Why I don’t eat raisins anymore

It happened when me and my lab partner were doing the dancing raisins activity. It’s all just now coming back to me. I remember the look of sheer panic on my partners face and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it.

The instructions were easy. We just needed raisins, two clear glasses and two kinds of water, regular and carbonated. We poured the same amount of water and raisins to each glass with the only difference being the carbonation of the other water. Then we just had to wait and see what was about to happen.

Doing exactly as advised, we sat around the glasses and tried to figure out when something was ought to happen. I’m pretty sure the raisins should’ve started ‘dancing’ right about the time that they hit the bottom of the glass, but I didn’t get that then since I was too excited about getting to do a science activity at all.

We were getting bored of waiting so we decided to do it from the top on the next day. I picked up the glass that had the regular water in it and walked to the sink to wash it. As I walked, I swirled the glass in a circular motion. Obviously, the raisins followed the current of the water, and this is the moment when all went bananas.

I don’t know if the reaction was chemical, biological or physical, but the raisins started growing, making noise and dividing. I got startled by the noise, dropping the glass on the ground. I looked at my partner who was screaming and trying to brush off the orange sized raisins that were climbing on her, making an even bigger noise as they grew bigger and bigger.

We are now sitting inside the science equipment closet, writing this, so you know what ever happened to us.

Yours sincerely, Josh and Emma.