JULIA BERNAT
Can the Size of Dried Beans Affect
How Much Water They Absorb?
My science project
is about beans. My
question is if size affects
how much water dried
beans absorb. My
hypothesis is that I think
bigger beans will absorb
more water than smaller
beans. The materials I used
were five different kinds of
dried beans, 10 plastic 16
oz. cups, a scale, a
measuring cup, a drainer, a
pencil, a sheet of paper, a
large bowl, plastic wrap,
and water. Basically, my
procedure was this: weigh
50 grams of each kind of
beans for 5 of the 10 cups.
Add 350 grams of room
temperature water to each
cup with beans. Let the
cups sit for about 12
hours (overnight). Drain
the extra water the next
day. Weigh the beans.
Subtract 50 grams for
the original weight of
the beans and 10 grams
for the weight of the
cups. The rest of the
grams are how much
water each type of bean
absorbed (the version of
my procedure with more
details is on my board).
The independent
variable in my
experiment is the size
and kind of the bean.
The dependent variables
are the beans. The
controlled variables are
the same amount of
liquid, same kind of
liquid, same weight of
the total amount of
beans, and all the things
I’m testing are beans.
In my results, I
found out that the largest
kind of bean absorbed
the most water, but for
the other beans, size did
not matter. I concluded
that my hypothesis was
partially correct, because
the biggest kind of bean
absorbed the most water,
but size must not be the
only factor for how much
water dried beans absorb.