Science Fair

Grown-ups

Does sugar dissolve faster in warm water?

2nd–6th grade · 1 day of testing · free · ages 7 to 12 · 40 minutes a sitting

  • ✅ Nothing sharp, hot or small
What you need for the sugar and water temperature project: sugar, cold water from the fridge, water from the tap, warm water, clear plastic cups, all the same size

My hypothesis

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

You fill in the blanks. Think about how fast the water itself is moving when it is warm. A guess is a good because: the test finds out.

Change, measure, keep the same

CHANGE

how warm the water is: Cold from the fridge, Room temperature, Warm from the tap

MEASURE

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

KEEP THE SAME

  • the same amount of water
  • the same spoonful of sugar
  • stirring the same way, once a second

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
  • Cold water from the fridge
  • Water from the tap: left out for an hour, for room temperature
  • Warm water: warm from the tap, not hot
  • Clear plastic cups, all the same size: 3
  • A measuring cup
  • Measuring spoons
  • A spoon
  • A stopwatch or a kitchen timer

Steps

  1. Pour half a cup of fridge-cold water into the first clear cup.
  2. Pour half a cup of room-temperature water into the second, and warm tap water into the third.
  3. Add one teaspoon of sugar to the cold cup and start the timer.
  4. Stir slowly, once a second, until you can't see any sugar.
  5. Stop the timer and write the time down.
  6. Do the same with the room-temperature cup and the warm cup.
  7. Empty the cups and do the whole test two more times.
  8. Draw a bar graph: which water made the sugar vanish fastest?

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 sugar dissolve faster in warm water?

I changed: Water   I measured: how long a spoon of sugar takes to disappear (seconds)

WaterTry 1 (seconds)Try 2 (seconds)Try 3 (seconds)Mean
Cold from the fridge
Room temperature
Warm from the tap

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: water 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 bumps into it and carries tiny bits of it away. In warm water the water is moving faster, so it bumps the sugar harder and more often. Cold water is moving slower, so the sugar takes longer to disappear.

Going further (7th and up): Change a second thing: do the same test with salt, and graph sugar and salt side by side at each temperature.

Board layout

MY BOARD · 36 × 48 in tri-foldPeabody 🦉 peabody.kids/science-fair
  1. ❓ Question (10 × 8 in): Does sugar dissolve faster in warm water?
  2. 💭 Hypothesis (10 × 9 in): If I change how warm the water is, then how long a spoon of sugar takes to disappear will ______, because ______.
  3. 🧺 Materials (10 × 12 in): 9 things: see your list.
  4. 🪜 Steps (22 × 9 in): 8 steps, three tries at each level.
  5. 📊 Results (22 × 16 in): Your table (Water 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; Cold water from the fridge; Water from the tap; Warm water; 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 2nd grade, or print a blank results table.

What a judge will ask

  • What did you change, and what did you measure? I changed how warm the water is and measured how long a spoon 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 and the same spoonful of sugar the same, so the only difference was how warm the water is.
  • 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 do the same test with salt, and graph sugar and salt side by side at each 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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