Apple Experiment

Well it wasn't pretty but it sure was fun! Yesterday, our class started conducting an experiment. The kids have been using all 5 senses (just like a real scientist) to make observations about our environment. As we were getting so great at making observations we thought it was time we conducted our first experiment. Science Thursday had to turn into Science Thursday and Friday because we needed a lot of time to see any results.

Apples are a wonderful tool to teach different concepts to children. Science experiments can teach children some of interesting facts about apples. Our experiment looked at what makes an apple turn brown the slowest. Would putting our apple in a container and leaving it open to the air help the apple stay fresh? Would water help our apple from turning brown? Would lemon juice save it? We decided to find out. We put  apple slices into 3 containers. In one container we left the apple open to the air. In the second container we put the apple in water and in the third container we put the apple into lemon juice. We left the apples to brown (or not brown) overnight. The results? Well see for yourself below. :)



Our apple slice left open to the air. It browned a little bit.



Yikes! The slice is very brown when we left it in water.



The apple in lemon juice looking just as fresh as it did the day before!





 Our little scientists had written predictions on Thursday. Once we had our results we went back to see if our predictions matched. I then had the kids record their observations with 3 of their senses (no taste or sound for this one although  many of the kids wanted to taste the lemon juice slice. I told them absolutely not as we had many fruit fly visitors flying around the slices this morning). I told our kiddos that the acid in the lemon juice kept the apple from browning. They thought it was a pretty fun experiment. We may have to extend this experiment as we had some questions like "What would happen if we put an apple slice in orange juice?" and "How long until the apple in the lemon juice turns brown?"

I'm just going to take the time to apologise to my little Grade 1 spy guys-I promised to post these pictures this morning as they were both leaving bright and early to visit family over the long weekend but my school computer was acting up. I hope my buddies get to see the result sometime this weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Ashley Daley-Creamer