Buy Them Try Them

Buy Them Try Them Activity Card To: You From: Bright Smile Toothpaste Company Subject: Try them, Buy them! Hi Investigators We’ve just finished this advert for a new toothpaste. The boss says that we should make sure it is the best toothpaste before we put the ad on TV. Can you help us? Thanks, Sales Team, Bright Smile Toothpaste Company *ADVERT* Bright Smile Toothpaste Have you tried new Bright Smile Toothpaste? Developed by our team of CREST SuperStars, we think Bright Smile Toothpaste is the best. Brush up - Bright Smile Toothpaste is a great choice to get rid of plaque really fast Bright and white - This new formula gets teeth brighter faster and keeps them whiter longer Fresh flavour - Your mouth will feel cleaner and your breath will feel fresh for hours Bright Smile Toothpaste comes in a range of attractive colours. Both our blue and red gels help you to have clean strong teeth, healthy gums and great smelling fresh breath throughout the day. Your challenge Your task is to help the sales team at Bright Smile Toothpaste Company to try other brands of toothpaste to see if they work better than their new toothpaste.

Discuss Read the advert for Bright Smile Toothpaste. What does the sales team say is so special about Bright Smile Toothpaste? What tests can you do? You might want to use some of the tests from Making Toothpaste. How many brands will you use? What will you observe or measure in each of your tests? Don’t forget to include the results from the Bright Smile Toothpaste that you made. Getting started Some other investigators have come up with a few ideas to get you started. I think we should use some of the investigations that we carried out when we made our own toothpaste. I think we could find out how much foam the toothpastes produce. Some people may not like too much foam. We could find out if using different amounts of toothpaste makes a difference. Now carry out a survey to find out which toothpastes your friends and family prefer. How many people will you ask? What do you want to find out? Here are some questions some fellow investigators are going to ask people about toothpastes. Do you like the smell of any of these toothpastes? Do you like the colour of any of these toothpastes? Do you use one of these toothpastes? If so, why do you use that one? Do you use a different toothpaste from these? Why do you use that one? Can you think of any more questions to ask? Test your ideas Which toothpastes performed well in your tests? How do they compare to the toothpaste that you made? Do you think any of the toothpastes could be improved in any way? Why do you think this? You might like to record your results using a tally like this: No. of votes Toothpaste 1 Toothpaste 2 Toothpaste 3 for favourite smell for favourite colour for favourite taste Share your ideas When you have finished the survey you can: • Make a block graph to show what people think • Use the results from your tests to find out if people’s favourite toothpastes are good at cleaning teeth • Decide if one of the toothpastes is better than the others British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236