Science Assignment

To investigate whether the ripening of bananas will speed up when placed with already ripe bananas in a brown paper bag. Hypothesis: The brown paper bag and already ripe bananas will ripen the unripe banana quicker. Investigation Design: The control of the experiment will be a pair of two unripe bananas which will not have any interference with their natural ripening process until the end of the experiment. The independent variable will be the presence of ripe bananas in one scenario, as well as a brown paper bag in the second scenario. The dependent variable will be the ripening of the banana.

Everything else, the room temperature, type of banana, etc, will remain common to ensure the experiment is valid and reliable. To increase reliability, the experiment should be repeated. Method: 1 . Collect six unripe bananas, four ripe bananas and a brown paper bag 2. Set one pair of unripe bananas on a bench/table 3. Set down a pair of unripe bananas as well as a pair of ripe bananas, alongside the first pair, making sure they are at least 1 Com away from the first pair 4. Set down the remaining four bananas (two ripe, two unripe) another Com away from the previous bunch; place these in a brown paper bag. 5.

Take photos of each of your three bunches, separately 6. Record your observations in a table 7. Wait a day before repeating step 5 and 6. 8. Repeat step 7 until all bananas are ripe. Risk Assessment: Be careful where you Step, there may be bananas on the floor, or other obstacles. Be careful with the paper bag, this is to avoid paper cuts. The main component of the experiment is edible; keep family members and other observers away! Results: Daly - Friday 14th June Bananas were purchased and the experiment was set up. The ripe bananas came from the same hand, as did the unripe ones. The experiment will be conducted indoors.

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Day 2 - Saturday 15th June The unripe bananas in all three bunches have shown a slight change in color, they are becoming more yellow. The lone pair of unripe bananas are very slightly behind the other 2 bunches. Day 3 - Sunday 1 6th June Both bunches of bananas that weren't in the brown paper bag showed that they did ripen. The bunch of bananas in the brown paper bag did show a slight, but certain, difference to the others, they are ripening quicker. Day 4 - Monday 17th June The difference between the bunch in the brown bag and the other 2 bunches is starting to become more noticeable, although this is only by close analysis. Front, they are still all fairly alike. Day 5- Tuesday 1 8th June The brown bag bananas have shown a massive difference in their ends, not so much their middle parts. The others are ripening too, but not at the same rate. Day 6 - Wednesday 19th June The lone bananas are ripening naturally and are now a satisfying yellow. The mix of ripe and unripe bananas is very slightly more yellow than the first bunch. The bunch from inside the bag is ripe too, with the already ripe bananas beginning to rot. Day 7 - Thursday 20th June Within the week, the plain bananas have ripened quite well to produce a well pipe and ready to eat fruit.

The next set of bananas is just as ripe; with the originally ripe bananas starting to rot (this may be simply due to natures course). The bunch from the bag are definitely more yellow, with the originally ripe bananas getting quite a few brown marks to show the beginning of them rotting. Day of Observation Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Bunch 1 (2 unripe bananas) Green (no change) Green slight yellow tinge Green -> yellow tinge Green -> almost completely yellow Green yellow except for each end Green yellow Green -> completely yellow Bunch 2 (2 unripe and 2 ripe bananas)

Green and yellow (no change) -Green -s slightest tinge -Yellow haven't changed -Green -> yellow tinge -Green -> almost completely yellow -Yellow are becoming a darker shade of yellow -Green yellow except for each end -Yellow are slowly browning -Green -> yellow -Green completely yellow -Yellow are beginning to show brown dots Bunch 3 (2 unripe and 2 ripe bananas in a brown paper bag) -Green slight yellow tinge -Green almost completely yellow -Yellow are not beginning to brown -Green yellow except for tiny part on each end -Yellow are browning -Green yellow -Yellow are beginning to rot -Green completely bright yellow Yellow are now major brown and rotten Research and Analysis: RESEARCH When bananas are harvested they are placed in a 'ripening room' to replicate the climate conditions of heat and humidity. These conditions are constant, much like those of my experiment. Due to the set temperature of these rooms, the bananas start to respire. The ethylene given off by bananas, as well as other fruits, helps to kick start the ripening process. This is somewhat like my experiment in the sense that the brown paper bag was holding the ethylene in. This ethylene may have also effected the second bunch, although to as much because they did not have a bag to confine the ethylene in. The natural ethylene of bananas is the same as the ethylene artificially produced in these 'ripening rooms.

To delay ripening may remove ethylene gas, which cannot be completely done as they do contain ethylene. Placing a banana alone may help support the delay of ripening it; this is much like bunch 1 in my experiment. Even though it was indoors, the varying temperature made the ripening process differ to that of a temperature controlled room. Although this may replicate bananas ripening in a natural way to an extent. ANALYSIS Strengths: The experiment contained a control which helped with comparisons. All the controlled variables were kept the same. The 3 bunches allowed more conclusions to be made about the effects of not only a brown paper bag, but also the presence of other bananas.

The photos were taken at the same time of day, to increase reliability of results. Weaknesses: Naturally, bananas ripen under sunlight, which we did not carry out. Only color, not taste, was assessed as an indicator of ripeness. The bananas may not have been sufficiently spaced to properly isolate them from each others' paving off of ethylene gas. Comments: The already ripe bananas showed a more noticeable change, which was not expected. The bananas ripened quicker than expected, which made the experiment have a shorter duration time. The difference between the three different bunches was not as significant as I expected. Conclusion: The results support the hypothesis, and the research also backs up this.

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