Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My son (6th grade) has a jello project due Feb. 1st. It is to see which brand of jello (comparing 4 brands) melts the fastest in the sun. After 3 hours in the sun, the experiment was moved indoors to use a 500 watt Halagen lamp to substitute for the sun's heat. We are having difficulties in locating references (magazine or newspaper article, book or encyclopedia source). Our question, are you able to recommend any sources that would help support the idea that jello will melt in the sun or when subjected to high temperatures ? Thank you.

wilmington1959,

welcome to the forums and thanks for the question. The main component of Jello that gives it the distinctive jiggily, wiggily structure is gelatin, which is derived from collagen. The link below provides some good insight into the science of gelatin, including it's melting point. At the bottom of the page is a bibliography with additional information resources on the subject.

http://www.gelatin.co.za/gltn1.html

Looks like you will be able to test if the other ingredients in Jello (sugar, food coloring, water) change it's melting point. Sounds fun. Enjoy.

Thank you "Theborg", I will check out the sources ! I greatly appreciate your help !
Quick question, just looking at the titles, are there any that a 6th grader could understand ? If not, would you be able to direct me to a book/encyclopedia written for their level ?

Thank you,
Wilmington1959

I don't know how age appropriate the resources are in the earlier recommendation. However, I did come across this gelatin science buddies project, which gives even more info at an easy to understand level. Project located here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

There are a couple references cited, but you can also cite this site for info. Just a bit of modification to this experiment and you can test your hypothesis.