Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We have been trying to find a kit that allows the testing of pesticides in fruits/vegetables at home- are you happy with your kit? Do you mind sharing where you got it from? My daughter is 12 and wanting to do such a project. Thanks.

Hi,

This is a great project idea for a 12-year old. Unfortunately, the student who posted on this subject did not mention the source of his test kit. Here is information on a test kit that is a colorimetric assay for one group of pesticides. Unfortunately, I could not find the protocol on the website, so I don’t know if the kit requires any special equipment. You might want to write to the company and ask for a copy of the instruction manual and find out if the kit is available in the US:

http://www.gttestkit.com/gttestkit_eng/ ... cedure.htm

If finding a suitable test kit is not possible, your daughter should consider an alternative project. Here is a project from the Science Buddies website on testing for heavy metals.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p018.shtml

Here’s a project for using conductance to measure water quality:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p011.shtml

And, here is a project for using Daphnia to test for acute toxicity in water. This project is a bioassay that will detect the presence of pesticides in water.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p043.shtml

I hope this helps.


Donna Hardy

Thanks very much, everyone.
I will follow the leads and let you know how it goes.
I am really grateful for your assistance.