Today's Fun Science Lesson

I am doing a dental health unit.
I wanted the kids to see what happens to their teeth when they drink soda, or if they don't brush their teeth on a regular basis.

Yesterday, I brought a hard boiled egg for each student. We talked about how the egg was like their teeth: white, smooth, hard outside, soft inside, and shiny. Then we put the eggs into cups of Coke overnight. I had them predict what would happen.

Today we took the eggs out of the cups of soda. They were stained brown, and covered in a gunky build up. I also had the kids smell the eggs. YUCK! I explained that this is what happens when we don't brush our teeth!



So, I brought toothbrushes and toothpaste and let the kids try to "brush" their giant egg "teeth." They were surprised at how hard it was to try remove the stains and build up! None of the students was able to get their "tooth" totally white again.


I cracked one egg "tooth" yesterday before putting it in soda. I told the students that this tooth as a cavity, and we would see what happens to a tooth with a cavity. The results were gross! I think this really nailed the point on the head for the kids about brushing their teeth and staying away from very sugary foods!


At the beginning of the lesson, we read a book about going to the dentist:

And we also made a chart of what helps our teeth, and what hurts them. Obviously, this was a lesson for generating ideas, not for proper spelling! LOL!