Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I need some idea, to make a functioning model of kidney for my science fair,it is not a still model,it should be working. Thankyou for your help.

Hi,

The first thing that came to my mind is cheesecloth--something that would allow items simulating urea through, while retaining larger items meant to represent glucose and amino acids, etc. Perhaps you could use some yellow dye to simulate urea, then mix in something larger--small beads, perhaps? Then maybe have a plastic water bottle you can cap, with a tube sticking through the cap covered in cheesecloth. Pour in the yellow water + beads, cap it, turn it upside-down, give it a squeeze, and only yellow water should come out.

However, I don't know how detailed your model needs to be--if you need to model multiple calyxes, etc., you would need to modify this idea.

Hope this helps!

Hi reya,

Melissa gave you some great ideas to start building a model kidney! To help you in your research, you may want to look up "dialysis." Dialysis machines filter the blood for patients whose kidneys are not functioning properly. In building your model kidney, it would probably help you to understand how dialysis machines work.

Hope that helps!

Heather