A student notices that when bananas are kept near other fruits, the other fruits ripen faster. She wonders what causes the other fruits to ripen more quickly and thinks that bananas must have an influence on the ripening process. She decides to perform an experiment. She gathers bananas and apples and places an apple by itself at location A and an apple next to a banana at location B. She then waits for five days and records how ripe each apple is.

The question is incomplete as there are no options, the options are:

What would be the next step in this experiment?

A. construct a hypothesis and record data

B. make observations and draw a conclusion

C. ask questions and construct a hypothesis

D. analyze the results and make a conclusion

The answer is D

Explanation:

According to this question, a student performs an experiment where she places apple fruit on one location and places apple and banana together in another location. She follows the steps of the scientific method in performing this experiment.

The steps involved in the scientific method include:

- Making an observation

- Constructing an hypothesis

- Testing the hypothesis (experimentation)

- Analyse the result

- Draw a conclusion

The student in this question has already made the observation that when bananas are kept near other fruits, the other fruits ripen faster. She has hypothesized that bananas must have an influence on the ripening process. She tests the hypothesis via an experiment described above. Hence, the next step is to ANALYZE THE RESULTS she will get after 5 days and DRAW A CONCLUSION based on that.