Candy Science: Online Video Series Offers Delicious STEAM Activities For Kids
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Who thought STEAM education could be so sweet? A new online video series encourages kids to conduct science experiments with candy using items they have around the house.
The Penticton Public Library, located in the Okanagan Valley region in the Canadian province of British Columbia, launched "STEAM Team Tuesdays: Candy Science" on Nov. 10.
"I just thought right away that's a super fun theme as who doesn't love candy and it's colorful and fun," Kristyn Trickey, the programming assistant for the Penticton Public Library, tells Castanet. "There's a part of it that really helps children become engaged in what they're learning because they can have a snack or a treat at the end of it."
The first video explores how fast candy pumpkins dissolve in different liquids. Subsequent videos explore activities such as how to grow your own rock candy and building a candy DNA model.
"It's activities that are based around that (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), but the idea with this one is of course it's an online format," Trickey added.
The videos are published weekly at 1:00 p.m. PST through Dec. 1 on the library's Facebook page and its YouTube channel with printable instruction booklets available for download.
"For this program, we wanted it to be accessible in a different way, in a sense that the materials are things people just have at home," said Julia Cox, the youth services librarian with the Penticton Public Library.
The experiments are geared towards kids ages eight to twelve. Some require adult supervision. The goal is to "keep learning fun."
"Sometimes we get the idea that this is all very serious and it's hard and you can't do it," Cox said. "Really, every kind of inquiry, whether it's science or anything, begins with imagination, begins with what if?"
