The Biology of Evaluating Skin-Care Products: Inquiry-Based Learning in Anatomy & Physiology

The goal of this inquiry activity is to evaluate a variety of skin-care products on simulated skin cells using Orbeez, a brand of superabsorbent polymers. These small beads can quickly absorb water but will dry out in the air, thus perfectly representing our own skin cells. This property makes Orbeez an acceptable model for human skin, and test material for evaluating various skin-care products. Students will observe the quantitative changes that happened to the mass of the samples to determine the percent change. They will also observe the qualitative changes that happened throughout the lab investigation and record their observations in a lab notebook. After completing the experiment, students will create a presentation of the quantitative and qualitative results.