As part of our pumpkin unit, we adopted two pumpkins- a short dark orange one and a taller thinner one that we picked up at the pumpkin patch during our field trip. The children spent time running their hands over them, comparing them, studying them with magnifying glasses and generally observing them. We used both the pumpkins in our many investigations. They were weighed in our hands to determine which was heaviest and we measured their circumference using string. We guessed and made a graph about whether or not we thought pumpkins would float and then got out a large tub, filled it with water and threw them in. You can watch that experiment in the video titled "Pumpkin Investigations". We also opened one up to look inside and counted the seeds.
But then came the day, after they had been on the science table for about a month, that someone noticed a soft spot on the one we had opened. And then another one. And then a bit of...ugh!..mold! There was black mold on the inside and some around the top as well as a speck growing on the soft spot. We were amazed to see the mold grow quickly. There was some black mold and some thick white/gray fuzzy kind. But why was it getting moldy? How did mold grow? We made some hypotheses (scientific guesses), we put it back under the knife and chopped it into pieces. Parts of it were put into two jars. We made sure that each jar had mold. One jar we poked holes into the lid and labeled Aerobic (with air) and the other we put a lit candle into and screwed the lid on real tight so the flame would use up all the air and we labeled it Anaerobic (without air). We predicted, remembering that we had earlier guessed mold needed air, water and 'food' to grow, which jar would grow the most mold. Then we left the pumpkin to do its thing. We will watch the two jars for the rest of the year and compare and contrast what is happening in each. Team Awesome is making plans to help grow some mold on some other things. Hmmm.... sounds like another experiment.
But then came the day, after they had been on the science table for about a month, that someone noticed a soft spot on the one we had opened. And then another one. And then a bit of...ugh!..mold! There was black mold on the inside and some around the top as well as a speck growing on the soft spot. We were amazed to see the mold grow quickly. There was some black mold and some thick white/gray fuzzy kind. But why was it getting moldy? How did mold grow? We made some hypotheses (scientific guesses), we put it back under the knife and chopped it into pieces. Parts of it were put into two jars. We made sure that each jar had mold. One jar we poked holes into the lid and labeled Aerobic (with air) and the other we put a lit candle into and screwed the lid on real tight so the flame would use up all the air and we labeled it Anaerobic (without air). We predicted, remembering that we had earlier guessed mold needed air, water and 'food' to grow, which jar would grow the most mold. Then we left the pumpkin to do its thing. We will watch the two jars for the rest of the year and compare and contrast what is happening in each. Team Awesome is making plans to help grow some mold on some other things. Hmmm.... sounds like another experiment.
