Science Fair Fun with Bacon Scented Flowers

I am participating in a science fair at my home school co-op, The Learning Collective.  Here is my project:

Project Title:  Bacon Scented Flowers

Hypothesis: I believe that I can make a flower smell like bacon with the right materials.

Background: Previously I did an experiment where I added vanilla and peppermint to water to see if I could make scented flowers.  I found that the peppermint worked the best because of the strong scent. I love bacon and want to see if I can make bacon scented flowers. The question is how can I make water smell like bacon strong enough to pass it on to the flowers.

Variables:        

      ~Water with pieces of bacon

      ~Bacon grease only

      ~Bacon infused water

      ~Bacon grease infused water   

Materials: Scentless flowers, bacon, test tubes, water, scissors, and a sharp knife

Procedure #1: 

Make in advance:  

~ Bacon grease infused water:  Poured bacon grease into a jar, filling it halfway.  Then I added water to fill the jar. I put a lid on it and let it sit for 24 hours.

~Bacon infused water:  Filled a jar ¾ of the way full with water.  Chop up two pieces of cooked bacon and add to the water.  I put a lid on it and let it sit for 24 hours.

Day of experiment:

I cooked 4 pieces of bacon and reserved ½ piece of bacon and all of the bacon grease.  

I have 4 test tubes on a stand.  I prepared them as follows:

Test tube 1: Water with ½ piece of chopped freshly cooked bacon.

Test tube 2: Bacon grease from the bacon I had just cooked.

Test tube 3:  Bacon infused water that I previously prepared.

Test tube 4: Bacon grease infused water that I previously prepared.

 

I cut 4 sunflowers to fit into the test tubes.  I also cut small slits on the bottom of each stem so that the water would pass through quicker and easier.  

I put one flower into each test tube.  

Results: 

After 24 hours, the sunflowers did not take on any of the bacon scent.  The test tube that had only bacon grease turned hard.  

Conclusion:
The sunflowers are large flowers and the bacon scent was not strong enough to go through the flower's stems and produce any scent.

I will try again with a different, smaller flower.

Procedure #2

I am going to use daisy's this time. They are smaller and have no scent.

I am not going to use the straight bacon grease as it will harden and the flower will not be able to use it as a water source.

~Placed one daisy in a test tube with water and freshly cooked bacon.

~Placed second daisy in a test tube with water and bacon grease.

Results:

After two hours, there is a faint smell of bacon on both flowers.
After four hours, test tube 1 (fresh cooked bacon) smelled very bacony; test tube 2 (bacon grease and water) smelled kind of bacony.



Conclusion: 

The smaller flowers worked better than the larger flowers because it was faster and easier to get to the petals.

Freshly cooked bacon in water worked the best, followed by bacon grease and water.  The straight bacon grease didn’t work at all because it was too thick. 

In the future, I would use even more bacon and see if I could get smaller, scentless flowers. 

I wonder if I could grow flowers to smell like bacon??? What if I planted scentless flower seeds and watered them with bacon water?

Rex's Super Science Goop

Today for science I did a fun activity which was creating goop.  Because it was close to Halloween, I thought it would be a good science activity.

Here are the ingredients we used:

We used glitter glue, but you can use regular glue instead and add food coloring if you like. I highly recommend doing this activity on an old towel because it is messy and may ruin your towel. 

First we added 1/2 cup of water and 4 oz of glue to a bowl and mixed it up.

In another bowl, we added 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of borax.  We thought it was strange to only add one teaspoon of borax, but it worked pretty well.

Then we poured the glue mixture into the water and borax.

And now I stirred it all together.

It started to get goopy. A good idea that it is working is to lift up your spoon if the goop is dangling down, that is good.

Then I took out the slimy goop.  It was soft and squishy.

I started to squeeze it and it got more rubberier.

It ended up very stretchy and I was surprised to find out it was also bouncy.

I like the fact that it is so stretchy and durable.  I formed mine into two brains (they looked like broccoli).  I had a brain fight. It was fun.  Two sparkly green brains/broccoli bouncing off of each other.  Good times.

Why did the goop form?
The glue has an ingredient called polyvinyl acetate, which is a liquid polymer. The borax links the polyvinyl acetate molecules to each other, creating one large, flexible polymer. This kind of goop will get stiffer and more like putty the more you play with it.
Here is a link to a website that explains what a polymer is.

Hi my name is Rex and my favorite subject is Science.  Science is fun because it challenges your brain and makes you think. It's fun to try other people's experiments and then change them a little bit, so that you are experimenting on an experiment. 
I am 8 years old and I am homeschooled.  I like homeschooling because I can do the schoolwork I like and not wait around for other people to finish their work. 
I like to write fan fiction, go on my computer, watch television, do karate and play the piano.
I hope you enjoy seeing my experiments.