Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 3rd grader is testing 4 different fruits in 4 different packages (and each fruit w/o packaging as a control). For the third and final trial, she added an additional packaging. She used a mushy scale (1 through 5) each day for 7 days for each trial. I bought the supplies and stayed out of the way, but now she now has to graph them, which she has never done. Could you provide some guidance on how to best graph them? Thank you.

Hi 1587115,

I suggest making a bar graph. First, I suggest averaging the results from the three trials to get an average "mushiness" for each fruit in each type of packaging on each day. You can plot those averages. The bar graph will have the days of the trial on the x-axis and the average mushiness on the y-axis.

You will need to make several graphs. It sounds like your student is mostly interested in the effect of packaging. So, I would make four separate graphs (one for each fruit). On each graph, you would have 6 little bars for each day--one for the control and for each type of packaging.

You can make such a graph using this website:

https://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx (click on "bar")

If you need help using that website or making the graph, post back and I'll be happy to walk you through it.