Menu
It’s December. School is crazy – assemblies, upcoming exams. Kids are crazy. Life is crazy. You’re wishing the last week would go by quickly and smoothly. Students are just wishing for some fun.
So – what can you do with Chemistry classes for a fun winter holiday celebration?
Make hardtack candy.
SAFETY FIRST:
MATERIALS:
Students bring their choice of flavoring. I provide sugar, corn syrup, wax or parchment paper, food coloring, powdered sugar, and baggies to take their candy home.
When my classes made candy in the lab, we used #10 cans scavenged from the cafeteria to cook. Now, we use 4-6 quart pots that live in the home ec room.
I’ve started using this hardtack candy lab as our final exam by adding questions related to the candy or tt topics we’ve learned about that apply to the ingredients. Solubility,mm solubility curves, solution concentrations, Lewis structure of water, polarity, and even electron configurations of carbon and oxygen make good questions. You can use whatever topics you’ve already learned about.
If you don’t want to start from scratch with this lab,you can find the lab, slides and guided notes on solubility, and assorted editable application questions for an assessment right here:
Holiday Hardtack Candy Chemistry Lab
Let me know how it works for you!