help with DECOMPOSITION sci project!?

Question

I am in high school honors level biology I and I have to do a major project (very similar to ones for science fairs). My project is: I will be putting McDonald's french fries (which have a lot of fat and artificial preservatives) and home-made french fries (i will cut up potatoes and fry them in oil) in two jars. I will seal the jars and leave them in the same conditions. For my project, I want to see that things with a lot of fake preservatives and fat have a SLOWER DECOMPOSITION rate than all natural products. For this project, one would assume that I could just look at the fries every one in a while and see which looks the most decomposed. However, that is not specific and "scientific" enough.

I need help finding out how to see which fries decompose faster/more. i need good ways to measure the rate of decompostion.


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP! good ideas only. (please dont waste my time with foolish responses).



thanks sooo much.
look forward to hearing from anyone soon

Answer 1

put the in jars, sealed TIGHTLY. put in same climate, room tempurature, and thats it! you can watch Super Size Me, it a file against Mckie D's friens and food, and they do the same thing! to check it, record their charectaristics, then compare them to how they changed! wala!

Answer 2

Since this is a timed project you may want to try something that decomposes a little quicker. like a mcnugget verses a fried/floured home cooked nugget.. Otherwise I think you are going to bogged down waiting for results that don't come..Honey is a natural preservative,maybe wrap some meat in honey and some without and construct a decomposing chart...

Answer 3

The guy on supersize me tried this and the fries went without mold for 10 weeks! (after that someone threw them out) Anyway, you could try to estimate the surface area of mold covered fries in the jars over the weeks.
PS: When it comes to school projects, pictures almost always have a higher win count as opposed to just data, so get a camera!