Edible experiments go down a treat

175 minutes for chemistry - Chemistry Week

Dr Joanna Buckley, our education coordinator for North East England, brings the chemistry of sweets to primary school students in Sheffield.

As part of Chemistry Week 2016 and our Sheffield and District Local Section’s programme of outreach events, Dr Joanna Buckley visited Westways Primary School in Sheffield. Joanna delivered some of her “Edible Experiments” to 60 10-11 year old pupils, engaging them with the chemistry behind certain foods.

Pupils could find out if they were supertasters – people who have more taste buds than average and are very sensitive to particular tastes – and identify wax coatings on jellybeans and Skittles®. They also explored questions such as how fondant centres in After Eight® mints are created, how beetles help to make certain sweets, and how popping candy works.

“The students loved finding out the chemistry behind their favourite sweet treats and tasting them” said Joanna, “they said they will never look at them in the same way again!”