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confused on the "How Sweet It Is! Measuring Glucose in Your Food" project
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 6:01 pm
by deleted-826780
I have purchased the "Sugar Metabolism kit" and I am observing how much glucose is in some fruit like a banana and a mango. I haveread the procedure and I'm not sure if I have to do steps 1-4 in the "Making the Positive and Negative Controls" section of the procedure. I wanted to ask if I have to do those steps in order to test out the fruits. In the procedure it does not mention that I need to use the dilluted liquid to measure how much glucose concentration is in the Fruit, just that i have to swip the test glucose strips on the fruit for 1-2 seconds later on in the procedure. I just need to know wheater or not I need to do the first steps in order to figure out what I need. Please and thank you!
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure
Re: confused on the "How Sweet It Is! Measuring Glucose in Your Food" project
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 8:21 pm
by SciB
Hi and welcome to Scibuddies.
When scientists do an experiment, they always run a negative or baseline control to show what the reading is when there is zero concentration of the test substance--glucose in your case. When you plot the graph of your results, the different fruits will be listed on the x-axis and the sugar readings will be on the y-axis. The first bar that you show will be the control and is the baseline that you use to compare all the other readings.
The positive control is usually done, but not always. All it shows is that your test strips are working properly. You could make a series of glucose solutions from zero to whatever your maximum concentration measurable is on the test strips. Test each solution and line up the test strips in order of increasing concentration on a piece of white cardboard and photograph them. Then you could use Excel to put labels under each bar of the image indicating the concentration so that you can show the colors of the test strips for each concentration. If you photograph the test strips for each fruit, you will then have a visual record that you can compare to the readings of the glucose standards. This making of a 'standard curve' is something we do frequently because we can use it to determine the exact concentration of the substance we are measuring by finding its value on the curve and reading off the corresponding concentration.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Sybee