Make gummy worms using sodium alginate and calcium lactate. Sodium alginate is made up of long chains of alginate molecules with sodium atoms attached. When you mix it with calcium lactate the sodium atoms are replaced by calcium atoms, which can hold two chains at once. Joining the chains together with calcium forms a gummy mesh! It's a great introduction to chemistry for children as they can see for themselves the speed at which chemical transformations can take place - and the worms are very fun to play with!
You can try this at home with a Letterbox Lab subscription - head over to letterboxlab.com/subscribe to pre-order your first box!
Alternatively you can obtain sodium alginate and calcium lactate from catering suppliers.
If you want to make edible gummy worms make sure you use food-grade chemicals and add some concentrated fruit squash, sugar, honey and/or jam to the sodium alginate as you mix it with water. Find the combination you enjoy the most and post it as a comment!
