1VR Science Experiment: That Fruit Has How Much Sugar?

Finding out what sugar levels and what makes fruit healthy

As part of their PBL, Year 1 VR were interested in finding out what makes fruit healthy and whether some fruits were more healthy than others. To find out more, the children visited the Science Lab and with the help of Miss Mahoney and Miss Garcia (the DCIS Science Teachers), the children carried out their own experiment testing the sugar content of different fruits. 

We all know that sugar makes food sweet. But did you know that there are different kinds of sugar? Sucrose is the granulated sugar that you usually use for baking. Another kind of sugar, which is found in honey and in many fruits, is glucose. In their science project,  1VR measured the concentration of glucose in a variety of fruits, from pineapple to dragon fruit. The students crushed up their fruit and used test tubes and pipettes to gather samples. They then added Benedict's solution which changed colour (after a warm bath to quicken the process) to measure the glucose concentration in different fruits.

They tested 5 fruits - dragon fruit, papaya, watermelon, pineapple and orange. The findings showed that the papaya had the most glucose, with watermelon having the second highest. Pineapple, orange and dragon fruit all showed similar results. 

The children are now using these findings to help them to plan and advertise a healthy snack for the teachers at school.