The Science of Halloween

Yesterday was a busy day.  Addie's school had an apple tasting lab as a part of the Farm to School program and they needed extra hands, so I volunteered.  There were 3 types of apples brought in from local farms, the Gold Rush, the Stellar, and the Arkansas Black.  The kids formed a hypothesis about which apple they thought they would like best and why.  Then the facilitator gave facts about the apples and the kids tasted.  I sliced a lot of apples through 4 science classes.

On the back of the lab sheet where they'd recorded the facts about the apples, they also wrote down notes about the taste, smell, appearance, and texture of the apples.

 Then on the other side was a table to rate the apples from 1-3 on those characteristics.  They added up the columns to conclude which apple was their favorite.  One of the questions of the experiment was to find out if other things besides taste affected their choice.  A lot of the kids initially thought the Arkansas Black would be their favorite.  It really was the prettiest of the 3.  But the Gold Rush, which was kind of spotted and didn't look that appealing, was actually the favorite of many.  It was my favorite!  Very sweet and juicy.  Every time I cut those, I got sprayed in the face!  They'll eventually compile all of the lab sheets from both grades that participated and find out the favorite apple of the entire school.  I enjoy volunteering at the kids' schools.  The kids in Addie's class have changed so much since we moved here in 2008.  I love being greeted by waves and "Hi Mrs. Walker!" when I'm there. 


After school, it was time to get ready for trick or treating.  I made this for supper and it was delicious. I used turkey breakfast sausage and turkey bacon.  After eating, we headed 1 street over for a group neighborhood picture. This is just a sampling of the spooks that were out.

Here's the candy we passed out.  We didn't keep count, but a neighbor down the street tweeted that he counted 224 trick or treaters at his door.

 The girls posed for a few pictures before heading out.