So It Begins...
We walked into class today anticipating the start of a very average Honors Biology class that would follow the usual standards. We were very wrong. The class began with a very confusing activity where we each given a piece of paper with either a letter, number, or sentence on it. We then attempted to sort into groups based on the paper given to us. This entire process was merely an illustration and introduction to Mr. Quick's extremely unorthodox and exciting new method of grading. I still don't entirely understand the grading method, but hope to as the year progresses.
Following Mr. Quick's basic class overview of his expectations and aspirations for the class we were broken into groups of two and tasked with the challenge of creating a controlled experiment to analyze the interaction of milk or orange juice, food coloring, and different types of soap. My partner and I decided that the best approach would be to do two trials of mixing soap with four different types of milk and orange juice and analyze the reactions.
We then proceeded to perform the experiment and record the results. This unstructured lab where we were forced to create our own procedure and experiment was extremely different than what I was used too. I explained to Mr. Quick that I felt like I was on one of those cooking shows where contestants have to create delicious, creative dishes and he managed a slight chuckle.
Results from Experiment
Trial 1: 10mL of 2% Milk with 1 Drop of Soap- Long, strong reaction, centered around drop of soap
Trial 2: 10mL of 2% Milk with 1 Drop of Soap- Same reaction as Trial 1 was observed
Trial 1: 10mL of Skim Milk with 1 Drop of Soap- Long, weak reaction, not centered around drop
Trial 2: 10mL of Skim Milk with 1 Drop of Soap- Same reaction as Trial 1 was observed
Trial 1: 10mL of OJ with 1 Drop of Soap- Extremely weak reaction, centered around drop of soap
Trial 2: 10mL of OJ with 1 Drop of Soap- Same reaction as Trial 1 was observed
Trial 1: 10mL of Whole Milk with 1 Drop of Soap- Extremely strong, long, wide reaction
Trial 2: 10mL of Whole Milk with 1 Drop of Soap- Same reaction as Trial 1 was observed
But Adam What Did We LEARN???
Judging by the results that were obtained during the lab that my partner and I conducted we are fairly certain that the amount of fat and protein present in the Orange Juice or Milk will contribute to a different level of reaction. Essentially, the more fat and protein, the stronger the reaction. This conclusion was reached by the fact that the strongest reaction, Whole Milk, occurred when the liquid with the most fat was used and the weakest reaction, Orange Juice, occurred when the liquid contained the least amount of fat.
But Why???
The reason that the reaction occurs the way that it does is because when the soap is added to the solution of milk and food coloring the weak bonds within the milk are totally altered with. Milk is predominately water and the drops of fat and protein are interspersed and weakly suspended within the solution by weak bonds. The soap completely breaks the surface tension and completely alters these bonds of the fats and the proteins, which causes chaos within the new solution. The food color molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere by the rapidly mixing soap, fat, and protein. This microscopic behavior can be observed by the naked eye because of the visualization the food coloring provides when it is mixed.
Our experiment showed that the more fat and protein in the liquid solution the stronger the reaction. This holds true for the scientific explanation because more fat and protein would provide the opportunity for more chaos and therefore, longer and stronger reactions.
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