Lucy's Science Project

Lucy, my 10 year old, decided to do her science project on which brand of bubble gum's flavor would last the longest. Her hypothesis would be, "Hubba Bubba's Flavor Lasts The Longest."

I didn't think that she would be able to do this as a project because it is subjective, but her teacher let her proceed.

In her procedure notes, she explained the difference between objective and subjective experiments. She listed the reasons why the law of large numbers is so important in gathering subjective information.

First, she purchased four kinds of bubble gum, all original flavor and and full of sugar, so that the different products could match as close as possible. The brands were: Bazooka, Double Bubble, Bubble Yum, and Hubba Bubba Max.

Next she designed her questionnaire. She asked three questions with a rating system from 1 through 5. There was a question about flavor, texture, and a yes/no question about whether or not the subject would continue chewing the bubble gum sample after one minute, three minute, and five minute time intervals.

Taking her questionaire and four different kinds of gum, she used her classmates as guinnea pigs. The kids in her class loved this experiment, which took up the whole language arts class.

Later that evening, Lucy totaled the results from her questionnaires and the results proved her hypothesis: most of the subjects tested said that Hubba Bubba sustained it's flavor and texture longer than the other brands of bubble gum.


Well, last night was the science fair and, to our surprise, Lucy took first place out of all the fifth graders at her school. Next week she takes her project to District finals.

Wish her luck!!!




1.