On October 16th , Lauren Madden, a faculty member in the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department gave a presentation at the New Jersey Science Convention in Princeton, NJ. She shared a favorite lesson using iodine to test apples for the presence of starch–thesame procedure orchards use to determine ripeness. This lesson engages children in authentic scientific practices and helps set an academic context and extension for apple picking field trips. Many thanks to the staff at Terhune Orchards ( www.terhuneorchards.com ) for providing the apples.