What Do Animals Use Their Saliva for?
LIFE SCIENCES
Get curious
5 min
Experiment (5 min)
The students check what happens to their saliva when they eat a sour jelly.
Get going
6 min
Experiment (6 min)
The students check how much saliva humans secrete.
5 min
Video/ Slide show (5 min)
Watch videos about how various animals use their saliva.
You can watch the videos yourself beforehand (more links are provided in the next section) and choose the ones you want to show to your students as well.
12 min
Experiment (12 min)
The students look at the photos of selected animals and wonder what they can possibly use their saliva for.
7 min
Experiment (7 min)
The students examine how viper venom works.
They carry out an experiment involving milk and a solution which acts identical to viper venom.
Get practicing
Alternative - choose one:
Writing
The students fill out their Exit Tickets.
Observing
Observe one animal.
It can be a pet animal, such as a dog or a cat (as well as an insect, such as a spider), or you can just choose another animal and search for information or videos about the way it lives on the Internet. Does the animal secrete saliva? Consider how much saliva it secretes daily. Is it the volume of a screw-cap, one egg cup, or maybe a 1.5-liter bottle? Draw in your notebook the animal you have chosen and write down right next to it the purposes the animal uses its saliva for.
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What Do Animals Use Their Saliva for?
The students will examine the properties of saliva. They will check why viper venom is toxic and what other ways there are in which animals use their saliva.