Orange Science

We have two lovely orange trees in our yard. They’re lovely to look at but too tart and filled with too many seeds to enjoy eating. I’ve been wondering what to do with all of the oranges all over our yard besides what the boys have been using them for … dodge ball.

Considering that I’m the least likely homeschool mom to pull off an experiment – I’m pretty excited about what we did do with these oranges. All “experiments” we tried were incredibly easy!

Orange Experiment No. 1
Sink or Float? Any type of orange works for this experiment.
Step 1. Pour equal amounts of water into two containers.
Step 2. Peel one orange.
Step 3. Drop both oranges into water.
Step 4. Examine to see which orange floats.
Truth: the first time we tried this BOTH oranges sank. I’m still not sure why – but we tried a second orange and that one floated.

Orange Experiment No. 2
Which rots first? You only need one orange for this experiment.
Step 1. Peel orange and separate into equal parts.
Step 2. Label paper plates where you will keep your oranges.
Step 3. Leave oranges alone for 3-4 days.
Step 4. Observe & discuss what you discover.
Truth: I totally forgot about this project until it was time to clean out the refrigerator. Then we hunted down the other plates.

Orange Experiment No 3
Will it rust? You need some type of metal. We used safety pins but you can use silver nails (which I couldn’t find)
Step 1. Drop 2 safety pins (or nails) into two different cups.
Step 2. Squeeze an orange into one cup covering the pin (nail).
Step 3. Pour water into the other cup covering the pin (nail).
Step 4. Leave alone for however many days you want. We did this on Friday and trashed it on Monday because the oj grew mold. Which would probably have been super fun to put under a microscope but I didn’t think about that until after I threw it out.
Step 5. See which pin (nail) rusted more.
Truth: the mold was more interesting to my son than the water covered rusty pin.

Orange Experiment No 4
Okay, so we totally forgot about this one! What can I say? Out of sight out of mind! We tried to see which would freeze first – a cup of water or a cup of orange juice. Maybe you’ll try it and let me know!

Real Orange Candle
I saw this neat little project online and tried to replicate it to see if it was real.
Step 1. Cut an orange in half.
Step 2. Carefully gut out the orange – do not rip the peel.
Step 3. Cut the center of one orange out for the “top” (make sure this is not the side with the long center – aka “wick”)
Step 4. Pour EVOO into the half of orange peel that has the “wick”.
Step 5. Light it.
Truth: It took about 2-5 minutes before it would actually light. We honestly thought we messed the whole thing up. But finally it did light and stayed lit for 6 minutes before we blew it out!

Science is all around us. You really do not need a fancy expensive kit. You just need some time and a little curiosity! What do you have around your house that you can use for an experiment?