Finally a Science Fair Project we can use

My son recently represented his school in the local Hamilton System Science Fair. Science Fair time is always a grind for parents what with a dining room table full of paper scraps, glue, Sharpies and more.

My kitchen will never be the same.
This year was worse. His experiment took him to the stove in the kitchen. It was quite a disaster area. But something different happened.  We actually learned something. Something meaningful.

Mold. Flight. Genetics.
Now in past we learned that supermarket white bread never grows mold; we learned that paper airplanes fly better without junk glued to it; and we learned that my sons probably both have blue eyes because my husband and I have them. But this year, we learned something we can actually use.

It turns out that we drink a lot of sugar. Lots.

Now it’s no cure for any disease, nor will it help us to save the environment, but it did get him to think twice about what he’s pouring for himself.  When he measured all those teaspoons of sugar, representing how much was in each drink, into those little ziplock bags, the results were shocking.

Almost five teaspoons of sugar in a small glass of orange juice. Five teaspoons in a cup of chocolate milk. Cola was off the charts. What was even more interesting was what he learned next.

In his class, he discovered that every kid surveyed drank more than twice the amount of their daily-recommended allowance. Every day. That sugar intake does not take into account anything in their food, desserts or treats. Just what they drink.

Now we all think twice about what we’re drinking. I’d sooner spend my sugar intake on a glass of wine. This helps while supervising the cleanup in the dining room and the kitchen.

I’m sure he hates that he knows so much about the health problems that sugar can lead to, like diabetes. He likes sweets too much. In the meantime, he can enjoy his silver award and start to prepare for the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF) coming up this month. There he can get some inspiration for a good project for next year. I’m guessing something that isn’t so limiting on treats.