"Does One Bad Apple Spoil the Whole Bunch?"

confusedstudents · Post by **confusedstudents** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:07 pm

We are confused students to say the least! We are doing our 8th grade science fair on sciencebuddies.org topic "One Bad Apple Spoils the Whole Bunch". We know that we put an unripe apple/pear in each of the variable bags, but we are supposed to put a banana in the bag too. We are wondering if the banana is supposed to be ripe or unripe. Please read over the topic and get back to us as soon as possible!
Thanks,
confusedstudents

klhjbh62604 · Post by **klhjbh62604** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:42 pm

Good question. If you all look back at the materials section in the Project Idea "One Bad Apple Spoils the Whole Bunch" you will find your answer to your question.

I have included the link below.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #materials

Kati

klhjbh62604 · Post by **klhjbh62604** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:46 pm

Good question. If you all go ahead and look back at the material section in the project overview you will be able to find your answer.

I have listed the link below.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #materials

Kati

confusedstudents · Post by **confusedstudents** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:35 pm

Thanks Kati! We have a few question for anyone to answer. We know that the pears (or apples) in the experiment give off ethylene. However, we don't know how the banana affects the pear. Question: Does the pear give off more ethylene because of the banana? Question: Does the pear get more mature after it gives off a lot of ethylene?
Please answer our question as soon as possible!

On another note, we went to a grocer and asked a produce department worker to find their most unripe pears. We performed the experiment "One Bad Apple Spoils the Whole Bunch" from sciencebuddies.org and we didn't conclude with pleasant results. There wasn't a noticeable difference in the 'Test Bags' and the 'Control Bags', and our starch test showed very little starch. If anyone could explain why this might have happened, it would be great!
Thanks again!

donnahardy2 · Post by **donnahardy2** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:21 am

Hi Confusedstudents,

Kati has given you excellent advice by referring you back to the material section on this project. This is always a good place to start when you obtain unexpected results. For your question about ethylene please refer to the background section of this project. Since you are working as a group, have one person read the material and then explain it to the others to make sure you understand the project. Did you check any of the sources listed in the bibliography?

Are you sure the apples and pears are giving off ethylene? You are supposed to start with unripe apples and pears, and enclose these in a bag with a ripe banana. What is the purpose of the ripe banana? I want to make sure you understand this, because you will need to explain the scientific principle of the experiment both in your research paper and to the Science Fair judges in the future, so this is a good time to make sure you understand the idea behind the project.

Please describe your results so we can tell what happened. If your starch test showed very little starch at the beginning of the experiment, then you started with ripe fruit. You may need to start over with some really green, hard pears so you can see the transition of starch to sugar (no starch).

Donna Hardy

confusedstudents · Post by **confusedstudents** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:52 pm

Thanks Donna. So, you are saying that the banana is the fruit that gives off the ethylene? In that case, the bags with only a pear in it will not ripen as fast as the bag with the banana? If the previous question is true, then why is the project called "One Bad Apple Spoils the Whole Bunch"?
Thanks and please respond ASAP because our project due date is nearing.

donnahardy2 · Post by **donnahardy2** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:47 pm

Hi,

Yes, you are right! The ripe banana is producing ethylene and should speed up the ripening (conversion of starch to sugar) of both the pears and the apples, which are sensitive to ethylene. Unripe apples and pears would not contain much ethylene, so should ripen slower compared to fruit exposed to ripe bananas. Ripe pears and apples also produce ethylene, and if the starch in the fruit is already converted to sugar, you would not see any difference in the starch content

Here is a website that includes a good description of ethylene and its role in ripening fruit. The information in the first two paragraphs is good background information for your science project. Why is ethylene called the aging hormone of plants?

http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/pages/PC2000F

The Wikipedia article includes the structure of ethylene and this information could be a helpful addition to your science board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene

Here is a link to the original article documenting the effect of ethylene on fruit ripening. This scientific article was published in 1962 and the authors used gas chromatography to measure levels of ethylene. There is data on the ethylene content of ripe bananas, apples, and pears, and please note that all of these fruits contained ethylene. I recommend including this article in your bibliography or literature cited section.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... 5-0067.pdf

Here is the information from this website on your display board.

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

Since you project is due soon, you may not have time to repeat the experiment. If you do have time, then definitely set it up again using the firmest pears you can find. If you don’t have time to repeat the experiment, then you will have to present the results as is, and you will need to include a good explanation of your results. Since you results did not turn out as expected, be sure to include information on what you would do differently next time if you were to repeat the experiment.

Now, for the title of the experiment. Do you think that an overripe, spoiling apple would be producing a small amount of ethylene, or perhaps a very large quantity of ethylene? What would this do to the rest of the apples in the container, especially in a closed container? Please let me know what you think.

If your assignment is due soon, go back through your teacher’s assignment and make sure you have included all of the details that are supposed to be included. This is important in order to get the highest grade possible.

Post again if there are any last minute questions.

Good luck!

Donna Hardy

confusedstudents · Post by **confusedstudents** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:09 pm

Thanks so Much Donna! We appreciate your help. We are going to preform the experiment again. We understand the project more and we hope to be more successful this time around.

We will reply again if we run into any complications.

donnahardy2 · Post by **donnahardy2** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:59 pm

Hi,

Oh good! I'm so glad that you have time to repeat the experiment. This time, definitely include a positive control (like a potato) to verify that your potassium iodide solution is working properly.

And do try to follow the suggestion of setting up a scale (from 1-10, or another range) to estimate the quantity of starch left in the apples and pears. This will give you a semi quantitative measurement that you can graph on your board. You can take pictures of the samples as the starch is converted to sugar so someone looking at your future project board will understand how you established the scale.

Please do let us know what happens, and post questions if anything else comes up that you don't understand.

Donna

"Does One Bad Apple Spoil the Whole Bunch?"

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