Heavy Metal In The Cereal?

Kaylah Harrington, Brian Henderson, Asante’ Willis, Ximenio Gray, Cymone

King

Question

• Does the brand of the cereal affect the amount of Iron in the cereal?

Materials• Generic Cereal• Honey Nut Cheerios• Water• 3 Plastic Bowls• 2 Magnets• 3 Sandwich Baggies• Balance Scale• Seeing Lens• Tin Can• Watch• Paper• Pen/Pencil• Coffee Filters

Research• Iron is a heavy, magnetic, metallic element

that is present in very small quantities in the blood and is the 4th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Iron can be found in your blood as well. Cheerios help reduce Cholesterol that is also found in the human body. Iron also can be found in cereal. Iron is found in animal and plant foods, but in different forms. Iron is a mineral that is found on the Science scale of minerals, compounds, and elements.

Hypothesis• We believe that the brand of the two

cereals would make a difference in the amount of Iron in the cereals that are being experimented in our project. We believe this because, since one cereal is generic, and the other is not, the companies may use different ingredients that will affect the amount of Iron in each cereal, also, one of the cereals have a honey-flavored coating, that makes the cereal sweet, the other cereal (the generic brand) doesn’t, therefore, the amount of Iron will differ.

Procedure• First, we pour cereal out into coffee filters, and

put the coffee filters onto the balance scale, to measure the amount of cereal in grams. Then, after measuring the cereal, we smash it with tin can to make the cereal into grain-sized bits. After smashing the cereal, we put the bits into 2 different bowls (put the different brands into different bowls, DO NOT combine cereals). Next, you add water to the cereal bits, make sure that the bits are covered with water. After cereal is covered with water, stir continuously with a magnet.

Observations

• As we were observing the experiment, we encountered that the generic brand had more Iron than the name brand, vice versa.

Conclusion

• In conclusion we had discovered that the name brand cereal has less Iron than the generic cereal.