Here is a picture of the bananas from the decomposition experiment after six days.

The banana on the left (without yeast) looks pretty much the same as day one, except for a little browning.

The banana with yeast (on the right) has started breaking down and is all mushy and watery.

You can’t tell from the photo, but the banana without yeast was still very firm, while the yeast banana was very soft.

This week, we are learning about decomposers - those organisms that clean up the dead plant and animal life that would otherwise consume the earth.

Yeast is one such decomposer.

Today, we started an experiment that compares the decomposition of a banana slice coated in yeast to that of a plain banana slice.

We placed each banana slice in a plastic ziplock bag. We then placed the bags in a warm, dark place and will observe them each day for a week to see what happens.

We will check back in tomorrow to see how the bananas are doing.  (Did I say tomorrow?)  The after photos are finally posted.

I think I mentioned this on All Things Hold Together before, but it is worth bringing up again.

Disney released all 100 episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy on DVD. The classroom editions include a PDF file with lesson plans based on the episode, along with a short quiz.

Our library has a bunch of these and the kids love them.

I love that they come with a quiz that I can print out and include in our yearly portfolios.

I also love that the kids enjoy watching them again and again, reinforcing the concepts.

There is something wonderful about my 4-year-old asking to watch Bill Nye.

As Bill Nye says, Science rules!