Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My son is doing the Science Project, Which Fruits can Ruin Your Gelatin Dessert? He just finished his experiment Supposedly adding a fruit containing Protease (like Mangos) should have prevented the Jell-o from solidifying. However, all the jell-o solidified! Every single cup with added fruit! Now what to do with our botched experiment? Any suggestions? His conclusions were due today. ugh!

Thank you for your question, and welcome to science buddies. It can be frustrating when an experiment doesn't come out as planned. However, from a science standpoint, the results are the results. If you don't believe your results, and feel there was an error in the proceedures when the experiment was conducted, the only thing to do is reperform it and see if you replicate your results. If there isn't time for that, I suggest reviewing the notes of the experiment closely and see if something suggests why you didn't get the desired results and submit those as your conclusion. It's less fun, but sometimes scientific discovery drives us to report on the "nut that couldn't be cracked". As long as the scientific method was followed and can be written up logically, then you should be fine. That being said, I haven't performed this particular experiment before, but perhaps there is something in the preparation and/or amount of added fruit that nutrilized the enzyme. See if your lab notes point to anything.

Thanks TheBorg!

Great Answer! Well written. If the teacher will allow time, he is going to try other fruits and vary the amounts. If not, we he will conclude is hypothesis was unsupported or his experiment was insufficient.

Thanks again!

MamaJo

Additional note, particularly if you have to go the insufficient experiment route. Your research into the topic, and reference to others experiments and their results vs yours will be very important in the report to support claims of what you expect should have happened vs the results you got.

Post back, we'd like to know how it all turns out.

Thanks again! I actually thought I posted again. I guess my reply went to never never land. Alden is trying again with more mangos (only riper) and using other protease fruits too. We will let you know the results soon!