Year 3 investigate teeth

As part of our science topic, the digestive system, this week we have been investigating our teeth. We looked at the uses of our teeth; eating and talking as well as the types of teeth we have and their specific functions; incisors for cutting, canines for ripping and molars for grinding. Due to the fact that once you have all your adult teeth and you do not get anymore, we also discussed how important it is to look after your teeth. This means not eating or drinking things that are too sugary or may damage your teeth. We decided that we wanted to set up an experiment where we could see the effects of certain liquids on our teeth. The only problem was we did not have lots of human teeth lying around the class, so we had the idea of using eggs. Their shells would represent the outside of our teeth and we discovered that egg shells are made from calcium just like our teeth. To make it a fair test we took six jars exactly the same size and placed a different liquid (the same amount of each) in each jar; water, milk, coffee, cola, vinegar and lemonade. We then put one egg in each jar and kept them in the same place. Finally, we each made a prediction about which liquid would affect the eggs the most and the most popular prediction was that cola would damage the egg the most due to it’s high sugar content. We are all anxiously waiting for next week to see the results.