The title of this experiment made me scratch my head but it all became clear in the end. I first opened my box of Total cereal and crushed a few flakes on a plate.
Then I grabbed the strongest magnet we had in the house. Some people know them as Zingers! Anyway, I brought the strong magnet as close as I could to the cereal without touching it!
The goal was to make the the cereal move or follow the magnet. This would show that the piece of cereal had iron in it. I tried and tried to see if I could get something to move but I could not. The next part was to literally stick the magnet in the cereal and carefully lift it up and see if pieces would be on the magnet. I stuck it in and nothing was on the magnet except some traces of cereal but I think it is just some cereal sticking to the magnet.
After I cleaned the plate off, I put a little bit of water in the plate and put some large flakes of the cereal on the water so that it would float. Then I took the magnet and put it very close to the flakes. To my excitement the flakes started to follow the magnet!! The flakes definitely followed like little ducklings following their momma!
This act of science points to the presence of iron! Ha ha! At this point I am getting very excited! This last part shows the existence of iron in this cereal. I measured out 1 cup of Total cereal into a plastic bag and filled it half way with warm water.
Shaking the bag, I mixed up the warm water and cereal. The cereal started to dissolve and made the water get a funky and gross color.
For all the little gross pieces to get really soggy and mushy we waited 20 minutes. While waiting, I played a little bit of Wii with my little brother.
Once the timer let us know it was time, I took the bag and placed the magnet on top. Then I flipped the bag over so that the magnet was on the bottom. I swished the bag around, moving the gross contents inside. Swish, swish, swish, (I loved how warm it felt), swish, swish, swish.
After lots of swishing, I carefully flipped the bag over and looked under the magnet and a sense of WOW came over me! Take a look!
Look at it! You are eating that! Well, it is also in your blood. What about the first part of the experiment? I think the problem was friction or there just wasn’t enough iron in one of the little pieces to be attracted to the magnet.
I wish the saying “You are what you eat” were true…… Then we could really have an Iron Man!!
