Lego Gummy Mummies – Part Science, Part History

Lego Gummy Mummies is a fun and unique experiment that explores desiccation and links in beautifully with the study of ancient cultures like Ancient Egypt. Fun and easy to do, this activity will appeal to all ages and is perfect for Halloween Science. Just don’t eat the Lego Gummy Mummies!

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

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We have been studying Ancient Egypt in our History lessons and the boys are LOVING it. They really enjoy learning about this culture. We are using Pandia Press, History Odyssey Ancients.

When we started talking about mummies and the mummification process Jackson asked about how salt works as part of the mummification process. After chatting about it for a bit I had an idea. My boys are both budding scientists and any time I can tie science into a lesson they love it. So we decided to try and mummify something. But what to mummify? Then I saw my new Lego silicone mold with it’s jumbo minifig and had my answer!

Lego Gummy Mummies!

So here is how we did it.

First you need to make your gummies. We used three different types of salt plus the control, so we decided to make four different coloured gummies. The benefit of making so many different colours is that you make lots of extra gummies that you get to eat while doing the experiment! The extra large Lego Minifig is also a great size so you can really see and feel what is happening.

Here is what you will need for this experiment:

4 Large Lego Minifig Gummies

Kitchen scale

Table Salt

Sea Salt

Epsom Salt

4 Air Tight Containers

Paintbrush

Worksheet or Notebook for recording your findings

 Bigear 6pc Candy Tray Molds For Lego Lovers, Chocolate Molds, Ice Cube Molds, Silicone Baking Molds- Building Blocks and Figures(Set of 6) Etekcity Digital Kitchen Scale Multifunction Food Scale, 11 lb 5 kg, Silver, Stainless Steel (Batteries Included) Jell-O Gelatin Sampler (Pack of 15 Different Flavors 3oz Box) Knox Gelatin, Unflavored, 32 Individual Packets Morton Salt Regular Salt, 26 Oz, Pack of 2 Kirkland Signature Pure Sea Salt, 30 Ounce Epsoak Epsom Salt 19lbs Magnesium Sulfate USP Rubbermaid Easy Find Lid Food Storage Set, 5 Cup, 4 Piece set (2 Cups and 2 Lids)

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

The Lego Gummy Mummy Experiment

First you need your Lego Gummies, each one in a different colour. For instructions on how to make them, visit here:  Doctor Who Gummies

I suggest making extra gummies for taste testing. It’s a very important quality control method according to my children.

Once the Lego Gummies are all made you need to assign each colour to a salt type or control. Then you need to weigh each one and record the results. At this time we also made our hypothesis. My son felt they would shrivel up, become hard and maybe fall apart a bit, plus they will weigh less and become smaller. Some good predictions!

Next you want to set up your containers. In each one sprinkle one type of salt to create a base layer, then place the appropriate Lego Gummy colour into that container and finally cover him with more of the salt type until it is completely buried. Repeat for each salt type/gummy. Make sure the lids are on securely and place somewhere safe for one week.

Lego Gummy Mummy Results

After a week we pulled ours out to see the results.

We had Lego Gummy Mummies!

The first thing we noticed was that the colour of the gummies had coloured the salt.

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

When we uncovered the gummies we noticed some of them had the salt really embedded in the gummy. It took a lot of careful work with a brush, just like the archaeologists do, to get them clean. My son loved this work, he felt very official!

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

Once they were clean we weighed each one to see how much weight they had lost. Finally we made some comments comparing the texture and appearance of the gummies.

Here are our finally Lego Gummy Mummies close up so you can see some of the differences along with our notes:

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

Green was our control. It started at 2.20 grams (they all started at almost exactly the same weight) and lost 5% of it’s weight. Overall it looked and felt pretty much the same.

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

Orange was in Epsom Salt and had quite a drastic change. It lost 14% of it’s weight, became noticeably thinner, less transparent and VERY stiff and hard. This was by far our most “mummy” like transformation.

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

Red was in Table Salt and was our winner for weight loss at 16%. It became very prune like and wobbly/wiggly with no transparency. We predicted that this one would start to really disintegrate and fall apart if we left it for any longer in the salt.

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

Purple was in Sea Salt and lost 11% of it’s weight. It was by far the most wobbly and flimsy. It became very opaque and much darker than when it started. We predict this one would also disintegrate if left longer in the salt. It was getting there with the arms almost falling off. This one also became the most pitted with the sea salt really getting embedded into the gummy.

This was such a fun activity bridging science and history. Just make sure not to eat your Lego Gummy Mummies!

What to see what happened after the experiment? We decided to put the Lego Gummy Mummies back in water. See the results on my Instagram!  The results were quite surprising.

Lego Gummy Mummies are a unique experiment exploring desiccation. An excellent activity linking science and ancient historical cultures like the Egyptians.

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