The Great Potato Chip Challenge

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day.  Here in New York we are on our 2nd snow day in a row. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! 

The kicker is that next week is winter break (don't hate me because I'm a teacher, hahaha!)

These extra days off gave me the time I needed to finish up a huge science bundle I have been working on.  I've started a series called, "It's Science Time!" I am really excited to be sharing it with you.  Born out of necessity, these 9 experiments can easily be incorporated into your school day....Take a look at the titles below:

I've been creating these little goodies to go along with our school's science fair.  Each year, we enter the fair with a class experiment. It is truly so much fun.  Last year, the kids went crazy for our Osmosis experiments.  {Take a look at the post here!}

The year before that, we did the Rubber Chicken Bone and Snowman Science, two fan favorites!

This year, we went with the Great Chip Challenge! I have some pictures to share...ready to get your science on?

The first thing I did was get their attention...

They were dying, DYING to know what we were going to do with these chips!  

"Science," I said.

"SCIENCE?" they squealed! 

The next thing I did was pose a question: "How much fat is there in a serving of each type of chip?"

We did a little background research by reading what the ingredients were. I purposely hid the fat grams.

The cool thing is that the Baked Lays have the most ingredients (many of which are tricky to pronounce) so naturally....which did the kids think had the most fat?   You got it, the chips with the most ingredients! Ohhh, how I love 2nd graders.  Bless their adorable little hearts!

We needed to keep our information somewhere, so each of the kids got their own science journals.  Take a look at some of the pages. That potato chip clip art cracks me up!

We moved on to the procedure, which involves crushing a serving size of potato chips onto graph paper.  It is so cool!  The kids were going a little wild at this point, but it was all in the name of science.  To be honest, the smell of the chips was making me a little wild myself!

Once we repeated the procedure with each type of chip, I taped the graph paper to the window so we could observe the potato chip grease in all of its glory.  I won't ruin the experiment by giving your our conclusion, but I will share some of our pictures! (Ok, if you look really closely at the last picture, you will be able to see our conclusion...something I am sure you predicted anyway!)

Note to fire marshall, I've since removed these from the rescue window! :)

This experiment does include another part...yeah, you know it.....

THE TASTE TEST!!!! The next part of the experiment asks the little scientists if they think the amount of fat affects the taste. Ummmmm, that was a hands-down YES! Surprise, surprise!

You should have seen them smelling and feeling and nibbling each type of chip before they recorded their data.  Oh yeah, we made kind of a big deal about it.  It was truly hysterical. 

A couple of kids fondly nicknamed The Classic Lays, "The Big Poppa" of chips!

So what do you say? Are you hungry for some science?  Come check it out in my TPT store!

Happy Experimenting :)

And now onto my 500 follower raffle winner.....

Hooray, Rachelle! You should have received an email from me already.  I am looking forward to hearing from you!  Happy Valentine's Day.  Thanks for being a fan and I hope you enjoy that cute bracelet!

Be sure to check back...I will be giving science freebies all week before they go on sale in my stores! Happy Valentine's Day Loveys!