This month is Dental Health Month, and you have been learning about the importance of taking care of your teeth. In this challenge you will learn how unhealthy foods and drinks can affect your teeth, through a science experiment with eggs.  The eggs in this experiment represent our teeth!

Visit our blog every Thursday to see our latest STEM challenge and share your creations on social media using #CMMSSTEMChallenge or by emailing marketing@childrensmanor.com. Be sure to submit your photos to us by Monday, March 1, 2021!

Before starting this challenge, parents should know that you need 3 eggs total, and 2 of them should be hard-boiled eggs. To speed up the process of this experiment you may want to prepare your eggs in advance.

Materials:

• • • Results worksheet
    • 2 white hard-boiled eggs
    • 1 white raw egg
    • 3 containers (preferably clear cups)
    • Dark soda (pepsi/coke/root beer)
    • Coffee or tea (dark liquid)
    • White vinegar
    • Toothbrush
    • Toothpaste

Directions:

1. 1. 1. Help your parents to cook and then cool the hard-boiled eggs.
      2. Take one of your hard-boiled eggs and put it in a small clear cup. Then, pour in enough dark soda to cover the entire egg.
      3. Take your second hard-boiled eggs and put it in a different small clear cup. Then, pour in enough coffee/tea to cover the entire egg. These two hard-boiled eggs should sit in these drinks overnight, but you can check on them periodically. 
      4. Place your raw egg in a clear container and pour enough vinegar to cover it. Let this egg sit overnight.
      5. Fill out your worksheet to discuss and theorize what you think the drinks and the vinegar will do to the hard white shell of the eggs.
      6. The next morning, take the eggs out of their containers and analyze them. What happened (look at their color, size, smell,…)?  Record this on your worksheet.  
      7. Discuss the correlation between how soft drinks and coffee and tea affected the eggshell and how they can affect our teeth.
      8. Now, use toothpaste and a toothbrush (not your own!) to see if you are able to clean the eggs. What happened?

What did we learn?

The eggs in the soft drink will have taken a deep yellow-brown colored stain and the eggs in the coffee should have a slightly lighter deep yellow stain. As for the raw egg in the vinegar.  The vinegar should have dissolved the whole shell overnight!

• • Coffee and softs drinks stained eggshells, meaning they can also stain your teeth and can be the reason why teeth become yellow! We can protect our teeth by flossing, brushing, eating healthy foods and drinks, and going to the dentist regularly. 
  • If we do not brush our teeth, the pieces of food that stay in our mouths mix with bacteria and make a slimy coating called plaque. Plaque will build up on your teeth and start eating away at them like the vinegar ate the eggshell!
  • Brushing with toothpaste can help remove stains from eggshells (teeth).
  • Taking care of our teeth is important so they don’t get soft and mushy with cavities

We can’t wait to see your results! Don’t forget to send your photos of your results to marketing@childrensmanor.com by Monday, March 1!

Activity Credit: Luv Pre-K