This summer, this sixth grade math and science teacher will be teaching a two week course called “Grossology” to incoming third and fourth graders (8 and 9 year olds) at a local private school. I’ve been given more or less free rein–the idea is make it fun, make it exciting, and make the kids come home talking about how fun science is.
I’m already planning activities–taking apart owl pellets immediately came to mind, as did “gack” (a minilesson on polymers) and bringing in one of my pet snakes for study. The science I typically teach is Earth science, which is a bit lacking in the gross department (although a similated oil spill I do every year is always fun and messy), so I’m looking for ideas. I have instructions on how to pin and preserve insect specimens…that could be interesting (and a bit gross).
I have about $27 per student (multiplied by about 15-20 students) to spend on materials. I aim to buy the kid-friendly book Grossology, and now, I’m here asking my Doper buddies what other topics would be sufficiently fun, gross, and exciting for kiddos–and the teacher.
I don’t know if this counts as “gross” or not, but does smell bad: If you can find a high-voltage supply (140 Volts minimum), you can hook it up to a pickle (the large, whole kind) and make the pickle glow in the dark. Kids love it. It smells like burning hair so is best done in a well-ventilated area. If you have a college physics department nearby, they should have the right kind of power supply.
The owl pellets sounds like a great idea. Maybe you could also talk about how rabbits eat their pellets. I bet that would gross them out.
In the “messy but not necessarily gross” department, there’s the paper mache - baking soda volcano.
The chemistry club at my college does some kind of “make your own goo” thing with elementary school kids, but I don’t know the recipe for it.
My nephew wanted to make bread from scratch for his dinner last week, so I ended up explaining how we enslave little yeasts to eat sugars and poop bubbles for us. Evidently this is VERY gross and also cool.
Do they still do that in school with all the concern about HIV/hepatitis/etc.?
You could ask local veterinarians if they have any parasites or tumors that they’d be willing to loan you. They’re a twisted lot and often have a clinic collection.
Colibri, I like the comment at the bottom of the article - “By far the easiest pets I have ever had.”
You could replicate the Mythbusters “Double Dip” episode, with kids double-dipping a chip into some salsa or dip, vs getting a great big mouthful and splutting it back into the bowl (single-serve bowls, individual agar plates)
Extra bonus, kids get to have some noms at school.
A simple discussion lesson on what makes farts smell like they do would fit the budget and would, ahem, engross the kiddos. Really, anything ass related - smell of farts and poop, how the intestine digests at different stages, anything. Why armpits smell is a good topic too. Odors are interesting. Hell, just today my friend and I discussed which smelled worse: a GI bleed or a small bowel obstruction as we shared chips and salsa.
We settled on an obstruction or other surgical blood in a fairly new ostomy, as it combined some if the best of both worlds.
How about comparing aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Which smell worse? What determines which kind will predominate? How can you tell them apart?
Or, how about chemicals that make things smell either good or bad, depending on the context and what you’re expecting? For example, butyric acid helps make parmesan cheese smell good, but helps make vomit smell bad - how we interpret its contribution to overall odor depends on what we already think about the situation.
What about the many uses of poop? Sure, it’s fertilizer. But aren’t there expensive coffees made from coffee beens that have been eaten and excreted by, I dunno, a civet cat or something? Don’t people cook over dung fires in some places? IIRC, isn’t latakia pipe tobacco aged over dung smoke?
The coffee in question is called “kopi luwak.” You could use this as a discussion for certain seeds that don’t germinate well unless they’ve been through an animal’s intestines - usually it seems to be a fruit-eating bird that poops out the seeds, providing it with a little fertilizer as well as helping break down the outer seed coat.
Maybe something about using mud as building material? Mud huts, bricks from mud and straw?
Parasites are gross and freaky - how about some discussion of tapeworms and their friends?
Maybe composting? What to compost, how to do it, how and why it works? It’s basically a pile of garbage (gross) that ends up being great for your garden.
Make vinegar. The whole “vinegar beastie” thing used to gross me out.
Make a rot chamber. We did this in 5th grade–use a 2-liter bottle, cut off the top, fill with dirt and kitchen waste. Keep moist. Smells rather ripe after a while.
-Mold experiments. Have students wrap a piece of bread in foil and open it up 10 days later.
