Gumdrop Molecules

Another successful science study. This afternoon we built molecules from gumdrops and toothpicks. It was delicious!

We built sugar with sugar...a glucose molecule.

Here's the amino acid alanine. (Note the poor hand-writing and spelling. Seriously? She copied this out of a book! Definitely not the Gabby of bricks and mortar education. Maybe the sugar was getting to her. We ate a lot. For research purposes, of course.)


And a bunch of other molecules.

My 5-year old was with us for the activity. (His kindergarten is half-day.) Gabby tried to explain to him what we were doing, holding a gumdrop and saying, "This is an atom, William." He didn't get it, but it was pretty funny later, when the littlest one woke up from his nap. He toddled downstairs to the table and William picked up a gumdrop and, very seriously, said, "This is a gumdrop, Fielding."
We all learn at different levels!

Here are the websites we used for reference:
candy compounds
gummy greenhouse gases
tasty models

We used her textbook too. It is Biology by Miller and Levine.