Food Spoilage Home Experiment

FOOD SPOILAGE HOME EXPERIMENT - Due MARCH 28

You will choose a food that spoils and decide on your purpose, describe what you think will happen based on your experiences, write a hypothesis, design an experiment to test your hypothesis using only one variable, chart your data, write a paragraph analyzing your data and making a conclusion based on your hypothesis. A simplified example is in italics. Please do not use this example for your experiment.

Purpose: What do you want to learn? Write as a question. Why does milk spoil?

Research: What do you already know about this topic? I have seen milk spoil if it is not in the refrigerator.

Hypothesis: Predict the answer to the problem. This is a sentence that DOES NOT start with “I think”. Make sure your hypothesis only considers one variable. Warmth causes milk to spoil.

Experiment: Design a test to confirm or disprove your hypothesis. What is the variable? Watch your experiment for 7-14 days. Make a chart to record your data. One glass of milk in the refrigerator, one glass of milk in the cupboard. The variable is warmth. Chart would have date, description, and picture (pictures may be drawn or taken with a camera.

Analysis: Record what happened during the experiment in words and pictures in your chart. Record only facts that are observable. Describe what you see, smell, taste, or feel. Be specific about size, shape, color, number, etc. Use precise words.

Conclusion: Was your hypothesis correct? Write a paragraph analyzing the data from your experiment that supports or disproves your hypothesis. Can a broader conclusion be made about all foods or certain types of foods? Warmth does cause milk to spoil, so my hypothesis was correct. The milk in the refrigerator did not spoil, and the milk in the cupboard did. Foods that need to be refrigerated will spoil if they are not kept in the refrigerator.

Your product will be a one of the following:
• one-page typed report, 12 point font, double-spaced, including all above information and your data chart with pictures
• minimum 10-slide PowerPoint presentation including all above information and pictures from your data chart e-mailed to boehmecoombs@hotmail.com or brought to school on a thumb drive
• poster including all above information and pictures from your data chart

Final projects will be presented in class. Your presentation should take 2 – 5 minutes. You will discuss your purpose, research, hypothesis, experiment, analysis, and conclusion.