New Final Experiment - Experimental Plan

1. What do you want to find out? (Aim/Purpose/Research question)
The best way to store orange juice so as to minimize the degradation of vitamin C.

2. What is the tentative explanation of your research question? (Hypothesis)
It is best to store orange juice without exposure to the surrounding air and in cold temperatures to minimize the degradation of vitamin C.

3. In an investigation, there is only one variable to be changed. Which variable will you change in this investigation? (Independent variable)
Exposure of the orange juice and temperature of which the orange juice is kept at.

4. All the other variables must be kept constant. What are a few important variables that will affect the results greatly? (Constant variables)
- Type of orange juice
- Amount of orange juice
- Duration of experiment
- Material of container
- Size of container

5. What results will you measure? (Dependant variable)
The pH level of the orange juice.

6. What are the materials and apparatus that you will need to carry out the investigation? (Materials and apparatus)
- Hot plate with set temperature of 60°C
- Hot plate with set temperature of 90°C
- Freshly squeezed orange juice
- 10 plastic cups
- 6 containers
- Numerous towels/dish cloths
- 3 styrofoam boxes
- Aluminum foil
- Cling wrap
- Data logger with pH probe

7. What are the steps that you will take to carry out the investigation? (Procedure)
Step 1: Warm up a large amount of water on a hot plate with a set temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, and another set of water on a hot plate with a set temperature of 90 degrees Celsius.
Step 2: Squeeze 1000ml of fresh orange juice.
Step 3: Take initial pH level of orange juice and record it down.
Step 4: Pour 100ml of orange juice into each of the 10 cups.
Step 5: Immediately cover the top of 5 cups with aluminum foil and cling wrap, and leave the other 5 cups uncovered.
Step 6:

• Set-up 1 - put 1 covered cup and 1 exposed cup of orange juice in a container filled with ice cubes, insulate both cups of orange juice by wrapping numerous layers of cloth around them and putting both cups in a styrofoam box (change the ice cubes when they have all melted)
• Set-up 2 - put 1 covered cup and 1 exposed cup of orange juice in the fridge
• Set-up 3 - leave 1 covered cup and 1 exposed cup of orange juice outside in room temperature
• Set-up 4 - put 1 covered cup and 1 exposed cup in a container filled with water at 60 degrees Celsius, insulate both cups of orange juice by wrapping numerous layers of cloth around them and putting both cups of orange juice in a Styrofoam box (change the warm water regularly so the temperature of the orange juice sample remains as constant as possible, this warm water attained from Step 1)
• Set-up 5 - put 1 covered cup and 1 exposed cup in a container filled with water at 90 degrees Celsius, insulate both cups of orange juice by wrapping numerous layers of cloth around them and putting both cups of orange juice in a styrofoam box (change the warm water regularly so the temperature of the orange juice sample remains as constant as possible, this warm water attained from Step 1)

Step 7: Leave setups at their respective places for 3 hours and record the pH level of the samples every 15 minutes with the help of the data logger and pH probe.
Step 8: Construct a table for each set of data and then plot separate graphs of pH level against time.
Step 9: Repeat entire experiment once more.

8. How are data collected? (Data collection)
Data is collected with the data logger and pH probe. This device records the pH level of the orange juice at any chosen time and allows one to see the change in pH of the orange juice samples. The increase in pH level of the juice samples – both covered and not covered, in cooler or warmer temperatures over time will show how fast the vitamin C in each sample of orange juice is degrading. The orange juice samples that are covered will have less exposure to air while the samples that are not covered are constantly exposed to air, and the samples are kept in a range of low to high temperatures throughout the entire duration of the experiment. This will then prove or disprove what is hypothesized that it is best to store orange juice without exposure to the surrounding air and in colder temperatures.