The Great Cereal Caper or a Science Project on Breakfast!

I seem to have been appointed chief photographer of science projects for my grandniece.  For the past few years, Macie will tote her project down the lane from her papa's house to mine.  She will set up the display and show me her actions during the procedures.  I am supposed to capture this on film so she can use those pictures on the science project display board.  Things have definitely changed over the years in this as back in the day, nothing required photographs.

Her project this year was to prove that the iron found in "iron-fortified" breakfast cereals was, indeed, iron as we know it.  In other words, it was attracted to a magnet.  She came to the Little Bayou House with three plastic baggies filled with soggy cereal.  Each baggie held a different type of cereal that had been smooshed up in distilled water.  These she carefully placed on the table and then proceeded to run a strong magnet over the squishy stuff.  Sure enough after a few minutes, you could actually see the tiny shards of metal following the magnet.  In a cereal that had 100% of the daily recommended amount of iron, the shards gathered together in quite a large mass whereas the cereal with less added iron, of course, had a smaller mass.  I was surprised how well this actually worked and at how large those "shards" of iron really were!  She informed me that iron occurs naturally in plants and meats but that the iron-fortified cereals contained tiny dustings of iron that could actually be compared to iron filings made in a machine shop.  Now go figure!  Who would have ever thought that the stuff could be one and the same?  How does the human body deal with little pieces of metal being introduced through food?  Is the stuff really digested and used by the body or is it just passed through the digestive system?  Are these iron filings really healthy for the human body or is this just a good marketing ploy to get us to buy iron-fortified cereal?  So many questions!  Of course, I really could not expect an eleven year old to answer all of these questions that were whirling through my mind.  Her project had nothing to do with the health issues but rather whether the stuff was truly iron in the sense that we know it. (And it is!  She definitely proved that there is some minute iron threads in the cereals!)

I have drawn a hexagon around the iron that was pulled from the cup of "iron-fortified" cereal during the science project.  

Macie's project did cause me to start pondering the safety of such additives to foods.  Sure, iron is great for the body but I wonder if practically eating nails is a good idea.  There is so much hype about vitamins and minerals added to food that it becomes a tad confusing.  I think I will try to stick with naturally occurring iron, minerals and vitamins that I get through things from my garden.  Somehow, I just feel a bit better about it.

The Perfect Afternoon

I busied myself all morning by taking down any decorations that were up for the Mystery Party.  The rooms were stripped of all their abandoned house "glory" and everything was packed for storage.  I wanted to get this done early as I had a very important visitor coming in the afternoon.  I did not wish to be distracted by any chores.  My visitor was to be here right after she got out of school for the day.  My sweet grandniece was to come spend the afternoon crafting.  What better bonding time is there for an old lady and a young girl!  She wanted to learn how to make corn husk dolls.  This is an art from days past.  Not one that many young girls would ever dream of doing but Macie asked.  I was thrilled!  Not only for the opportunity of teaching a near-lost craft but also for the time to spend with someone so sweet as this young lady.

We cut, folded and wired together a simple doll and then spent the rest of the afternoon chatting about everything from her school to broccoli!  My sweet little grandniece had grown into a young lady at some point! Not longer was there talk of Disney princesses or My Little Ponies.  Now the conversation was about fashion and food, likes and dislikes, schoolwork and fun times.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

After Macie left to go home, I headed to the pier.  I was just in time for a most beautiful sunset.  As I sat enjoying the ever-changing sky, I thought that Macie is a lot like that sunset.  She is vivid, bright and constantly changing..growing..becoming more beautiful and captivating.  Yep, I sure enjoyed this afternoon and hope that Macie and I can share many, many more before she grows weary of spending time with an old lady.  She sure has my heart!

Eating your science project...or how to dupe, Papa!

The other day, I had a visit from my sweet grandniece.  She was in the midst of doing a science project for school and needed someone to take pictures of her experiment.  This was not due to my expert photography skills but rather that it has become sort of a tradition.  I have been doing this since she started school and well, she and I now think it is quite the thing to do.  She always brings her project and shows me just what she is doing.  I take pictures.  (My job is difficult, I must admit! Ha!)  Anyway, like I said, she toted her project down and set it up in my kitchen.  She and her Papa (my brother) had been working on this for weeks now!

From what I gather, she was trying to decide if the popular candy M&M's actually do "melt in your mouth and not in your hand" or something on that order.  She had two white bowls that held warmed water (right at body temperature) and a plastic container of the candies.  One candy was placed in each bowl to see how long it would take to melt verses how long it would take to melt in your hand.  To be honest, she and I were more interested to see that the little, white letter "M" would eventually float to the top of the water!  It seems this "M" is made of some sort of edible paper stuff...who knew?  But back to the project..sure enough, the water started turning colors as the hard candy shell dissolved into the water.  After a bit, she showed me that the chocolate center did not dissolve..it just sat there in one mushy lump!  She even poked at it with a wooden skewer and it still did not dissolve!  This made me ponder just what was in this stuff!  Non-dissolving "chocolate" does not sound appetizing to me!

The whole time we were waiting for the candy/water concoction to do its thing, Macie was munching on the candies remaining in the container!  Aha!  It suddenly dawned on me just why this was chosen as a science project!  She loves to eat M&M's!  What a smart girl this is!  Perhaps, though, the project should be changed to "How to dupe Papa into buying me candy!" Papa kept buying her M&M's to use in her project for the past several weeks!  As far as I could see, those M&M's never stood a chance of melting in her hands!  She popped them in her mouth far too fast!  Grandnieces, Science Projects and M&M's...sounds like a winning combination to me!