Chemistry on a Budget: Sugar!

 Let’s get serious about sticking to a budget!  It’s January and grocery prices are staggering.  Let’s see what we can use around the house.  My inspiration is this month’s Chemmatter’s article, White Gold Transforming America.  What can you do with sugar?  Make rock candy with the Sweet Science of .candy Making.  Here are detailed instructions because the sugar syrup is tricky.  

I want to try Flinn’s Beverage Density Lab.  (Here is an adaptation of the lab with a calibration curve and sample data.). The lab calls for creating a density calibration curve with known concentrations of sugar in water and using the nutritional label from bottle of juice or soda to calculate the density and determine the percent error.  Our Co-op has teens use graphing calculators and make spreadsheets frequently.  We can do both exercises with this lab and calculate regressions.

Have you made a density column?  Here is one called How Sweet it is!—with sugar and food coloring.  One last lab: Solubility Lab. Yup, this lab requires sugar and water.  All of these lab exercises have sound science.  The labs require sugar and some household beverages.  Sweet!