Our Motive!

This is officially the first post of our blog. Our main reason for creating this blog is to let everyone know our school better, by promoting our school system. On the other hand, we want to impress the teachers by creating this blog and also achieve better grades! :)

Chemistry

Today, we are focusing on science, PBL. Well, this is officially the first PBL of 2010 that the teacher gave us. Okay so here is the problem task….

Problem task

When a person has gastric pains there are some foods that the person has to avoid. These foods may worsen the gastric condition.
A person may not have access to indicators that can tell if the foods are suitable to be eaten. There are some vegetables or fruits that maybe used as natural indicators to test if the foods are suitable to be eaten by a gastric patient.

Our roles and task

Gastric pain is a common health problem.
You are a member of the school nutrition club.
You are to advise students on how to test if the foods are suitable for consumption for gastric patient using natural indicators.
You can present in the form of posters, pamphlets or demonstrations etc in your class.
We will reveal the answers on the next post!!

But before we begin…

We first need to analyse what and how to deal with gastric problems.
Simple concept on cause of gastritis
1. When a person is hungry, gastric juices/hydrochloric acid is secreted from the walls of the stomach.
2. However, when no food is being consumed, the gastric juices instead “attack” the walls of the stomach.
3. As time goes by, the walls become weaker/vulnerable as the juices (pH 2) accumulated and “attack” the stomach. This causes extreme pain.
4. Eating acidic food will enhance the strength of acidity, worsening the condition.
5. The only way to solve the problem is to either visit a doctor or watch one’s diet.
6. A patient should either eat food that has a pH of 7-14 only. (alkaline) However, most food are acidic.
7. However, too much or strong alkaline food will neutralise the gastric juices. Then the juices cannot provide a suitable environment for the enzymes to digest protein and other food.
8. So this is a major problem.

Solving the problem

1. Firstly, visit a doctor and they will give you advice and medication like pills that contains antacids(which perform neutralisation)
2. Secondly, diet. However most food is acidic. So test if the food is safe to be consumed, an indicator.
3. After a deep analysis, we discovered that one of the best natural indicators is red cabbage solution.

Reason:
1. It is cheap and easily available in super marts.
2. Exhibits a wide range of colours
Very acidic solutions will turn anthocyanin a red colour. Neutral solutions result in a purplish color. Basic solutions appear in greenish-yellow.

3. How do we know whether red cabbage is a natural indicator?
Red cabbage contains a pigment molecule called flavin (an anthocyanin). This water-soluble pigment is also found in other fruits or vegetables. Example: apple skin.

Procedures for doing the experiment & message for gastric students

How to do the experiment:

Equipments:
1. Red cabbage
2. Metal grater
3. Distilled water
4. Strainer
5. Some acids/alkalis
Acids: Sprite, lemon, vinegarAlkali: Baking soda, milk of magnesium

Procedure:
1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and then take 2/4 of the cabbage to grate it and put in a pot.
2. Add distilled water (pure) to the pot of cabbage whereby it covers the grated cabbage.
3. Boil it for 15-20min. You should get a purplish colour liquid.
4. Pour the juice into a glass container
5. Pour the juices into 3 containers. ONE FOR THE TESTING OF ACIDS, ONE FOR ALKALI, ONE FOR COMPARISON.

Message for Gastric Patients,

Dear gastric patients, we may be just students but please do follow our advices and get well soon. Please try to avoid acidic food like soft drinks, chocolate etc. You can eat bittergourd, celerys and drink soya milk for a change. Of course there are a lot of other foods that are not very acidic. Lastly, visit a doctor and seek medication. Thank you!

Regards,

The laughing dimwits(Group 1)