Easy Valentine’s Day Dissolving Candy Hearts Experiment

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It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and we can’t resist all of the yummy holiday treats in our home – especially Conversation Candy Hearts (they’re pretty much a requirement around here!). I’m sharing with you a candy hearts experiment you can do with your kids this month, which is a great way to explore solubility and how these treats react to different temperatures and liquids.

And anytime we involve learning with candy in our homeschool lessons and experiments, you can bet I’m going to have some pretty engaged kiddos!

Candy Conversation Hearts make the perfect subject for a Valentine’s Day themed science experiment exploring solubility. Solubility is the degree to which something dissolves in a solvent (usually a liquid), and it’s really easy to test and explore at home.

In this candy hearts experiment, your kids will have so much fun observing how well the candies dissolve in regular water, sugar water, and salt water, and at both hot and cold water temperatures.

Dissolving Candy Hearts Experiment

Are you ready to find out which option will dissolve the candy hearts the best?

I’ve created a printable tracking sheet you can use to record the results of your simple experiment; you’ll want to print one for each child doing the experiment. Everything else is easy to set up for this science project – you probably have the simple supplies you’ll need right at home.

Click here to download and print the Candy Hearts Experiment tracking sheet.

Other Supplies Needed

6 cups of water (we used 6 glass measuring bowls)
½ cup sugar, divided
½ cup salt, divided
6 candy conversation hearts
Timer or stopwatch (I just used my phone)

Candy Heart Science Experiment Steps

Here are the steps you’ll take for the experiment. Let your kids do as much as possible on their own in measuring, timing, and recording their observations!

Also, before you begin, have your kids make some predictions on what they think is going to happen and why.

1. Place 1 cup of water into three different cups. Into one cup, add ¼ cup sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. Into the second cup, add ¼ cup salt, stirring until dissolved.
2. Heat the remaining 3 cups of water until hot.
3. Place 1 cup of hot water into three different cups. Into one cup, add ¼ cup sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. Into the second cup, add ¼ cup salt, stirring until dissolved.
4. Place one conversation heart into each cup of water. Set a timer for 2 minutes.
5. When the timer goes off, check the candy hearts and make note of which have changed.
6. Continue checking the candy hearts every 2 to 5 minutes, making note of the changes.
7. Discuss which liquids caused the candy hearts to dissolve faster/slower and why.

Our Observations

A few things that we observed that you might as well:

• Our cup that had hot salt water dissolved more of the candy heart than the other cups. There was even a heart shape that formed on the surface of the water.
• The cup that had cold salt water barely dissolved our candy heart, and the heart also floated to the top of the glass.

• The cup that had cold sugar water did not even take the text off of the candy during our experiment.

After making your observations, it will be a good chance to discuss with your kids why each of these things happened, and how the sugar, salt, and temperature affected how well the candy hearts dissolved.

Take the Candy Hearts Science Activity Further

You can continue exploring solubility and even chemical reactions with various types of liquids you have in your kitchen. How will your conversations hearts dissolve in vinegar or vegetable oil? How about soda or soap? What could you do to make the candy hearts dissolve the fastest? What happens if you add something like baking soda to the water?

Let your kids see what questions they can come up with and what they want to explore.

Teach Your Kids the Scientific Method

For other science experiments you do with your kids this year, I created a printable to help you walk them through the steps of the scientific method. Click the banner below to grab it for free, then print it to use as many times as you need!

I hope you have a great time doing this candy hearts experiment with your kids, and that your family has a happy Valentine’s Day!

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