I would’ve enjoyed chemistry class way more in high school if my teacher had included candy-making in the curriculum. Kids can learn all about sugar chemistry while making real, edible candy with Alex Brands’ Confectionery Science kit.
Designed for kids ages 8 and up, Confectionary Science is one of the newest additions to the Scientific Explorer line, a collection of educational, activity-based science kits that help kids experiment and learn. This kit includes materials and molds that kids can use to create rock candy, gummy gems, chocolate lollipops, sugar glass, and a sugar skull, all while learning science facts.
It’s worth noting that the set does not include any food ingredients — such as sugar, chocolate, gelatin, egg whites, corn syrup, food coloring, fruit juice, and cooking oil — so parents might need to make a grocery store run to pick up some items before getting started. The experiments also require parental supervision because they all involve heating the ingredients with either an oven or a microwave, and no one wants to get burned. But it makes for a great snow day or slumber party activity for family bonding time!
The instruction booklet outlines each experiment step by step, like a recipe. Not only do the instructions tell kids how to make the candy, but they also blend in easy-to-understand explanations about the science behind the sweets so that kids can absorb the facts without even realizing that they’re learning a chemistry lesson. For example, the rock candy recipe teaches kids about solubility, crystallization, and how sugar molecules bond.
Each recipe takes a different amount of time to complete, ranging from about 20 minutes (the sugar density rainbow is pretty quick) to three hours (the gummy gems need to set in the fridge) to a week (the rock candy takes at least five days to fully crystallize). The kit offers a lot of play value because kids can try out all of the experiments at different times, and they can do them more than once.
Families can make learning sweet with these hands-on experiments — over and over again.
