Critical Thinking & Research Skills

Critical Thinking & Research Skills

Presentation #1

The Tooth Fairy 

When a tooth falls out, leave it under your pillow when you go to sleep. During the night, the Tooth Fairy will visit your room, take the tooth and leave a small amount of hard cash. 

A Brief History of the Tooth Fairy myth. The myth of the tooth fairy began many centuries ago in a culture where folklore and legends were tradition. In later centuries fairies became popular during the days of Shakespeare when writers gave them prominent roles in their plays and poems. 

A Brief History of the Tooth Fairy myth. con’t In European folklore there exist many myths, superstitions and legends. The Tooth Fairy, although widespread appears to have many different variations, but most of them deal with teeth having an element of power, even able to ward off evil. 

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A Brief History of the Tooth Fairy myth. con’t One of the more common stories is that the teeth were buried so as to hide them from witches and evil spirits who would be able to use the power of the lost tooth and cast a spell on the child. 

A Brief History of the Tooth Fairy myth. con’t Some believed that it evolved from the tooth mouse, a French fairy tale called “La Bonne Petite Souris” Where a mouse changes into a fairy to help a good queen defeat an evil king by hiding under his pillow to torture him and knocking out all his teeth. 

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Properties of the Tooth Fairy. Small

Winged

(ability to fly)

Female Caucasian Magical Quick

Trying to prove her existence Is

there just one tooth fairy or is there a troop of tooth fairies? What does the tooth fairy do with all the teeth she has collected? Does the tooth fairy visit children without beds? If no why not? How does the tooth fairy get to all the children who have lost a tooth in that night?

Trying to prove her existence. con’t Why

does children from different socio-economic background receive varying sums of money? How is the tooth fairy informed when a child has lost a tooth?  

EXPERIMENTS

Experiment 1  Conduct a simple survey. Ask several friends of their experiences with the tooth fairy, have they ever seen her and how much cash did she leave them.  Did wealthier children receive more cash than poorer kids?  Why?  Is it that that the tooth fairy was prejudice? 

Experiment 1 (con’t)  Or is this just proof that our parents were the ones who were really removing the tooth and leaving the cash.  Go to an orphanages and ask the children there if they get cash from the tooth fairy for their tooth.  The results will prove if she exists or not, if she is prejudice and only prefers well-off children, or if parents are really behind the myth.

Experiment 2  Stay awake all night after you have told your parents that your tooth fell out.  That night you might want to have a camera to take a picture of the tooth fairy just in case she does exists. You don’t want to get your one chance and not be able to prove she exists.

Experiment 3  When your tooth falls out instead of putting the tooth under the pillow put it in a different location.  

Conclusion Based

on the evidence gathered it can be concluded that the tooth fairy is not responsible for taking the tooth and leaving any cash. It is just the act of parents playing out a tradition that has been about for hundreds of years.