As common as salt
Sujata C
You can find it in blood, sweat and tears. Salt – there is no life without it. It makes every cell in your body tick. It is Nature’s gift to all living things. Greek philosopher Plato called it a substance dear to the Gods.
Homer, the Greek poet referred to it as the ‘divine substance’. It aids intellectual growth. The list is endless. A project on salt is so easy to execute that it doesn’t really need a classroom. You could be on the beach or in the kitchen, it will be fun to do and full of activities and investigating opportunities. You will be surprised how many lessons can be generated from something as common place as salt.
The secret of tasty food: The easiest way to begin the project would be the food route. Ask your class to imagine the taste of popcorn or chips without salt or even their favourite curry. No doubt you’ll have every student making faces and weird expressions. You can explain to the class how taste buds carry the message to the brain to identify the taste of the food. Also discuss how the food tastes different when we are sick with cold. You may also discuss the myth about taste buds.
Now get children talking about the why salt is necessary in cooking. Explain how salt pulls out the water from the vegetables and hastens the cooking process.
Ask the students about their sea side holidays. Ask them to relive their experience; can they describe the scent of the sea breeze and the taste of the ocean?
Now that you have got them curious, get into deeper science concepts. While students of high school will learn about the chemistry of salt, the challenge is to get the younger ones interested with simple experiments to suit the age group.
Science experiments with salt
• Make a salt water battery
You will need
• 2 paper cups
• 2 zinc and 2 copper electrodes
• 3 small pieces of electrical wire
• 1 digital clock
• Table salt and water
Procedure
- Attach one zinc and one copper electrode to the digital clock with wires. Join the other two electrodes with a wire to make a jumper. Fill the two cups with water. Dissolve salt in it. This will ionise the water.
- Now take the electrodes attached to the clock and place one each in the two cups of water.
- Now take the jumper and dip it into the water. Make sure that the zinc electrode of the jumper goes into the cup with the copper electrode and the copper one goes into the cup with the zinc electrode.
- Voila! The clock starts working and shows the time. You have generated current. Remove the jumper from the water and the clock stops.
- The two pairs of electrodes work to make the salt water battery and provide current to the digital clock.
- Take two glasses of water. Dissolve 2 tsps of salt in one. Place a few leaves of spinach in each glass for a day. Note the observations.
Types of salt: There are many types of salt available across the world – Celtic salt, sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, black salt, table salt.
Have the students bring different types of salts to class. Let them taste all and discuss and describe the taste. Ask your class to find out the differences and the minerals present in each type.
Salt is the best food preserver. Have children cut up a few lemons, add salt and put it out in the sun everyday to get some lemon preserve. Ask them to name other commonly available salted foods.
Salt to the rescue: Can salt solve some real world problems? Those who are familiar with life in snow bound places will have the answers on their finger tips. Salt is used to de-ice the roads in places where heavy snowfall occurs. When snow melts, the water freezes up to make the roads icy. Icy roads are very slippery and the cause for many accidents. Salt lowers the freezing point of water and the snow that has melted, takes longer to freeze.
Keep some plain water and salt water to freeze. Note the time taken by each to freeze.
Now that the students are making good progress with the project, get them familiar with how salt is made. There are two ways of procuring salt – salt mining and salt farming.
In India, salt farming is done by the Agariyas who are, by tradition, salt farmers of Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch. The place is just 10 km from the Arabian Sea and the groundwater is saltier than the sea water. The farmers pump out the ground water and fill small fields or pans where the sun dries out the water to give silvery white coarse salt. This process takes two weeks. More than 70 per cent of the country’s salt is produced by them.
Find out more about the Agariyas of Kutch Map work: Mark the Salt mines in the world on a map and locate the worlds’ largest salt mines. Which country is the largest salt producer in the world?
A little storytelling will refuel the interest levels at this stage. Relate the Biblical story of Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she turned to look back at the city of Sodom. In Israel there are sea stacks near the Dead Sea called Lot’s wife at Mount Sodom. Explain how the phrases salt of the earth, below the salt and above the salt came about.
Language skills: Make sentences with salt idioms and phrases.
This brings us to the history of salt which is fascinating. Man discovered salt by following animal trails to their salt licks. The Vikings are supposed to have begun their journeys in the quest for salt. Once upon a time salt was a precious commodity and the Roman soldiers were paid for their services partly in salt. The word ‘salary’ has come from ‘salarium’ which is the Latin original. Salt slabs were used as money in Abyssinia also. Salt was one of the first commodities to be traded. In the sub Sahara region, salt was so precious that one could buy an ounce of gold for an ounce of salt! No wonder salt became the cause for wars in those days. Venice is known to have had a monopoly over salt in the region and rose to dominate it.
The salt mines of Austria have been a great tourist attraction. In Germany and France there are salt routes that date back to ancient history. Since salt was a much wanted commodity, it became a crucial part of war strategies. Salt works blockade by the Dutch led to the downfall of Spain and Phillip II in the 16th century.
Salting the earth was a wartime practice followed by retreating armies. They sprinkled salt on the ground to make the soil infertile and unfit for cultivation. This would bring hunger and poverty to that land. Overuse of fertilizers also has a similar effect.
Salt Satyagraha: Salt was a powerful symbol used in the Indian struggle for independence and the Salt March or Dandi march gave it a new direction.
Create a work of art in any medium to depict the message of freedom struggle using salt as one of the raw materials.
There are many stories revolving around salt in fairy tales and Arab folk tales. Read them.
Salt and geography: Why does salt occur in some places naturally? Why is the Dead Sea so called? Is there no life at all in it? Does this naturally hypersaline water body have any use at all?
Get your class talking about these things and find out the many therapeutic properties offered by the Dead Sea. Ask your students if they ever wondered how much salt sea water contains.
Older students can be asked to investigate the reasons for the salinity of the Dead Sea.
Make an egg float in water: When you put an egg in a glass of tap water it sinks. But when you add about three or four tablespoons of salt to the water and then put the egg in, it floats. This is because the salt makes the water dense.
Write: A poem on the following topics:
Sea breeze
The many wonders of salt
Collect all the phrases and idioms related to salt and make sentences.
Map work: Locate the Dead Sea on a world map. Find out where else such salty water bodies exist. While on the topic of salt water bodies you can bring up related topics like the marshes and wetlands. Get your students to identify these places on a map.
Guide the discussion to the life that thrives in salty water – fish, seaweeds, kelp, algae and the importance of these in the food security plans.
Salt and health: Salt is essential for our health. The cure for anything is salt water, goes a saying. The use of saline or isotonic water for rehydration was first tried in 1832 by English doctors Lewins and Latta. Salt is known to be anti-allergic, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. Salt therapy is a non-invasive way to treat skin and respiratory ailments that is gaining ground again as patients are looking for drugless treatments. In the medieval days women carried smelling salts with them to counter a fainting fit.
Modern day salt therapy or halo therapy has its origins in the salt caves and mines in Europe and Russia. It was observed that the mine workers were sporting very good skin and rarely had any respiratory problems. Investigations then revealed that during salt mining they chisel, grind and hammer the cave walls. This led to disbursing salt particles in the air. The workers were inhaling these particles. Added to this the ambient environment conditions, humidity, temperature and circulation were ideal, leading to better respiratory health. Ancient Egyptians and medieval Europe also recommended salt as a treatment for chest ailments.
Hippocrates too in 460BCE mentioned salt inhalation as a remedy for skin problems. The first salt therapy resort was opened in ieliczka Salt Mine, Poland, in 1839 and offered salt baths in natural brine.
In ancient days many sanatoriums were located at the seaside, not only for the warm weather but also for the sea breeze that was known to have healing properties. Aching feet always welcome a soak in warm salt water, just as a sore throat welcomes a gargle with salt water.
Many modern day spas now offer salt therapy in salt rooms where patients breathe ionised air to reduce asthmatic conditions. Halo therapy devices are also available for home use.
Pink Himalayan salt lamps
Himalayan salt when heated with a light bulb produces negative ions that help remove the pollutants, bacteria, allergens and dust present in the air. When inhaled by us they latch on to the toxins in our body and neutralize them thus detoxifying our bodies.
The salt lamp is made out of a block of salt that has been sculpted into an attractive shape.
Find out the chemical composition of smelling salts. Students can try out salt water soak for aching feet after a gruelling physical activity.
Mapwork: Find out where pink salt caves are located.
The great salt debate: Salt has been demonised by the West for decades now. They would have us believe that salt is an evil white poison. Indians are among the highest consumers of salt with an obscene number of hypertensive patients. It is easy to get convinced by the statistics they put out. But a lot of it is misinformation, claim those who oppose it. They argue that despite high salt intake life span of Japanese and Indians is reasonably high. The truth lies somewhere in between. Refined table salt contains 97.5% NaCl. It is stripped off all trace elements which are actually good for us. To make it pourable they add anti caking products which make table salt unhealthy. The answer then is to use unrefined natural salt. Himalayan salt is considered the purest form of natural salt and more beneficial as it contains only 86% NaCl and large quantity of trace elements which are essential for the human body.
Fortifying salt with iodine became part of public health initiative after goitre became a worldwide epidemic in the early 20th century.
Find out: How does salt increase the blood pressure? What is the WHO recommendation for salt intake? Do a country wise data gathering. Prepare charts and display. Which state in India consumes the highest amount of salt? What could be the reasons, discuss in class. What is goitre? How does it affect growth?
Prepare a poster on the importance of Iodised salt.
Uncommon uses for common salt
Students can try out these for validation
• Ants can be kept away by sprinkling salt
• Salt works as a stain remover, especially in tea cups and coffee pots
• A good salt rub can clean any metal or plastic
• Salt water reduces the pain from bug bites and poison ivy
• Salt acts a good exfoliator and removes dead skin.
Farmers consider salt as a trusted friend. In right amounts it works as a growth stimulant. Salt is added to the soil when planting coconut. Epsom salts dissolved in water is good for tomatoes and capsicum crop as it contains magnesium, nitrogen and phosphorus.
Cut fruits and flowers welcome a touch of salt to stay fresh.
Prepare a poster on the uncommon uses of salt.
While doing the project, you will have noticed children engaging, discussing, describing, listening, comprehending and exploring with ease. The nature of the subject is such that the students will easily develop essential interpersonal skills, cross-cultural understanding, creative thinking and the ability to get a 360-degree perspective on things. All these skills are essential for students to better their chances of achieving success and minimize the risks of failure later in life. You can rest assured in the fact that you have just mentored a set of students who will be worth their salt!
Salt and cultural beliefs
In most cultures, a home must never run out of salt – it is the original precious commodity.
Salt stands for loyalty in many cultures. There is an ancient Greek saying, “Believe no man unless you have shared salt with him.” In India ‘namak harami’ is an act of betrayal. In Japan, salt is sprinkled on the stage to keep evil spirits away. Children may recount the many times their mothers have removed evil eye or ‘nazar’ by rotating a fistful of salt around them. A bowl of salt kept in rooms is known to absorb negative energies according to Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese custom. Egyptians of course use salt for preserving the mummies!
Chart making: Have children gather more such information about cultural practices by talking to people from all walks of life, and document it on a chart.
Salt and higher reality: Can salt give us a glimpse of the higher reality? It appears so. There is a story in the Chandogya Upanishad that illustrates the presence of the indwelling spirit using salt and water. Shvethaketu is asked to fetch a cup of water and a little salt by his father and mix the two. Next morning, the father asks the son to remove the salt from the cup. The boy is unable to do that as the salt has dissolved. The father then goes on to explain how the unmanifest and all pervasive Brahman is like salt in water. The salt is not visible to the eye, but the tongue can verify its presence. Since the idea of Supreme Reality is beyond the grasp of our senses, we must go beyond them. How we do that is another story, just remember salt was one of the things that set you off on that inner journey.
The author is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at sujata117@gmail.com.
