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Science Experiment from the RMSC
What's In Your Breakfast Cereal?RMSC

Objective: to extract minerals from the cereal you eat.

Materials:
1 Cup iron-fortified cereal
2 Cups hot water
Deep mixing bowl or glass
Spoon
White Magnet (or painted white)


What to do:

Place the magnet in the bowl.

Pour 1 cup iron-fortified cereal, such as "Total," into the mixing bowl.

Add 2 cups of hot water.

Stir the water and cereal for at least ten minutes. (Thirty minutes will give the maximum iron recovery.)

Carefully take the magnet out of the bowl.

Experiment:

What do you observe?

Why do you think this works, and why is stirring necessary?

Did you expect to find metallic shavings in the food you eat?

Why:

Cold cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals for health. Metallic iron is added to fortified cereal, and this form of iron is magnetic. In this experiment, the magnet collects the iron. Different metals are processed and "recovered" with other methods, such as acidic or caustic water, gravity separation, or flotation. An example of gravity separation is gold-panning. When a gold pan is agitated, the heavier mineral (gold) drops to the bottom of the pan and the lighter rocks wash away.

Other Things to Try:

What other fortified food product could be used instead of cereal? You may want to try an iron-rich drink or cooked hot cereal.

Try crushing the cold cereal before adding the water. Does this improve the recovery time?

Does it make a difference if the cereal is crushed in a separate container and then transferred to the bowl?

Try weighing the recovered iron!