Science Fair

Grown-ups

Does stirring make sugar dissolve faster?

1st–5th grade · 1 day of testing · free · ages 6 to 11 · 40 minutes a sitting

  • 💧 Water
What you need for the stirring and dissolving sugar project: sugar, water from the tap, clear plastic cups, all the same size, a measuring cup, measuring spoons

My hypothesis

If I change how the water is stirred, then how long a spoonful of sugar takes to disappear will ______, because ______.

You fill in the blanks. Think about the water right beside the sugar, and what happens to it once it holds lots of sugar. A guess is a good because: the test finds out.

Change, measure, keep the same

CHANGE

how the water is stirred: No stirring, Slow stirring, Fast stirring

MEASURE

how long a spoonful of sugar takes to disappear, in seconds

KEEP THE SAME

  • the same amount of water, from the same tap
  • one teaspoon of sugar each time
  • the same cup and the same spoon

Scientists call the thing you change the independent variable and the thing you measure the dependent variable. The things you keep the same are the controls: if one of them changed too, you wouldn't know which change made the difference. Try each of the 3 levels 3 times.

What you need

  • Sugar
  • Water from the tap
  • Clear plastic cups, all the same size: 1
  • A measuring cup
  • Measuring spoons
  • A spoon
  • A stopwatch or a kitchen timer

Steps

  1. Pour half a cup of tap water into a clear cup.
  2. Add one teaspoon of sugar and start the timer right away.
  3. For no stirring, put the spoon down and just watch the sugar.
  4. For slow stirring, make one circle every two seconds, saying one-two for each circle.
  5. For fast stirring, stir as fast as you can without splashing.
  6. Stop the timer when you cannot see any sugar, and write the seconds in your table.
  7. If you still see sugar after 5 minutes (300 seconds), write 300.
  8. Pour out the water, rinse the cup, and try the next way of stirring.
  9. Do all three ways three times, in a different order each round.
  10. Find the mean time for each way of stirring, and draw a bar graph.

Every step is one you can do yourself, with a grown-up nearby. Write each number down straight away, in the table below, so nothing is lost.

Your results table

MY RESULTSPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair

Name ______________________ Fair day ____________

Question: Does stirring make sugar dissolve faster?

I changed: Stirring   I measured: how long a spoonful of sugar takes to disappear (seconds)

StirringTry 1 (seconds)Try 2 (seconds)Try 3 (seconds)Mean
No stirring
Slow stirring
Fast stirring

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: stirring along the bottom, seconds up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

From 4th grade, add the tries for each level and divide by how many there were: that's the mean, and it goes in the last column. Then draw a bar graph, one bar for each thing you tried.

📊 Make my graph🖨 Print the whole packet (9 pages)

Why it works

Sugar dissolves when water pulls its tiny bits away from the pile. Without stirring, the water right beside the sugar fills up with sugar and slows down, so fresh water has to creep over. Stirring brings fresh water to the sugar all the time, so it usually disappears faster.

Going further (7th and up): Change a second thing: stir for the same time at each speed in cold, room and warm water, and graph speed against temperature.

Board layout

MY BOARD · 36 × 48 in tri-foldPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair
  1. ❓ Question (10 × 8 in): Does stirring make sugar dissolve faster?
  2. 💭 Hypothesis (10 × 9 in): If I change how the water is stirred, then how long a spoonful of sugar takes to disappear will ______, because ______.
  3. 🧺 Materials (10 × 12 in): 7 things: see your list.
  4. 🪜 Steps (22 × 9 in): 10 steps, three tries at each level.
  5. 📊 Results (22 × 16 in): Your table (Stirring down the side, tries across) and your bar graph.
  6. ✅ Conclusion (10 × 14 in): My hypothesis was right / partly right / not right. I know because…

Materials to list: Sugar; Water from the tap; Clear plastic cups, all the same size; A measuring cup; Measuring spoons; A spoon; A stopwatch or a kitchen timer.

Bring photos or drawings of your test. Nothing wet, hot, powered or alive on the table.

This project at your grade

1st–3rd gradeTries: three at each level (one is fine at a first fair). The table: levels and tries, numbers or pictures. The graph: a picture, or a simple bar graph. The conclusion: what happened, in their words.
4th–6th gradeTries: three at each level. The table: units in the header and a mean column. The graph: a bar graph, or a line for a number that grows. The conclusion: right, partly or not, and the numbers that show it.

From 4th grade up, the table gets a mean column. See every project for 1st grade, or print a blank results table.

What a judge will ask

  • What did you change, and what did you measure? I changed how the water is stirred and measured how long a spoonful of sugar takes to disappear, in seconds.
  • What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? I kept the same amount of water, from the same tap and one teaspoon of sugar each time the same, so the only difference was how the water is stirred.
  • How many times did you test it? 3 times at each of my 3 levels.
  • If you did it again, what would you change or test next? I'd stir for the same time at each speed in cold, room and warm water, and graph speed against temperature.

Make it yours

Keep this project on this device and Peabody counts down to your fair day, with a plan for each day. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Try next

👨‍👩‍👧 For grown-ups and teachers: how much to help, the safety rules, and running a school fair. Science fair v0.16.1 · Checked .

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