Icky Sticky Fingers Update

One of the most frustrating things about science is experiments that don't turn out as expected. It's been 11 days since my mom and I began our Icky Sticky Fingers experiment and I still do not see any type of mold growing on the bread (grrrr!). For a lot of students (and teachers, for that matter), this can be quite an obstacle to overcome ("My experiment failed, what do I do now?" "What do I tell my classmates/students?" "How do I explain the outcomes?" "Should I even spend more time on this?"). 

I have had many experiments turn out differently than I expected in my own classroom. What I have learned over time is that this situation is made a little easier when students come up with an explanation on their own. I have them brainstorm in small groups reasons for the outcomes that were observed. Together as a class, we decide which direction we want to go (this is modeled really good in the TV series, Mythbusters). This works well in the secondary classroom, but can be modified for the elementary classrooms with a little more teacher direction. It's hard though, with time constraints we are constantly dealing with, pacing guides, limited to no classroom budgets, and exhaustion, it is easy to say, "Forget it, let's just move on to the next unit."But you know what? We learn just as much from an experiment turns out differently than we predicted than from the ones that turn out exactly as we thought they would. 

My mom and I brainstormed some of the possible reasons why this didn't work in the time we expected it to. Some of the reasons include:

• The temperatures in Tahoe were fairly cool at night and pleasant during the day resulting in slower mold growth.
• The bread contained more preservatives that we expected (which would account for a longer shelf life).

While we will continue original experiment until we see mold growth on the bread (I'm curious how long it will actually take), today we started another experiment using a preservative free whole wheat bread from Trader Joes. From experience, this bread spoils pretty quickly (which is why I keep it in the refrigerator), so perhaps we'll get better results. Other than the type of bread and the location, the experiment was run exactly the same way as the first one. 

Additional updates coming soon!