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The Whole Bite Club
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The lesson plan, then the notes for every slide. Print on A4 and take the second sheet to the board.

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The Whole Bite Club · Year 5 and Year 6 · Lesson 3 · After the visit

Demineralise, remineralise

The science lesson. Enamel is in constant exchange with the mouth around it: acid pulls minerals out, saliva and toothpaste put them back. That turns tooth decay from a moral story into a chemical balance, and it maps exactly onto the Year 6 science content description about reversible and irreversible change. Students run a fair test on eggshell, and then are told honestly what the eggshell cannot show them.

Learning intention

In this lesson, we will find out that enamel loses and regains minerals every day, and work out where the point of no return is.

Success criteria

I will know I am successful when I can:

  • I can explain demineralisation and remineralisation as two directions of the same exchange.
  • I can plan a fair test, naming the variable changed, the variable measured and two variables held the same.
  • I can classify a change as reversible or irreversible and justify it.
  • I can write the plan and the classification on the eggshell test sheet, including one thing the test cannot show us.

Guiding questions

  • If acid takes minerals out every time you eat, why does anyone still have teeth?
  • Which changes in the world can go backwards, and which cannot?
  • The eggshell dissolved overnight. Why does a tooth in a real mouth not?

Vocabulary

demineralisation · remineralisation · buffer · cavitation · reversible · variable

Australian Curriculum

AC9HP6P10

Support

  • Supply the plan with the variables listed and the student's job reduced to choosing which to change. Supply pre-soaked samples so the observation exists within the lesson. Sentence stems for block 4.

Challenge

  • Extend to a third condition, an acidic drink followed by milk, and predict the result from the balance model before running it. Then explain why the prediction is about buffering rather than about washing.

EAL/D

  • The four plan slots are printed as sentence frames, which is what they already are.
  • Pre-teach demineralisation and remineralisation as one pair with a two-arrow diagram; the prefix and the suffix do the work. Allow the observation to be drawn.

Disability

  • Nothing goes in any child's mouth and nothing is tasted. Groups can be assigned roles so a student who cannot handle liquids records instead.
  • Reduced-motion users get the game's static reveal.
  • If the school will not run the practical at all, the lesson runs from a demonstration video and every block of the sheet still works.

Exit ticket

  • Name one thing that puts minerals back into enamel.
  • Sam drinks a can of soft drink and brushes straight away because he wants to protect his teeth. What would you tell him, and why?

Assessment of learning

The classification in block 3 is marked against AC9S6U04 (verified). The fair-test plan in block 1 is marked against this lesson's rubric line, and AC9S5I02 is named as its intended Science alignment awaiting confirmation, not marked against.

Rubric line

Plans a fair test and judges what it can show.

Working towards

names what will change and what will be measured

At standard

names the changed variable, the measured variable and two held the same, and classifies the change correctly

Above

does that and names a specific reason the test cannot stand for what happens in a mouth

Inclusion notes

  • The safety note is on the sheet, not only in the teacher guide, because AC9S5I02 asks students to describe risks themselves.
  • No student's own drinks are used as samples.

Resources

  • Years 3 – 6 Supporting Resource Pack
  • Printed The eggshell test sheet, four blocks, one per student
  • Per group: three clean jars with lids, eggshell pieces from a common source, an acidic soft drink, an acidic juice, and water as the control
  • Pre-soaked eggshell samples prepared 24 hours ahead, so an observation exists inside the lesson
  • Scales, if available, for the mass column
  • Gloves and paper towel; a printed safety note on the sheet itself, per AC9S5I02
  • A demonstration video as the fallback for a school that will not run the practical

Worksheets to print

  • The eggshell test · /downloads/5-6/eggshell-test.pdf
  • Lesson 3: Demineralise, remineralise (PowerPoint) · /downloads/decks/5-6/03-demineralise-remineralise-slides.pptx
Oral Health Home · admin@oralhealthhome.com · www.oralhealthhome.com. Lesson text is reproduced from the Whole Bite Club teacher guide.

Demineralise, remineralise · handout for the whiteboard

Teacher notes, slide by slide

The number beside each note is the slide it belongs to, counting from the first.

  1. 1.TitleDemineralise, remineralise

    Today we find out that enamel loses and regains minerals every day, and work out where the point of no return is.

  2. 2.Success criteriaYou will know you can do it when:

    The fourth is the assessed product and it is the hardest of the four.

  3. 3.QuestionIf acid takes minerals out every time you eat, why does anyone still have teeth?

    Predictions recorded before teaching. Most classes will not name saliva.

  4. 4.PictureEnamel is not sealed

    Two directions across one surface, and the surface never breaks.

  5. 5.SlideEnamel is not sealed

    Not a single event and not a punishment. This framing is the whole lesson.

  6. 6.SlideOut: acid

    Both routes named now; lesson 4 separates them properly.

  7. 7.SlideBack in: saliva and toothpaste

    Never the other word. The point is that the ingredient does the preventing, not the friction.

  8. 8.SlideThe night brush

    Confirmed by the clinicians on 7 September 2026, in their words: "The night brush is the important one." Physiologically sound, and no Australian guideline in our set states it in these words, which is why it needed their answer. Never displaces "twice a day".

  9. 9.QuestionWhich changes in the world can go backwards, and which cannot?

    Take everyday examples first: melting, dissolving, baking, rusting. The teeth come next.

  10. 10.SlideThe point of no return

    The exact child-facing threshold is being written by the clinicians. Use this wording until it comes back, and do not sharpen it yourself.

  11. 11.GameCan It Come Back?

    Six cards into two zones. The everyday changes and the tooth states are deliberately mixed; that mix is the science link.

  12. 12.SlideThe fair test

    Then say what will be in the jars, and label them "acid dissolving a calcium mineral", never "tooth decay".

  13. 13.SlideThe eggshell is not a tooth

    This slide is the lesson, not a disclaimer. Recognising what a test cannot show is a science skill.

  14. 14.WorksheetThe eggshell test

    Four blocks. Block 4 is the one that carries the marks.

  15. 15.Exit ticketName one thing that puts minerals back into enamel.

    The two questions from Lesson.exitTicket. The application question is the half-hour wait, and it is the one that shows whether the softening idea landed.

  16. 16.RecapWhat we found out

    The thirty minutes is advice from Better Health Channel, not a proven number. Say it as advice.

Oral Health Home · admin@oralhealthhome.com. Prototype handout.

Where this comes from

  1. Dental erosion · Better Health Channel · Opened 5 September 2026. That acid alone wears enamel away with no germs involved, which is why a sugar-free soft drink is still hard on teeth, and the advice to wait about half an hour after something acidic before brushing. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/dental-erosion
  2. Fluoride toothpastes of different concentrations for preventing dental caries · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · Opened 5 September 2026. That the strengthening ingredient in toothpaste is what prevents decay, and that how much of it there is changes how well it works. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD007868.pub3/full · doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007868.pub3
  3. Understanding the chemistry of dental erosion · John D B Featherstone and Adrian Lussi, Monographs in Oral Science, 2006, read on PubMed · Opened 5 September 2026. The one chemistry claim the eggshell lesson makes about enamel: that tooth mineral is a calcium-deficient carbonated hydroxyapatite, and that the carbonate in it is what makes tooth mineral dissolve in acid more readily than hydroxyapatite would. The publisher's own page refuses automated clients, so this is the PubMed record for the same article. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16687885/ · doi:10.1159/000093351
  4. Get Sugar Savvy: Sugar and its effect on teeth · Australian Dental Association · Opened 5 September 2026 · PDF. The acid attack itself, step by step: germs feed on sugar, make acid, and the acid softens enamel. It is the mechanism both bands are built on. The file is the association's own factsheet, ADA-branded and carrying its copyright line, but the copy is hosted on DPV Health's server rather than the association's; the repair half of the cycle is Better Health Channel's, cited beside this wherever a lesson teaches it. https://www.dpvhealth.org.au/app/uploads/2020/08/ADA_OHP_Factsheet_sugar_and_its_effects.pdf