Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter would like to do the project comparing amounts of starch between varieties of potatoes as suggested on the Science Buddies site. However, we can't find any information anywhere on the Internet on what foam or no foam or different stickiness of foam means after rubbing the two halves of potato together as far as starch content is concerned. Does anyone know? How do you know?

Hi JennClark16,

Welcome to Science Buddies! I think you are doing this project:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p032.shtml

This is an abbreviated project, which means that it does not include a lot of specific instructions or background information, however it is a great project for a younger student.. To answer your question, the amount of foam is proportional to the concentration of starch. A potato with lots of starch will create more foam compared to a potato with less starch. Perhaps you could take photographs to show the different in the amount of foam produced with each potato variety tested.

Please let us know if you need any additional information.

Donna Hardy