1. Control Variables
Which control variables did you choose for these experiments? Reply to your classmates and discuss whether some of these are things that would be “coincidentally the same” versus ones that “you take deliberate action to keep the same.”
2. Food Storage
Use the knowledge you gained in this lab to begin a discussion about how cooking foods or refrigerating them affects browning of vegetables, growth of bacteria/fungus, and spoiling or decomposing of food. Alternately, speculate on how the apples in a HappyMeal don’t turn brown for days on end. What might they have done to them?
3. Other Enzymes
There are many other enzymes common to food and nutrition. Choose one you have heard of and do a little research. Propose an experiment with one of these, complete with all three types of variables named. Critique each other’s experiments and suggest improvements. If you’re really brave, run the experiment and report on the results. (Suggestions – Bromelain, meat tenderizer, Lactaid, lipase, Beano, etc.)
