Middle School Biology Department: 7th Graders Investigate Which Liquids Remove Calcium From Bones-Shanghai High School International Division

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Middle School Biology Department: 7th Graders Investigate Which Liquids Remove Calcium From Bones

October 19, 2020

On October 19th, 7thgrade science students received the resultsof the bone experimentthat had beencompleted the week previous. The goal was to discover which liquids remove calcium frombones. Under the guidance of teachers, students employed the Scientific Method and observed how chicken bones responded to being soaked in test tubesrespectivelyfilled with water, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, and coke. Observations were made at 10 minutes and 72 hours. Students discovered that water didn’t do much to the bones while vinegar dramatically softened and hollowed them out, making the bones much more flexible and weak. Coke seemed to have dyed the bones a deep red and made them more brittle, and hydrogen peroxide bleached the bones to a pale white color.

Many students were surprised by the results as they were contradictory to their hypotheses. Others felt victorious in their ability to correctly predict the experiment’s results. Ultimately, a meaningful lesson on how to conduct experiments using the scientific method was gained.

(Written by Amy Sun Michael Martin Pictures by Rongzhang Hu Supervised by Rongzhang Hu)