10.8.11

one week later


     Our first week of school, we learned about mummies, decay, and embalming. Gory, right? Though it started with a not quite pleasant topic, we are enjoying this book which captured everyone's attention.

     Science experiments are one of my favorite things about being my kiddos' teacher. I found some online learning style tests over the summer and read that hands on learning falls within all of our profiles- I knew that!

     Our experiment involved two apples. One was peeled and left in a bowl. (I shared a picture here of them preparing the experiment.) The other was peeled then covered with a mixture of salt and baking soda, also left in a bowl on our kitchen counter. Have you ever noticed that things you want to happen sometimes happen much later? Last year my oldest daughter did an experiment for general science that involved attracting fruit flies. Her banana rotted in the jar without the first fruit fly ever visiting. Apparently fruit flies prefer green apples to bananas. My oldest daughter, though, had no interest in redoing last years experiment.
First we investigated the "mummified" apple.
The hardened coating broke off like a shell.
Though more preserved than its moldy twin, it was squishy.
     At first glance it doesn't look so bad. You can't even see the fruit flies in this shot. But look closely at the sides and the furry stuff is visible. Yes, this is our kitchen counter.
 These apples were the same size when we peeled them a week ago.
Craving an apple now?
Jennifer

4 comments:

  1. Great experiment. Gross snack.

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  2. We did this experiment last year. It was very cool. Thanks for the Twitter follow. :)

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  3. What fun! Thank you for sharing. :)

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  4. We did this a few weeks ago, but ours were very similar. Both were hard, no squishy-ness at all. I don't know why--maybe the heat? BUT I didn't even think to cut into them. WISH I had!

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