SHS Food Science: Forming Sugar Crystals

Pre-lab:
Purpose: The purpose was to see how sugar crystals form.

Procedure: We massed sugar in water, and than we poured the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. We used a thermometer to reach the appropriate tempture. After it reached the tempture we removed it and than we added the dye color that we wanted for our favorite colors.

Pictures of pre-lab with labels:

Sarah is stirring the sugary syrup mixture which is really YUMMMMMMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The monkey helps out A LOT!!!!!!!!!!

These are the colors that we chose!!!!!!!!

These were the different Celsius degrees that we heated the sugar solution to.

Observations:

After letting the crystals form, our observations below:

115 degrees C= Mrs. Turners Orange rock candy was small. It had a caved in top.

120 degrees C= Sarah's Aztec Blue rock candy had bigger holes than Mrs. Turners.

125 degrees C = Taryn's purple rock candy had the biggest holes out of them all. The rock candy also looks like a big purple rock.

Post-Lab Questions:

1. Where did the crystals form? Mrs. Turners rock candy actually formed on the stick. Sarah's and Taryn's blue and purple rock candy formed in the cup and very little on the stick.

2. How did changing the temp. of the sugar syrup change the crystal formation? Mrs. Turners rock candy made the best rock candy because it looked like diamonds or crystals. The higher temps made the crystals not form as well and stuck or melted to the cup.

3. What was the function of the sugar crystals on the skewers? The crystals formed on the skewer with a lower temp.

Pictures of our results:

Sarah is peeling the cup off of rock candy!!!!!!