"non-nutritive, non-digestible, water-insoluble"

Let's talk bubblegum, folks. For some reason, when I read the definition of what makes bubblegum stretchy I imagine Clark Griswold in the classic film "Vegas Vacation" explaining that those hideous milk bags that Rusty and Audrey are drinking are eight years old because of the non-nutritive food preservative that he invented, but I digress. There was a lot of hype about this experiment over the course of the semester, and now I understand why. This was an excellent way to incorporate all of this STUFF we've been poring over all semester and bring it into the classroom in a way that we could experience the process of a science experiment the way that our future students will. I mean, how cool is it to work through what seems to be a simple question with your peers and then immediately devise a plan to answer that query. THAT is science learning in action. THAT is fun. And, as an aside, I haven't desired a piece of chewing gum since, because whoa, that stuff is sweet! Like, yucky sweet. It was enlightening to do an entire experiment, start to finish in an hour, too. You really feel the magnitude of how much you need to use your brain to change gears and test your ideas. It's exhausting! Here's a cool website that features some teachers just like us! http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/ScienceBuddiesinAction.shtml

And here's our AWESOME chart from our experiment! Our team wanted to confirm or deny if sugary bubblegum stretched farther than sugar-free gum. It did!