Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 6th grade son is measuring glucose in various kinds of fruits to help diabetics make the best choice of fruit based on glucose level. His hypothesis is "If I test various fruits, then the type of fruit with the highest glucose level will be ripened sweet fruit because it has higher levels of fructose. Does this sound reasonable? We are having a hard time making a correlation between the level of glucose in a particular food to blood sugar levels of a diabetic. Should be add fiber, glycemic index, carbohydrates to the experiment? could you suggest another way to word the hypothesis?

Hello and welcome to the forums

You are not alone in having trouble "making a correlation between the level of glucose in a particular food to blood sugar levels of a diabetic." If you would like more information on that, I suggest posting your questions in our life sciences forum. Anyway, you want to keep what you're testing to a simple question. Your hypothesis is: "the type of fruit with the highest glucose level will be ripened sweet fruit because it has higher levels of fructose." Please note that glucose and fructose are not the same sugars. You would probably want to only mention one in your hypothesis, such as "the fruit with the highest fructose level will depend of length of ripening time." Are you going to compare the fructose level vs. ripening time? vs. type of fruit? You will want to pick one dependent variable (fructose?) to compare against (preferably) one independent variable (the one changed by the scientist).

Let us know what you decide.
Best, Keith