February is National Dental Month for both children and pets. Tuesday Tips is being brought to you today as a way to explain to your children the importance of brushing their teeth so that the enamel does not get eaten away so cavities form.
Egg and Vinegar Health Experiment
by Desiree and Edward
My name is Desiree and I was a Nanny for just about 5 yrs for 2 wonderful families, now I am a Stay At Home Mommy of a 7 1/2 yr old boy. I homeschool him and we’ve been asked to share with you an experiment that we recently did in health, regarding teeth and the importance of
brushing them consistently.
The experiment is a simple one. These are the items you will need:
- 1 fresh egg (do not crack or break it, it needs to be whole),
- a small container with a lid and vinegar (enough to cover the egg).
- 96 hours (4 days) to conduct
The egg represents your teeth and the vinegar represents the acids that food create in your mouth. It shows what the acid does to the enamel on your teeth overtime if you didn’t brush regularly (it eats away at the enamel, which is why you get cavities). This experiment will take 96 (4 days) hours to conduct.
Steps:
1. Place your fresh egg in the small container and pour the vinegar over the egg. I found that over the time, the gases that are building up seemed to push the lid off the container if I completely sealed it, so just place the lid loosely over the
container (it helps to cut down on the smell).
2. I had my son look at it everyday, so he could notices the small changes that were going on with the egg.
3. You can take pictures so you can look at them all when the experiment is over.
4. On day 4-96 hours have your child gently poke the egg with their finger. The egg should break very easily.
3. After 4 days, you can throw this experiment away.
Observations:
I think that what really made the point to my son was when he gently poked the egg with this finger and it broke the egg so easily. He was able to see that only the thin lining of the shell was left, all the actual shell was gone. Please note: that our enamel on our teeth is made of calcium and that the shell on the egg is made of similar material. When we eat food, the saliva in our mouth helps to break down the food. But it can also break down the enamel on our teeth.
Nice article. I am going to do this one with my charges. I did this in High school but for a different experiment. I remember the smell was insane. I will probably store the egg in our garage though.
We did this in the 8th grade and I loved it. I had it until I went to college.
I’m always looking for ways to drive home the importance of brushing teeth. My charges usually just roll their eyes when I insist they brush their teeth. I am so excited to do this with them.
Like the article… but vinegar, not vinager. Sorry for the grammar nazi bit but it’s bugging me. >.<