science experiment growing gummy bears

Growing Gummy Bear Science

Looking for a fun candy science experiment ?! Learn about osmosis with this oh-so-simple gummy bear science experiment!

Go ahead! Raid your candy stash – and this time you can do it in the name of science!

Follow the simple step-by-step below and then grab 30 more easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat (plus a no prep science journal to keep track of their results!) in our shop !

Getting Ready

To prep, I gathered 2 small bowls, water, salt and gummy bears, of course. It couldn’t get much simpler than that.

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. (Please use caution when allowing your little one to work with hot water.)

Once the water couldn’t hold anymore salt, we let it cool in the fridge. If you use warm water for your experiment, you could melt your gummy bear.

When the salt water cooled, it was time to fill the bowls. My kids poured a little salt water in one bowl and plain tap water in another.

Next, we gathered our gummy bears and compared them to pick ones of similar size.

They placed a couple gummy bears in the salt water and a couple in the plain water. They wanted to eat the remaining gummies, but I reminded them we needed to save them as the controls. We wanted to be sure we could compare what happened to the ones we put in the different water solutions.

Now all we had to do was wait!

We started this experiment in the evening so we waited overnight.

You’ll need to let them soak for several hours, but I wouldn’t leave them for longer than overnight or they might fall apart on you.

My 5 year-old predicted the gummy bears in the plain water would expand and the ones in the salt water would shrink.

This is what we found the next morning….

Growing Gummy Bears! Cool candy science experiment for kids.

The yellow bear was the control, the red was the salt water gummy and the green was soaked in plain water.

Both kiddos were surprised to see how much bigger the bears soaked in plain water had become. They noticed the bears soaked in salt water were a little bit bigger but not that much.

My curious 3 year-old decided he needed to eat his gummy and popped a salt water gummy in his mouth. Oh, was he surprised when it was salty on the inside!

The Science Behind Growing Gummy Bears

To make gummy bears, sugar, gelatin and flavor are dissolved in a warm water solution.

As the solution cools, water leaves the gelatin solution and the bears become firm but chewy. (Not all the water leaves the gelatin however, otherwise the gummy bears would be rock hard.)

It’s this little bit of water that makes the gummy bears act as a solution of water, one with a lot of sugar dissolved in it.

The plain water in the bowl, however, had very little dissolve in it. We’ve learned from our egg experiment (the one with the dissolved shell) that different solutions of water will want to balance each other.

The plain water, with very little dissolved in it, will move toward the solution of water with a lot dissolved in it, the gummy bear.

This movement of a solvent from one of lower concentration to higher concentration is called osmosis.

The force behind that movement of water is called osmotic pressure.

In the bowl with the salt water, we tried to balance the amount of stuff (salt) dissolved in the water with the amount of sugar dissolved in the gummy bear.

Since our gummy bear placed in the salt water solution did expand a little bit, we knew our salt water solution did have a lot dissolved in it but not quite as much as the gummy bear did.

So, a little water moved into the gummy bear to balance the two solutions.

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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

Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

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.