Australia's Science Forum

Hi all,

we've got a very stressed 12 IB kid who wants to do her IA prac on storage of fruit & which bags/containers are best.
I've been googling & finding a few things, but nothing brilliant that will suit an IB kid, mostly science fair stuff.
Does anyone have a senior prac involving spoilage/ripening of fruit they've tried that they're willing to share please?

Cheers,

We do a prac in yr 10 using BRIX meters for ripening fruit. Not sure if this will help.
Brix meters show the sugar content in fruit. The more ripe the higher the sugar content. Farmers use these to check the optimum time to pick fruit.
Cheers Trish

Try contacting some of the horticultural research bodies. I knew of Horticultural Innovation Australia which covers horticultural crops both amenity (ornamental) and production (fruit and vegies) horticultural. This group does have government funding but I don't think it is government run. I also found another group called Applied Horticultural Research - they seem to have a broad range of projects but not sure how they are funded.
They may be able to offer some suggestions or have already done some similar research which may get the student started with ideas.

I googled the following - science experiments on fruit storage - and the first one up was Science Buddies with - How does Packaging affect the ripening of fruit? Check it out. It suggests materials, procedures and suggestions for how to make it your own experiment with other ways of looking at the experiment. Have a look, it may be just what the student needs to get started. I'm sure it can trigger that light bulb moment for her to make the experiment her own. Especially with guidance from a good lab tech.