To combat teenage pregnancies, middle and high school students are given a bag of flour baby science project. Some communities are targeted for this program, such as those with high incidences of teenage pregnancies. Teenage pregnancies have dropped since the 1990s, but in 2006 it increased, according to Planned Parenthood. Pregnancies of teenagers are more likely to have babies with low birth weights and health problems. Young women between the ages of 15 to 19 who become pregnant are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to live in poverty and rely on welfare.
A 5-pound bag of flour is given to students to represent a baby for two weeks. Students must carry the bags like real babies; they cannot be placed inside backpacks. Plastic or pantyhose is wrapped around the bag for protection against tears and to prevent flour from leaking. (Masking tape is allowed for small punctures but electrical or duct tape is not allowed.) Faces can be drawn on the bags, which are placed in baby blankets and baby clothes. Baby bottles for feeding and yarn for hair are decorating options.
Students must care for their flour bags 24 hours a day or find a suitable babysitter at times when they cannot watch them. The babies are supposed to cry at least four times a day and students are urged to rock the babies for at least 20 minutes to soothe them. Students should chart when the babies are bathed, soothed and changed. Parents of the students are asked to wake children up in the middle of the night for feedings. Some classes give students randomly chosen childhood diseases to deal with. Some babies "die" suddenly of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and a funeral must be arranged.
Many students are excited on the first day of the science project. According to Education World, by the third or fourth day, students realize the difficulties of caring for a baby. Just the act of carrying the 5-pound baby at all times is tiring. Discussions about the first year of a baby's life are taught and the complexities of bottle-feeding and breast feeding are explained. Students learn about the expectations of parenthood and the economics of having a baby. Students are usually relieved when they return their "babies" after the assignment is over and conclude that they want to wait a long time before having their own children.