Helen Arceneaux

During an experiment we tested Newton's law of the conservation of mass. This was fun because we burned a popular snack food and determined the energy within the snack.

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Any snack such as marshmellows, nuts or puff snacks will work. We took weight measurements before and after the snack burned to ash. This data emphasized that matter is neither created nor destroyed. It was really interesting to compare the data between groups! This is a fundamental principle in chemistry.

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I remember burning nuts in 5th grade science when I was young and this experiment was significantly better! The experiement is a relativeley fast way to relate Newton's Law to everyday and to involve a popular snack among our students. I would like to apply this activity to Newton's laws and/or teaching about the heat capacity of water.