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How to Mummify a chicken, Science Sunday

October 26, 2013 Ticia 15 Comments

 

I’m starting a series of posts on how to mummify a chicken, and going through with the science behind this.  Today, we’re going to cover the first 3 steps in our:

how to mummify a chicken

 

Supplies to mummify a chicken

supplies to mummify a chicken

Supplies needed: cornish game hen (you can use another, but a smaller size is helpful during this time), salt, baking soda, gallon size ziploc bag (theoretically you can just use a bowl or something, but I like being able to throw away what we used)

 

Step 1: wash the chicken before mummifying the chicken

 

I’ve been enjoying creating videos of the kids as they tell me steps because it lets me have an audio and video record of their abilities.

mummifying a chicken 1

This showed mastery of two things:

1.  types of joints the chicken has as they moved the chickens wings and legs around

2.  why were we washing the chicken as part of mummifying a chicken

Also the kids love to ham it up for the camera.  It kind of cracks me up.

 

Step 2 to mummify a chicken: drying it off


This step my goal was to realize the difference between how we were mummifying a chicken, and how the Ancient Egyptians would mummify a person.  They didn’t have access to paper towels or easily discardable materials (spell check says that isn’t a word).  They’d be using cloth.  I wasn’t willing to sacrifice/use my cloth for this, so paper towels it was.

mummifying a chicken 2

At this point the kids still thought this was fun.  They got a big kick out of drying off the chicken to get it ready for the next step in mummifying a chicken.

 

Step 3 in how to mummify a chicken: mix the baking soda and salt

mummify a chicken 3b

I almost forgot to include this step in how to mummify a chicken.  Get a large mixing bowl and mix roughly equal parts of baking soda and salt.  You can mummify with just salt, but the baking soda aids in the mummication.

 

Step 4 in mummifying a chicken: pack it with salt

 

This was the step the kids started to get squeamish on, as you can tell from Princess’ comments.

mummify a chicken 3

This is also one of the most important steps to get right.  You need to pack the inside of the chicken pretty solidly with salt, and you need to make sure the chicken is completely covered in the salt mixture as you start to mummify the chicken.

 

The science behind mummification

Salt is a natural drying agent, a desiccant.  Baking soda is also a desiccant.  The bacteria that causes things to decompose needs the liquids that are naturally in the body to cause decomposition.  The salt/baking soda mixture will draw out the moisture and prevent decay.

 

More on Mummification

How Stuff Works: how mummies work

How to mummify an apple

How to mummify action man

Hands on Mummies

To get more ideas on Ancient history check out my Creation to Christ pinterest board.

Creation to Christ pinterest board

Come back next week to see the next steps in how to mummify a chicken

 

Let’s see what others did this week:

Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously.  Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.

Finding the Teachable Moments shared the benefits of cooking with kids, and made some delicious applesauce.

Afterschooling for Smarty Pants shared a great engineering challenge: build a boat that can hold a toy.  My kids would love this challenge.

 

 

Photobucket

 

<div align="center"><a href="https://ticiamessing.com/category/science-sunday/" title="Science Sunday"><img src="https://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/Ticia1/AiMScienceSundaycopy.jpg" alt="Science Sunday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Now link up your SCIENCE posts for the week, and then visit some of the other posts linked up and say hi. I’m going to be pinning, commenting, FBing or tweeting all of the posts linked up as the week goes by.



history, science 3rd grade, 8th grade, ancient Egypt, ancient history, kindergarten

Comments

  1. Phyllis at All Things Beautiful says

    October 27, 2013 at 6:44 am

    We had fun with making mummies a few years ago…our fruity Pharaohs…
    https://homeschooljournal-bergblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-make-mummy.html

    Reply
  2. Almost Unschoolers says

    October 27, 2013 at 8:07 am

    The videos are great! I’m still trying to imagine the look on Doug’s face if he came home and found a mummifying chicken on the counter.

    Reply
  3. Claire says

    October 27, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    We loved our mummifying experience. Bit niffy though!

    Reply
  4. Missy @ Dot-to-Dot Connections says

    October 27, 2013 at 7:46 pm

    Very neat! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  5. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    October 29, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    I can’t believe you did this TWICE. I’m afraid I’m up with Princess in squeamishness. Actually, I avoid eating meat because I hate cooking it, let along mummifying it! Great learning opportunity, though!

    Reply
  6. Tamia says

    October 30, 2014 at 1:16 pm

    Great Science Fair Idea! Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Carla says

    January 13, 2016 at 9:14 am

    How long does this process take? I need a long science fair project.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 13, 2016 at 9:34 am

      It takes about 40 days for the entire process. You need to make sure you change the baking soda/salt mixture every few days or the ending project will smell slightly.

Trackbacks

  1. Egyptian mythology: Egyptian gods and goddesses | Adventures in MommydomAdventures in Mommydom says:
    October 29, 2013 at 12:12 pm

    […] How to mummify a chicken […]

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  2. Science Sunday: Chicken Mummy | Adventures in MommydomAdventures in Mommydom says:
    November 9, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    […] the mummified chicken, WashableSchool Glue , water, Mixing Bowl , Table Salt , spices, Paper Towels , Cinnamon Sticks , linen strips, Meat Tenderizer {these are affiliate links to approximately what I got, I used a plastic bowl, but I think metal would work better because it washes better and doesn’t absorb stuff as much) […]

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  3. Gross Science Experiments - I Can Teach My Child! says:
    February 9, 2015 at 10:51 am

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  4. Making Mummies! | lesson slinger says:
    November 5, 2015 at 12:09 am

    […] away from realism, so I only used the information and altered the instructions. Then I found these instructions for a chicken, which uses a salt and baking soda mixture to dry out the carcass. This seems like it would work […]

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  5. 21 Gross Science Experiments and STEM Activities says:
    April 6, 2017 at 4:14 am

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  6. How to Make History Come Alive – Envision says:
    November 16, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    […] – What better way to get kids interested in Ancient Egypt than to start talking about mummies? This activity is very hands-on, as students learn about the scientific process of mummification while mummifying […]

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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