Last week we started our science units with a few experiments to take us through the scientific method. We started with a question, designed an experiment, made a hypothesis, and analyzed our data to form a conclusion.
Our first question was: "How can we keep bananas fresher longer?" Our experiment used 3 different methods: putting a banana in a sealed plastic bag, putting a banana in the fridge, and wrapping a banana stem with plastic wrap. We checked on our bananas each day and made note of our observations. We noticed that the banana with the plastic wrap around the stem was quickly forming brown spots while the other 2 bananas were not. As the week continued on, the banana in the fridge was also developing many brown spots. By the end of the week, the banana in the sealed bag had stayed the freshest based on the peel. At the end of the week, we unpeeled them to find that they all were equally fresh on the inside.
Our next experiment asked the question: "How can we make gummy bears grow the most?" We tried plain water, lemon water, sugar water, and vinegar water. The students each made a hypothesis. Some predicted sugar water since gummy bears are made of sugar. We weighed and measured each gummy bear before and after. The results showed that plain water grew the gummy bear the most.
