Question: How did you get White House people to make fake poo and who exactly?

Senga Robertson answered on 6 Nov 2017:

Hi Starry Skittles 9

I’m really glad you asked. So a few years ago I made up a fun activity that basically involves making fake poo that teaches people all about tiny little creatures called bacteria that live in your gut and the helpful jobs they do for us. (I’ll put the information about it at the end of my question).

People really found the activity fun and I ended up writing a paper about it which was published in an journal (science magazine) called the journal of microbiology and biology education. The magazine really liked the activity too so they put it in a shortlist of the best projects of that year. This was seen by people at the White House that were organising a science event for the public and they decided to do my activity which was totally awesome. Unfortunately they didn’t invite me to the White House to do the activity myself, they got one of their own scientists to do it so it means I wasn’t there to see who was making my fake poos. I’d like to think that president Obama or his daughters gave it a go though! There is a photo on my profile of one of the fake poos 🙂

This is the activity and what it’s all about:

Did you know that right now, as you are reading this, there are millions of tiny creatures that are so small you need a microscope to see them doing amazing jobs in your tummy to keep you healthy and to help you get all of the vitamins and nutrients you need out of your food?

Some bacteria help your body defend itself against bad bacteria that can make you unwell (if you’ve ever had a tummy bug it was probably because of bad bacteria – tummy bugs suck so much), they can also break up vitamins and nutrients in your food in to smaller pieces so that your body can use them to stay healthy.

If you have the right balance of bacteria in your tummy you will feel normal and healthy BUT if you have the wrong balance it can make you feel unwell. Healthy tummies make healthy poos, but if you have the wrong balance of bacteria in your tummy it can make you sick or give you ” the squitz”.
The poo activity tells you about some types of bacteria, the jobs they do and how much of them you might have in your tummy. What you do is you take a fake tummy (just a little bag thing) and add the amounts of each bacteria you think your tummy needs to be healthy (the bacteria are actually just different colours of paint mixed with water), you also add food (Weetabix) and water. You then squish the bag a lot to mix it all up, which is what your tummy actually does when you eat food. You then cut a little hole in the bag and squeeze out your fake poo. When you see your poo you can decide if it looks healthy. If it’s a weird colour or super runny then you know that the amounts of bacteria you added maybe aren’t the best combination to be healthy, if you squeeze out something that looks like a normal poo then you’ve got the balance right. If you’d like to try this activity (and if it’s ok with your teacher) I would be really happy to email you a student pack that shows you how to do the activity and tells you some more about the jobs different bacteria can do to help you stay healthy

Senga