Absorption- Pretzel Predictions (Arpa Ghazarian)
Author
Arpa Ghazarian
Principles Illustrated
1. Digestion physiology
2. absorption
Standards
5-8:
Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations (Standard A.1.1)
A substance has characteristic properties all of which are independent of the amount of the sample (Standard B.1.1)
9-12:
Design and conduct scientific investigations (Standard A.1.2)
The physical properties of compounds reflect the nature of the interactions among its molecules (Standard B.2.4)
Questioning Script
Prior knowledge & experience:
Students can eat more than five pretzels, or even an entire bag, however not in a minute. The additives in the pretzels maintain their dryness. When trying to eat them in a minute, there is not saliva in the mouth to get through even five pretzels. It requires only a portion of one pretzel to absorb all the saliva in a student's mouth.
In eating competitions, competitor's drink water in between each bite to help them swallow down all the food in a timed period.
Root question:
Predict how many pretzels you can eat in a minute.
Target response:
Students will guess twenty or thirty, or even the entire bag.
Common Misconceptions:
The size of the pretzels mislead them which is why they think they can eat so many. They overestimate how many they can eat in a minute since they don't realize that there are additives in the pretzels that keep them dry.