Lab rats help bring a whole new meaning to the phrase “You are what you eat” for fourth graders in Brad Pomeroy’s science classes year after year.

As part of the Great Grow Along project, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Society for Biomedical Research, Moravian Academy’s fourth graders test the effects of nutrition on the growth of two genetically-related Sprague-Dawley rats.

The project kicks-off with a naming party where students vote for their favorites. This year’s rats were crowned Snowball and Sugar. Housed in separate cages, Snowball was fed a primarily milk diet, while Sugar was fed a sugar water diet. Both rats also receive grain, vegetables, and meat. Each week, students observed and recorded the rats’ behavior and measured their physical size, which led to classroom discussions not only about nutrition, but also to math lessons about measurement and graphing.

By the end of the four-week project, the class was able to see a clear positive correlation between growth and a more balanced diet. “As engineer Destin Sandlin says, ’Knowledge is not the same as understanding,’” said Pomeroy. “Definitions and words don’t mean a lot to a child unless they see it firsthand. This experiment is highly visual and helps bring home the message about the importance of good eating habits.”

At the conclusion of the experiment, Sugar and Snowball were adopted, as they are every year (with parent permission, of course) by a lucky member of the fourth-grade class.

Read this article and other content in the Spring 2020 Moravian Academy Journal.