Shrunken heads for Halloween

I do not know about you, but I have a TON of apples in my backyard. It is hard to believe the trees produced so much fruit with so little water. We experienced a major drought at our house and water was scarce as we have to rely on spring runoff. All of that aside, what am I going to do with all of these apples now? Well, Halloween is just around the corner and it is time to get decorating I think. Let’s get started!

*Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment.

Materials

- one apple - lemon juice - vegetable peeler - apple corer - salt - measuring tape - measuring spoons - measuring cups - plate - shallow bowl - science notebook - pencil - knife - raisins, yarn, uncooked spaghetti strands (optional)

Procedure

1. Take the apple and measure the circumference.

2. Take note of this measurement in your science notebook.

3. Have an adult help you remove the core of the apple with the apple corer. It can get a bit tricky.

4. Also have an adult help you peel the apple with the peeler.

5. Place the apple on the plate for now.

6. Measure 125 mL (one-half cup) of lemon juice.

7. Measure 5 mL (one teaspoon) of salt.

8. Add the salt to the lemon juice and stir it well.

9. Pour the mixture into the bowl.

10. Roll the apple around in the mixture for a minute or so until it is totally covered.

11. Place the apple on the plate in a warm location.

12. If you wish, you can “decorate” your apple. I like to use raisins for eyes, make a slit and use the spaghetti pieces for teeth, and yarn for hair of course. It just makes it much more realistic looking as the apple shrivels up!

13. Make observations on what is happening to the apple over the next few days and record this in your science notebook. 14. Measure the circumference of the apple every day for a week. What do you notice?

What is going on?

You should have noticed that your apple was shrinking each and every day. This is because an apple contains more than 80 per cent water. The salt mixture helped suck out all of the moisture from the apple. With less water in the apple, it became much smaller; shrinking up into a little tiny head.

Use your apples as decorations for Halloween, they look like real shrunken heads in those horror movies!

Our annual Family Science Olympics is coming up on Oct. 14 – this free family event will be held at Medicine Hat College once again. We’ll have more details in the coming weeks.

Patty Rooks is senior scientific consultant at PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community.” Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook.