Prior to this experiment, we researched attributes of solutions and related them to our experiences with maple syrup. We printed information from the following website: http://sciencewithme.com/learn-about-solutions/# and read through it as a class. As a group, we determined maple sap and syrup were both solutions rather than a mixtures because the sugar molecules were evenly dispersed through the water. We also went over how to use and accurately read a hydrometer. For this experiment, we decided to make a sugar solution rather than use maple syrup to keep the experiment inexpensive. We planned to boil the solution over a propane burner, taking readings of samples at 15 minute intervals with the hydrometer and recorded the density of the solution in Brix along with observations of how the solution looked and felt. We used the following template to record our findings: Sugar Solutions Experiment  . We found that the Brix reading increased as we continued to boil the solution and the students speculated that it was because as we boiled the solution, the water was evaporated out, leaving sugar behind. By the time we reached the 45 minute mark, the solution had become too dense to measure with the hydrometer, which wouldn’t sink down into the solution in the test cup at all.  We referenced the sugar stages we had worked with in previous experiments and recognized the soft ball stage, and later the hard crack stage when we poured the remaining solution into a patch of snow. When the solution reached the soft ball stage, I demonstrated how sugar at this stage could be used to blow bubbles by inserting the end of a metal spoon with a hole in it into the solution and blowing through. The bubbles cooled instantly as they came in contact with the could air and we were left with extremely thin sheets of sugar that resembled a fragile version of plastic wrap when the bubbles popped.

Sugar solution at the hard crack sugar stage poured into the snow was instantly cooled and hardened. When we pulled the hardened sugar out of the snow, it showed the print of the snow that it was poured onto.