The “salad sauce experiment”

When designing an experiment, scientists follow certain steps, and for each step they answer some key questions, as presented in the worksheet “Building a scientific experiment”. It is easy, you will see!

Preparation: To make salad sauce, we mix vinegar with oil, salt and pepper. How do oil and vinegar mix together? What happen if we let the mixture stand for 10 minutes? Oil and vinegar separate.

If we prepare salad sauce on board the International Space Station (ISS) and wait for 10 minutes, the oil and the vinegar are still mixed together.

Activity: We want to compare the “salad sauce experiment” performed on board the ISS with the same experiment performed on Earth:

1. Each student fills in phases 1 and 2 of the worksheet “Building a scientific experiment” for the “salad sauce experiment on Earth”
2. Perform the experiment and present the results (phase 3)
3. Debate with the class what the conclusions of this experiment are (phase 4)

Building a scientific experiment »»

Conclusions: Can we prepare salad sauce much in advance before the meal? Why? Is it the same in space? What is the influence of gravity on making salad sauce?