Science Fair

This weekend, Gr worked on his 4th grade Science Fair project.  He wanted to see if dogs or humans experienced more reaction to pepper.  He used what we had in our kitchen: finely ground black pepper, cayenne red pepper, and freshly ground peppercorns.

Here you can see his new braces, by the way.  They’re on the bottom only and these are still part of his expansion treatment, just the next step following his full-time retainers, trying to create a bigger mouth. 

Sometimes I have to wonder if any of these kids need a bigger mouth.

So anywho, this below is Gr’s reaction to the cayenne.  It had his eyes watering and made his face contort a bit, but no sneezes from him sniffing any of the three types of pepper.  CGirl got it in her eyes.

Gr ended up with pepper going down into his throat, so he hoped drinking milk would help.  He described the cayenne pepper as the strongest, causing “really painful tingles.”

After each trial with Gr, giving five minutes to record any sneezes, Scooter was given his turn.  Gr hypothesized that the dog would sneeze more since the dog’s nose is more sensitive. 

Here you can see Scooter is quite eager to get to whatever’s on the plate.  Scooter, you are in for a surprise!

Here’s his reaction to the ground peppercorns.  No sneezes, but he did make this face. 

I just noticed the pepper visible on his neck fur. 

He came inside for the cayenne.  No sneeze, but he did do this: 

Major drool.

It turned out that only the finely ground black pepper that we use in our salt ‘n’ pepper shakers caused any sneezing.  ScooterDog sneezed four times with it. 

For being such a good sport, Scooter got some extra love and attention.  Rewards included licking peanut butter out of Gr’s hand, sugar out of CGirl’s hands, and peanut butter off Gr’s face. 

 

SNEEZES

dog vs. boy

IIII to 0

All in the name of science.