bonus STEAM Project Pack: Art meets science with doable projects!
Bonus Quick Grab Packs for Biology, Earth Science, Chemistry, and Physics

Subscribe to receive a free 5-Day STEM Challenge Guide

~ projects to try now ~.

Learning Osmosis: Gummy Bear Experiment

Share this post:, it’s fun to learn in a gummy bear osmosis experiment.

When studying Egypt, or preparing for an extra spooky Halloween you might consider making a chicken mummy . But chicken mummies take about a month to create, so seeing the process of osmosis can be very slow. To see the process of osmosis quickly you can do a gummy bear osmosis experiment.

Osmosis with gummy bears? That sounds like a tasty science experiment since a whole package of gummy bears will surely lead to extras on hand!

Gummy Bear Osmosis: A fast experiment to see osmosis in action

Ask yourself (and your students or kids)

What do you think might happen?
Is there an area that has a lot of salt or sugar? Is there an area that does not?

Learning about osmosis Osmosis is the process of evening out concentrations. Nature doesn’t like it when one area has all of the salt or sugar while another area does not. It will move water around to try and equalize concentrations in the whole jar. Knowing that you can think about these questions:

Where will the water in the freshwater cup flow to?
Where is the high concentration of salt or sugar?

Here’s the answer In the case of fresh water, water will flow from outside the gummy in to try and make the two concentrations of sugar the same. This will make the gummy bear very large over the course of a day, or even overnight.

Remember, this process of trying to even out concentrations is called osmosis.

Play the video below to see what happens when you put a gummy bear in fresh water overnight!

Potato Osmosis is even faster than gummy bear osmosis.

If you want even faster osmosis results than you get with the gummy bears, you can put slices of a potato in salt water and in fresh water.

Again, ask yourself (and your students or kids)

What do you think will happen?

There are a few salts in the potato itself. Once you have thought about it, go ahead and slice up a potato to try the experiment for yourself, then check your answers with our video below!

I hope you enjoyed our two quick osmosis experiments that can help students understand osmosis in a hands-on inquiry fashion!

You’ll notice that in the salt water there is so much salt in the water around the potato that the water wants to leave the potato.

That is because nature wants to try and even out the salt concentrations between inside and outside of the potato. Again, this process of trying to even out concentrations is called osmosis.

In the fresh water, the situation is different.

Instead, the water sees a lot of salts in the potato and no salts in the surrounding water.

In this situation, nature will try and dilute the salts inside the potato through osmosis. This will plump up the potato with extra water.

Looking for another fun experiment with osmosis?

Make french fries and see which kind you like better, those that are limp from being soaked in salt water for a little while versus those that are plump from being in the fresh water for an equal amount of time. Make sure you fry or bake them up using the same methods so you have an accurate taste comparison!

What is osmosis?

Osmosis is when there are different concentrations of something in the water. For the mummies, and our osmosis experiments you can do at home, that is often salt.

When you have an area that has a ton of salt (or sugar for our gummy bear osmosis experiment) the surrounding water is unhappy. It wants everything to be equal. Because of that water molecules will naturally flow from an area that has very little salt or sugar to an area that has a ton of salt or sugar.

Check out our other fun science activities!

free minimaker downloads science for kids

2 thoughts on “Learning Osmosis: Gummy Bear Experiment”

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Growing gummy bear science experiment to show osmosis

19/07/2023 by Cathy James Leave a Comment

Let’s use gummy bears for a sweet science experiment and learn how osmosis works.

Growing gummy bears science experiment to show osmosis

In this simple science experiment using candy, we’re using gummy bears to show osmosis.

This gummy bear science lesson:

:: introduces children to the scientific method

:: invites them to make predictions

:: asks them to observe and record results

:: invites them to generate a hypothesis

:: encourages them to ask questions and develop their experiment

:: demonstrates the process of osmosis

See all the ready-made science and math thematic teaching units in our Play Academy’s Science and Math Pathway and make your teaching easier!

You might like to eat a gummy bear or two before you start your experiment, but don’t eat any of the ones you experiment with because, in addition to collecting water, they might also collect bacteria. Ew!

Materials needed

:: gummy bears

:: glass or clear plastic jar

:: stopwatch

:: paper and pencil

Select one or two gummy bears to act a your control . Measure them with a ruler and record how big they are. Then sit them on a plate and don’t do anything else to them.

The control in a science experiment is very useful. It’s a sample of the materials you are using that you don’t experiment on. You don’t add anything extra to them or try to change them in any way.

You can compare the results of your experiment with your control set. This lets you see how the materials you have experimented with have changed, compared to what the control set is like. It can help you understand the results of your experiment.

Place one or two other gummy bears in a glass of water.

Observe the gummy bears over time and note down on your paper what happens to them.

You might like to set a stopwatch to intervals of time and note down the appearance of the gummy bears after 1, 5, ten, twenty, forty and sixty minutes. Then after two and four hours.

You can carefully, using a spoon, take the gummy bears out of the water at each time interval. Measure them with a ruler and record their size on your paper, and then carefully place them back in the water.

After you have left your gummy bears in the water for the time you have decided on, carefully take them out of the water using a spoon and set them beside the gummy bears you have used as your control (the ones that weren’t placed in water).

What do you notice about their appearance? How have the gummy bears that were in the water changed? Have the control gummy bears changed?

Variations and extensions

To develop your gummy bears experiment you might change an aspect of your experiment to see what effect if has on your gummy bears. You might:

:: change the length of time they are in the water

:: change the temperature of the water

:: try a liquid other than water, such as salt-water, sugar-water, vinegar, milk or oil

:: try a different kind of candy

:: weigh the gummy bears as well as measuring their length

:: experiment to see if the gummy bears shrink in size after they have been taken out of the water

The science behind the experiment

Why do the gummy bears grow in size? It’s because of osmosis.

Osmosis is the process by which water moves across a semi-permeable membrane, from an area where there’s a high concentration of water molecules to an area where there’s a low concentration of water molecules.

There are more water molecules in the water in the jar than there are in the gummy bear.

Osmosis causes some of the water molecules to move from the water in the jar into the gummy bear. As the gummy bear fills with water, it gets bigger.

The gummy bear is made of gelatin, which acts like a sponge, so rather than dissolving in the water, the gummy bear grows in size.

More candy science experiments

Set up a candy science lab and try out all these sweet science experiments:

:: diffusion experiment using Skittles®

:: gumdrop construction challenge

:: dancing gummy worms experiment

:: how to make candy paint

Candy Science Five Day Unit

Want a brilliant set of science lessons, all planned for you and ready to teach? Come and pick your choice of units from the Science and Math Pathway of our Play Academy. Make your teaching easier with ready-made teaching units, ready to use onscreen or to print, on our ad-free Play Academy . Children love these lessons!

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Use your STEAM skills while playing with gummy bears

Gummy bears are always fun to eat, but they can be even more fun to experiment with! Gummy bears are the star of this science experiment that helps to demonstrate the concept of osmosis. This experiment needs to sit overnight to work, so why not enjoy some of the leftover bears while you wait? Or check out these titles from Hoopla to hold you over Ada Twist, Scientist and Silly Food Science .

Materials needed

Gummy bears
4 plastic cups (clear works best for observations)
Coloring utensils and paper
Tablespoon for measuring

Instructions

Start by measuring a few of your gummy bears with your ruler to find their height before the experiment. Record this on a piece of paper to use as your datasheet.
Next, select 4 gummy bears to use in the experiment. It may be easier to use four different colors. Make 4 boxes on your data sheet and draw a picture of each gummy bear in one.
Fill 3 of the 4 cups with about ½ cup of water. Fill the 4th cup with ½ cup of vinegar. Label the vinegar cup.
Add 1 tablespoon of salt to one of the water cups. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to another. Label the cups as you go. The last cup will remain just water.
Once all 4 cups are full and labeled, add a gummy bear to each cup. See if a reaction happens. Label what color gummy bear is in each cup on your data sheet.
Let your gummy bears soak overnight. The next day, take out each gummy bear and see what has happened to it! Draw a picture of the result in each box of your datasheet and measure each bear and record the new height.

Note: While you may be tempted to eat any extra gummy bears, you should save a few as a control. Then you can see how much your bears have grown in the experiment! Do not eat the gummy bears that have been a part of the experiment when you are done.

Questions to ask

Does the amount of time the gummy bear is in the liquid change the results? Put your gummy bears back into their cups for another day and see what happens!
What other liquids will affect gummy bears? Try this experiment again with some other household liquids such as milk, juice, soda, baking soda water, etc.

How it works

Gummy bears are made of gelatin, so they do not dissolve in liquid, like many other sugary candies. In this experiment, the gelatin in the gummy bear acts like a cell membrane in living cells. The gummy bears get bigger or smaller after soaking in the liquids because of a process called osmosis . Osmosis lets water pass in or out of a cell’s membrane in an attempt to equalize the molecules inside and out. Water goes into the gummy bear in sugar water and out of the gummy bear in salt water to try and put things in balance, causing your gummy bears to swell or shrink!

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BJU Press Blog

The Gummy Bear Experiment–A Fun, Edible Science Project

March 24, 2023 by Guest Writer

Children are naturally curious about the world around them. They ask tons of questions. One of the best ways to engage that curiosity is with hands-on activities and experimentation, like learning about melting wax through a crayon art project , or making a history timeline to put the past into perspective. Laboratory investigations, on the other hand, can be intimidating, but they are worth the time and effort .

One of the challenges of science is that so much of our world is microscopic, and it is hard to study what we cannot see. Our bodies are composed of millions of tiny cells . Molecules travel across cell membranes. But how do we know that? Have you ever observed osmosis, when water travels from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration? Although you cannot see the water molecules traveling, you can infer that they do from what happens to a gummy bear left in water.

What is the gummy bear experiment?

The gummy bear experiment is a great way to observe the behavior of liquid solutions using readily available items in your kitchen. And these items are partially edible*!

*Note that you should not consume the water-logged bears that result from your experiment, but feel free to eat your control bears. Bears that sit in water for an extended time may harbor bacteria that could make you sick.

Terms to Learn for the Gummy Bear Experiment

The following scientific terms will help you better understand what is going on and what you’re doing in this experiment.

solute: a substance that dissolves in water (e.g. salt or sugar)
control: a bear that you have not treated with any experimental liquid
solvent: a liquid that dissolves other substances (usually the solvent is water)
solution: a solute dissolved in a solvent
super-saturated solution: a solution that has as much solute in it as it can dissolve
equilibrium: a state of balance, where concentrations of molecules are the same on both sides of a membrane
osmosis: when molecules (like water) pass through a membrane (or gummy bear) traveling from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration
membrane: a thin layer that separates two areas
semi-permeable: allowing small molecules through but keeping large molecules out
variables: whatever is different about your experiment and control (for example, size, color, temperature, the liquid you use, the volume of liquid, etc.). You would not want to try to test what the liquid does to the gummy bear if you also start with gummy bears of different sizes or colors. You would not want to put your control in the refrigerator and leave your experiment on the counter. You want the only difference between the two to be the liquid you put the bear into.

What happens in the experiment?

Because gummy bears have no water in them, they contain an area of low concentration of water molecules. When you put a gummy bear in water for a long time, the water will move into the bear by osmosis. The gummy bear is semi-permeable, so the sugar and gelatin stay in the bear. And the water comes in and makes it grow.

Imagine you are in a small room with lots of people of all sizes and shapes. There is standing room only! Now imagine that someone opens the door. What happens next? People will leave the tiny room and spread out. Not only that, but small children may be the first to get out, because they are weaving through the small spaces between larger people (like a semi-permeable membrane) to make a quick exit. The molecules in a chemical solution behave the same way.

Molecules will spread out to occupy as much space as they have.
Molecules will move to an area of lower concentration (outside the tiny room) if possible.
Small molecules can travel through semi-permeable membranes while large ones cannot.

How to Conduct the Gummy Bear Experiment

Begin the gummy bear experiment by discussing what happens to candy when it gets wet, like in your mouth. Your children have probably noticed that most candies will dissolve in their mouths. If not, give them a piece of candy that will dissolve.

Now, what about gummy bears? Take the opportunity to eat one! Gummy bears usually take quite a bit of chewing compared to other candies. Ask your children why they think that is. Then guide them to make predictions about what will happen when you put gummy bears into water and other water-based solutions. Remember to include appropriate controls in your experiment and to test only one variable at a time. Note that since your experiment should not introduce unnecessary variables, you really should use one color of gummy bear. Personally, I don’t like the yellow ones, so devoting them to my experiment would be a great cause.

Use this opportunity to teach your child project and time management skills .

Hypothesis

Once you have introduced the gummy bear experiment by noticing what happens in your mouth, you can start to form a hypothesis. You have discussed possible predictions about what will happen when you put gummy bears in water. Discuss possibilities for the other solutions you will test as well. Perhaps your children think that gummy bears just don’t stick around long enough in your mouth to dissolve. Your hypothesis might be “the gummy bears will dissolve in water overnight.”

Perhaps your children think that only teeth can physically change the gummy bear, so it will not change in the water overnight. Although that would make for a boring experiment, it is a valid hypothesis! Remember that science is about challenging your hypothesis, so design an experiment that could show you that you are wrong. If you said that gummy bears will “eventually” dissolve, how will you know that your experiment is over and your hypothesis is disproven? How long will you have to wait? Putting a time limit on it, like overnight, makes your hypothesis disprovable without an infinite amount of time.

gummy bears (your least favorite flavor)
a small cup for each experimental solution
salt (one tablespoon in a half cup of water, stir to dissolve)
baking soda (one tablespoon in a half cup of water, stir to dissolve)
sugar (one tablespoon in a half cup of water, stir to dissolve)
paper towels
ruler (or caliper)
kitchen scale

1. Gather materials.

Decide how many liquids you want to test. You might want to start with just water and leave other liquids for follow up questions. My suggestion is to do at least plain water and sugar water so you have two different results to talk about. It is also fine to just test plain water and compare it to your control.

2. Measure the gummy bears.

Before you start, you will want to take some measurements and record your results. Use the kitchen scale to weigh the gummy bears. Use the ruler to measure their length, width, and thickness (you might want to try the millimeter scale rather than inches, like a true scientist). If you happen to have a caliper, that will work well for this. Are there large or small differences between gummy bears? Choose gummy bears that are as similar as possible.

3. Measure the test liquid.

How much does a half cup of your test liquid weigh? Record your result.

4. Place the gummy bears in the test liquids.

Put each gummy bear into a different liquid, putting one into an empty cup as a control. Set a timer for at least 12 hours, or you can plan to run the experiment overnight. Keep in mind you will need to start early in the day if you want to get results the same day.

5. Measure the gummy bears and test liquids again.

gummy bears that have experienced osmosis

Whatever measurements you took before the experiment, take the same ones after and compare. Plot the two results on a graph. Feel free to put the gummy bears back in the liquids and see if another 12 hours will change them even more. Add these third measurements to your graph. Did all of the liquid you lost from the cup go into the bear?

Gummy Bear Experiment Results

The control gummy bear will not change at all, or very little. If you conduct your experiment on a particularly humid day, the control bear could absorb water from the air. Your bear in water should be about double or triple the size of your control bear. Was your hypothesis disproved? Why do you think you got the results that you did? What will you try next?

You might also notice that the color of your bear has changed. Why do you think that happened? Did the color of your water change, indicating the color might have seeped out of the bear? Or do you simply have a lower concentration of color now that the bear has grown?

Why do gummy bears grow in water?

Gummy bears are not solutes, so they do not dissolve in water. They are gelatin polymers. The interconnected gelatin fibers allow water molecules to enter and exit the gummy bear freely. Because there is an abundance of water in the cup (high concentration) and none in the gummy bear (low concentration), the water experiences osmosis, and the gummy bear grows.

What about in sugar water?

a gummy bear in water and a gummy bear in sugar water

Because of the sugar dissolved in the sugar water, the concentration of water is not as high in that solution. Even though you started with the same amount of water, the sugar water is more similar to the gummy bear than plain water, and so it does not change the gummy bear as much (it reaches equilibrium sooner).

Gummy Bear Osmosis

The polymeric nature of gummy bears acts like a semi-permeable membrane surrounding a cell. Water flows into the gummy bear as it spreads out from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. When the water reaches equilibrium, the gummy bear will stop growing, but that does not mean the water molecules have stopped moving. They continue to move back and forth at equal rates.

Going Further

Here are some ideas to take this experiment further:

Once you have tried water and sugar water, try additional liquids and solutions you can find or make around your house (see materials list for some ideas). After seeing the results of the first experiment, how will your hypothesis change? How will the acidity of vinegar affect the results? Which liquid or solution changes the gummy bear the least? Why do you think that is?
In a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add sugar or salt, stirring until dissolved. Continue adding sugar or salt until you have remaining solute that is not dissolving. Pour the super-saturated solution into a heat-resistant bowl or cup to cool. Discard the undissolved solute. Cool the solution to room temperature before using it in your experiment.
Take measurements of the gummy bears every two or four hours and determine when the experiment reaches equilibrium. Equilibrium will be the point at which the gummy bear does not grow any more. Plot your measurements on a graph. What shape does the plot look like?
Try a completely different osmosis experiment by putting 3 raw eggs in vinegar overnight. You will see bubbles form on the surface of the egg shell as the vinegar starts to dissolve the shell. In the morning, gently rub the egg shell in a circular motion until all of it is gone. You might need to do this under running water. Leave the eggs in vinegar longer if you are unable to completely remove the shell. Once you have naked eggs, you will be looking at a single cell with a membrane surrounding it! (Note that the yolk is not the nucleus. It is a deposit of nutrients that would have fed the embryo if the egg had been fertilized. The nucleus is invisible.) Place one egg in water, another in an empty cup (control), and the third in corn syrup. Leave them overnight. Water will enter the egg in the plain water experiment and will leave the egg in the corn syrup experiment. Why do you think that happens?

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This post was written by a guest writer for BJU Press. Learn more about the guest writer in the description above. If you have any questions regarding this post, please direct them to [email protected] .

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COMMENTS

Stay-at-home science project: Enlarge gummy bears to ...
1. Fill two of your bowls with cool water. Room temperature is fine, but keep away from hot water—it'll melt your gummy bears. 2. Add the salt to the first bowl. The second should just contain ...
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Instructions for Gummy Bear Experiment. First, label each glass for a different kind of liquid (tap water, salt water, sugar water, milk, vinegar, etc.) Then, add a half cup of water to the tap water glass. Then, add a half cup of water and 1 tablespoon of salt to the saltwater glass. Stir the salt until it is dissolved.
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Check out stepwise instructions on gummy bear science experiment for kids below. Place the vinegar, milk and olive oil in 3 different bowls. Now, measure the height, length, width and weight of each of the gummy bears. Note the measurements down. Then, place 1 gummy bear in each of the 3 bowls. Note the time. After 12 hours, check the gummy bears.
Growing Gummy Bear Science
Growing Gummy Bears. In this candy science experiment, we compared gummy bears left in water to those placed in salt water. To get started, we needed to make about a cup of supersaturated salt water solution. So, we added salt, a little bit at a time, to a cup of boiling water until no more salt dissolved.
Gummy Bear Osmosis Science Experiment
Instructions for the Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment. Label each glass with its contents: water, salt water, sugar water, etc. Fill the glass labeled water with one-half cup plain water. Fill the glass labeled salt water with one-half cup water. Thoroughly mix in one tablespoon of salt (make sure all the salt is dissolved).
Gummy Bears Osmosis Experiment
Put pure water in one glass, water with a big spoon of salt into the second glass, and vinegar into the third glass. 1 deciliter of liquid in each glass will be more than enough. You can also experiment with different mixtures, like oil, milk, or soda to see what will happen. Put 1 gummy bear into each solution.
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Add a tablespoon of salt to one bowl and stir well. Weigh each gummy bear and record the weight. Place one gummy bear into each bowl. Keep a third gummy bear to one side. This is the control gummy bear. Check every 30 minutes for about 3 hours. Weigh the gummy bears again. You should find that the gummy bear in plain water increases in size ...
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water and salt water to determine what makes water move! Materials: • 2 bowls • Water • Salt • Different colored gummy bears Procedure: 1. Boil a cup of water and slowly add salt until no more salt will dissolve in the boiling water (remember to be careful when dealing with hot liquids!). 2. Cool the water in the refrigerator. 3.
Gummy bear osmosis
Pour a few centimeters (1-1 1/2 in) of boiling hot water in a glass. Dissolve as much sugar as you can (do not use too much water, because then you will need a lot of sugar). When the sugar starts to accumulate on the bottom, you are done. Let the glass cool, for example in a cold water bath (remember, in hot water gummy bears melt).
Gummy Bear Experiment
STEP 1: Lay out four bowls on the table and put a gummy bear in each bowl. Then beside each bowl put another gummy bear of the same color so you can compare the two easily over the course of the day. STEP 2: Measure equal amounts of each of your solvents. We used a quarter of a cup of water, sparkling water, white vinegar and oil and poured ...
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In today's experiment we have one of our volunteers, Isabel, show us how to grow gummy bears through osmosis by using treated water. When a gummy bear is pla...
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The gummy bear experiment is all about osmosis. This is the process where water will move into areas where there is less water, i.e. from a dilute solution to a more concentrated solution. ... This experiment is about water moving from higher concentration of water to lower concentration of water. Adding salt or sugar to the water still should ...
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The gummy bear experiment is a fun activity that teaches the basic concept of osmosis to the little ones in an easy manner. ... On the other hand, its mass and volume decrease when placed in a hypertonic solution (e.g. salt water). Hypertonic refers to a higher concentration of solutes and hypotonic is just the reverse. Things Needed. Gummy ...
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Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment
Pour the same amount of vinegar into another cup. STEP 2. Add sugar to one cup of water, baking soda and salt in another. Mix well. STEP 3. Weigh and/or measure each gummy bear beforehand. Use the printable worksheet above to record your measurements. STEP 4. Add a gummy bear to each cup.
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For the mummies, and our osmosis experiments you can do at home, that is often salt. When you have an area that has a ton of salt (or sugar for our gummy bear osmosis experiment) the surrounding water is unhappy. It wants everything to be equal. Because of that water molecules will naturally flow from an area that has very little salt or sugar ...
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To develop your gummy bears experiment you might change an aspect of your experiment to see what effect if has on your gummy bears. You might::: change the length of time they are in the water:: change the temperature of the water:: try a liquid other than water, such as salt-water, sugar-water, vinegar, milk or oil:: try a different kind of ...
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Make 4 boxes on your data sheet and draw a picture of each gummy bear in one. Fill 3 of the 4 cups with about ½ cup of water. Fill the 4th cup with ½ cup of vinegar. Label the vinegar cup. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to one of the water cups. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to another. Label the cups as you go. The last cup will remain just water.
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Gummy Bear Osmosis ExperimentMade for parents and teachersScience Kits and morehttps://elementarysciencen.wixsite.com/sciencekitsGummy Bearshttps://amzn.to/3...
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Put each gummy bear into a different liquid, putting one into an empty cup as a control. Set a timer for at least 12 hours, or you can plan to run the experiment overnight. Keep in mind you will need to start early in the day if you want to get results the same day. 5. Measure the gummy bears and test liquids again.

Stay-at-home science project: Enlarge gummy bears to reveal the secrets of osmosis

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Gummy Bear Osmosis

A quick safety note:

Some educational info before you start (so you can explain the science to your kids):

Try the Gummy Bear Osmosis experiment and see what happens!

Materials You Need for the Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

Instructions for the Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment

What did you discover? Did your gummy bears GROW – by A LOT!?! Which gummy bears grew the most, without losing shape?

Gummy Bear Osmosis Experiment – After 12 hours

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