Outreach: bendy bones

These resources were created for the Cambridge science festival 2013.

If you teach primary science, click the headings below to find out how to use this resource:

Skill development

Children will develop their working scientifically skills by:

• Using appropriate scientific language and ideas to explain, evaluate and communicate their methods and findings.
• Drawing conclusions and raising further questions that could be investigated, based on their data and observations.
• Asking their own questions about scientific phenomena.

Learning outcomes

Children will:

• Recognise the impact of diet and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.

Concepts supported

Children will learn:

• That calcium is an important part of people’s diets.
• What can happen if people have deficiencies in their diets, in this case calcium

Suggested activity use

This activity could be carried out as a whole class exercise, with children working in small groups to carry out the experiment. This activity would work well if used in conjunction with the resource K-Mistry – fast facts: elemental! (http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/res00002336/kitchen-k-mistry-fast-facts-elemental), as it helps explain the importance of calcium in making healthy bones.

Practical considerations

You will need chicken bones, vinegar and a container for the experiment.

Please take into account any health and safety considerations when carrying out this activity.