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Beaumont Girls School, Beaumont, Cork

Scientific Sugar Analysis in 5th class

23rd Apr 2024
The girls and Mr Wilson‘s fifth class today went on a journey of scientific discovery. We began the lesson by looking at the chemical composition of sugars, and their role in our diet. We looked at the relationship between carbohydrates and sugar. We discovered that humans need sugar in their diet for energy, but we also looked at the result of having too much sugar in our diet.
 
We made lists of food that contain natural sugars and foods that contain added sugars. We also analyse many different names that food companies use in place of sugar on their labels. We reviewed the labels in our own lunchbox to see if we could find some of these examples. We were surprised as to how many we found!
 
To finish off the lesson we conduct an experiment. We began by estimating how many teaspoons of sugar we thought were in the most popular drinks on the market. Then we measured out sugar in clear plastic bags using teaspoons. The results actually blew us away! we could not believe how much sugar is in our favourite drinks! The drink with the sugar that we measured was Sprite and the drink with the highest sugar was Rockstar energy drink. 

We then designed posters to display on our school corridor to share our findings with the rest of the school to help them to know about the hidden sugars in our favourite drinks. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our scientific day of discovery!