Firstly we needed half a slice of cheap white bread...which I didn't have, since we only had oaty bread, so we stuck with this.
Next we needed a mouth to put it in. Ethan happily volunteered. >>>>>>>>>>>>
Next he had to chew for as long as he possibly could, no matter how disgusting the bready mush became.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
....And chew....and chew....
Finally the taste got too disgusting and he gave up, with a swift visit to the kitchen sink!! (no he didnt chunder in there..but changed his mind and headed for the bin instead).What was supposed to happen, was that after a while of chewing the mush in your mouth would eventually begin to taste sweeter and sweeter, indicating that the molecules of glucose were being broken down by the enzymes (amylase) in your saliva. But for how long one would have to chew for is anyones guess.
We decided that in theory the experiment was sound enough, but in practise it wasn't one of the best to go for.
Tomorrow is all about creating hybrid coloured flowers with ink (and hopefully learning about how plants extract water, and how it travels through the plant.)
Loz
I must say you appear to be able to make science a bit more intersting and have a bit of fun as well very good! who taught you all this? you dont take Saturday off from learning? you work at home education 7 day a week with your children?
ReplyDeletepeter and carol said: you dont take Saturday off from learning? you work at home education 7 day a week with your children?
ReplyDeleteYep..why not..children don't take time off from learning do they? If they want to do something on a weekend day, then that is fine with me. :)
We could never get this one to work either. After a while, the starch in the bread is supposed to be broken down and when you test for it with iodine, the result will be negative. We never found this to be the case.
ReplyDeleteI guess your right children dont take time off from learning.We always thought of weekends as where you take it easy take time out to recover form what ever happened in the week! any way Ethan your son seems happy in those pictures he dont mind learning at weekends? dont he want to watch tv or play on computer? or get up very late?
ReplyDelete@Simon yep, that's pretty much the case. But it did give us the opportunity to question possible reasons why the experiment went wrong, or the results were not as expected etc. So not a complete loss as far as experimental analysis is concerned.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've hear it should only take 3-5 minutes of chewing. But wholegrains are supposed to release their energy more slowly than processed grains because the sugars need to be broken down from more complex molecules so maybe it takes longer if you don'g have white bread. Or maybe HCl in the stomach is needed for wholegrains?
ReplyDeleteAnother enzyme experiment, http://ilovebacteria.com/testenzymes.htm
'But it did give us the opportunity to question possible reasons why the experiment went wrong, or the results were not as expected etc'
ReplyDeleteThis can be more valuable than one that goes right. We tried to recreate Gallileo's trick of dropping a largerock and a small pebble from a height. All the books tell you that they will reach the ground together. They don't. Just as you would expect, the heavy one reaches the ground first. We had to track down and read the original account of this to see what was happening.
ooh cool experiment, we haven't got to enzymes yet. Looking forward to your photos tomorrow, I think we did something similar with celery and food dye. Home education is about making learning fun and a natural experience, not one you want to limit to certain days a week! ;)x
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