February 9, 2018 6:00 AM By Amy Cowen on

Valentine's Day may bring with it extra candy. Luckily, you can put some of this candy to scientific use with a fun and eye-pleasing STEM activity and a lesson in molecular diffusion. Just add water!

Valentine's STEM: Just Add Water. www.sciencebuddies.org

Colorful Candy STEM

All you need to do this hands-on science activity is colorful candies, a small bowl, and water. Have students line the candies up in a ring around the edge of the bowl, slowly pour water into the center of the bowl, and observe what happens!

Students can use stopwatches to time the reaction and can compare reaction times for different kinds of candies or different temperatures of water. What colorful designs will you create? Which candies work best?

Get full step-by-step directions and learn more about the science behind the activity in Find the Candy Rainbow with Chemistry at Scientific American.

Science Kids can See

Take a closer look at the colorful reaction in this timelapse video:

Related Science

For other candy- and color-based hands-on STEM projects and activities that you can do with students, see the following: