February is Dental Health Month

February is Dental Health month (among other things), so we decided to do some dental health science labs.  It was also a great opportunity to review variables.  The set-up is really simple (and not too expensive, either).  Did you know egg shells do a great job of mimicking your tooth enamel?

We are right in the middle of this lab, but we will be adding photos of our eggs throughout our five days of observations.  You can use any liquids, but we used: lemonade, diet coke, coke, fruit punch, orange juice, V8 splash, mouthwash, and water (as our control).  We cracked the eggs and covered one in toothpaste and left the other one alone.  We then placed each half into its own container of the same liquid (one liquid per table group).

Here are some of the eggs after just two days in the liquids:

The top picture is of the eggs in V8 Splash and the bottom one is in coke.  Can you believe that is after just 2 days?  Yikes!

Variables are so tricky for my students, so we are using this lab as a review of these concepts.  You can grab this lab pack here for under $2!  I am working on adding the variables posters to the lab pack right now!