How does stomach acid work?

I think this is my final post from our anatomy lessons three years ago. Have you ever had something that was super cool but you didn’t want to do it?  That’s how writing this stomach acid post has felt. I knew it was a good homeschool science lesson, The kids loved doing it, but I didn’t want to write it.  I think it’s because it’s primarily video.  I was dragging my feet to get this done.

Sometimes I am ridiculously immature, this is me “womaning up” and writing this stomach acid experiment post.

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Before I forget to tell you, I was inspired in this stomach acid experiment by one of Phyllis’ science experiments to try before high school.

Supplies for our stomach acid experiment

empty glass jar (our is a Laura Scudders peanut butter jar*), vegetable oil* ^ (there’s a greater than 50% chance I used olive oil because it was on hand after watching the video again it was olive oil), water, Alka-seltzer*, food coloring*

^totally unrelated comment, I’m totally addicted to Prime Pantry* now. I’ve got a whole slew of stuff sent to me automatically so I don’t run out.  LOVE THIS!

Put together your Stomach Acid Experiment

Fill your jar part of the way up with water and drop in some food coloring.  I used red because it was what I had on hand.  According to my kids, it makes the experiment look like barf.

So that’s a feature.

Next, fill up your jar the rest of the way (someday I will type the word “the” without typing the words in the wrong order) with oil.

Because I was doing this with several kids, and because it actually extends our stomach acid experiment longer I broke the Alka seltzer tablets up into pieces.

Now you’re all ready to get this experiment going.

Putting your stomach acid experiment into motion

As you can see from the demonstration, okay, in reality, this isn’t a stomach acid experiment because I knew what the outcome would be.  In reality, this is a stomach acid demonstration.

The Alka seltzer simulates the food we eat.  When you drop it in you can see the bubbles starting up and the Alka seltzer starting to deteriorate in the water/oil.  This is just how stomach acids work when we eat food.  It interacts with the food and your stomach starts to roil and broil (okay it doesn’t really do that, but it sure does sound cool), and it all moves around just like the Alka seltzer and bubbles are in the video.

All in all this demonstration worked perfectly to illustrate how do stomach acids work, which worked out perfect for me.

More Anatomy ideas for you

• Great Anatomy model for kids
• Candy Spine
• Create a neuron