Academy of the Gospel 2011 Science Fair Project

This year's Science Project was called The Tooth Truth.  The local librarian has put on a Science Fair for homeschooled kids both this year and last year.  This is the kids' display board. 

Ellie and Wyatt studied how different tooth cleansers work at cleaning your teeth and why.  Our dentist is always saying how children need fluoride and how important fluoride is.   I haven't used fluoride toothpaste since Wyatt was a baby and I haven't had a cavity since then either, so I don't put much stock in statements on the necessity of fluoride.

The kids studied how well different toothpastes, and baking soda, cleaned teeth by using the blue tooth dye that you can get in the toothpaste isle to identify plaque when brushing your teeth.  Ellie was afraid the tooth dye would permanently dye her teeth, so she asked her friend Sam to be her stunt double.  Sam was happy to oblige. 

First the kids got their teeth really sugary with ice cream and any other sweet thing they could think of.

Then they used the rinse to dye the stuff on their teeth blue, so we could see the build up of sugar.



Next they brushed their teeth with different tooth cleansers for two minutes each.  After two minutes, the teeth were checked to see how much blue dye was left.  All the the natural toothpastes (no fluoride included) and baking soda showed no blue dye on the teeth.  The commercial fluoride toothpastes still showed blue dye on the teeth, and the teeth did not feel as clean as with the other tooth cleansers.  I was one of their subjects and can attest to the results.

They also learned about fluoride and fluorine.  Fluoride, a synthetic form of fluorine is actually prohibited in many countries as a lethal toxin.  Fluorine is a naturally occurring substance found in greens, spinach, almonds, carrots, dandelions, and black tea.  Fluorine does have positive effects on the teeth.

The kids then had to do an oral presentation at the library.  There was supposed to be a Science teacher there to give them a score on their projects.  I don't know what happened, but she was not there that night for presentations.  The librarian said the scores were really close, but the kids did not get a ribbon this year.
Had we known the criteria on the sheet they were going to be graded on ahead of time, the kids would have done a few things differently. 

Ellie and Wyatt did a great job presenting their work.  The project was totally original.  I loved that they decided to dress up for their presentation.  I am so proud them!

I know I am a little late in posting this, but I'm trying to catch up.  There are some homeschooling things that I really want to chronicle on the blog, and this is one of them.