Question: when you made a fake poo was it a solid or slimy poo

Senga Robertson answered on 4 Nov 2017:

Hi Grace, Daniel and Maisie

first of all, can I just say that this is my VERY favourite question I’ve had so far. It shows you’ve read my profile and know that I talk about poo all the time ha ha.

The answer is that the poos varied a lot. I had lots of students make their own poo and depending on how they decided to make it they were all different. From runny, funny coloured poos, to big, solid ones that were totally gross! To be honest they were all gross.

I’m going to do 2 things, the first one is put a photo on my profile here of one of the poos that were made and the second thing is explain what the fake poo activity is all about (below).

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 🙂