Edible Glass

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In this activity, learners discover the principles of edible glass by making a supersaturated sugar solution. The goal of this activity is to provide an interesting experiment which learners of many different levels can perform. The write-up for this activity provides explanatory information that presents the experiment from several different perspectives. This activity includes an introduction to common sugars, as well as some discussion of temperature and thermometry, basic thermodynamics, and the experimental procedure to make the candy glass. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
10 to 30 minutes
Learning Time:
2 to 4 hours
Estimated Materials Cost:
$5 - $10 per group of students
Age Range:
Ages 8 - adult
Resource Types:
Activity, Experiment/Lab Activity
Language:
English

Materials List (per group of students)

  • Hot plate
  • Heavy pot with lid
  • Water
  • Thermometer
  • Watch or Clock with seconds place
  • Balance or scale
  • Oven mitts
  • Hot pad
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 0.75 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • Plate
  • Long wooden spoon
  • Drinking Glass
  • Food Coloring
  • Flavoring
  • Cookie Sheet greased with vegetable oil
  • Sturdy Toothpicks
  • Aluminum Foil

Keywords

Subjects

  • Engineering and Technology
    • Engineering
      • Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
  • Mathematics
    • Data Analysis and Probability
      • Data Representation
  • Physical Sciences
    • Chemistry
      • Chemical Reactions
    • States of Matter
      • Solids
    • Structure and Properties of Matter
      • Atomic Structure
  • The Nature of Science
    • The Scientific Process
      • Conducting Investigations
      • Gathering Data
      • Communicating Results

Informal Categories

  • Food and Cooking

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see
  • see color
  • read
  • touch

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Includes alignment to state and/or national standards:

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

  • Pomeroy, Josh

Rights:

Funding Sources:

  • NSF Grant DMR, 0079992
  • NSF Grant DMR, 1120296