The Salt Babies

These lessons are aligned and keyed to NGSS (NYSSLS). In this package, students are presented with a recent newspaper article discussing the mysterious deaths of 7 babies in a span of 3 days in March 1962 at a hospital in Binghamton, NY. Students will propose questions and then sift through evidence from primary source documents (newspaper articles from the 1960s) to generate a valid claim as to why they think the babies tragically died in those 3 days (I omitted the 'answer' from the excerpts I organized). Experts from Albany and Johns Hopkins were called upon to help and President Kennedy even considered a trip to Binghamton to address the small community. Students will then start exploring content including lessons on diffusion and osmosis and how cells respond in different environments (orbeez and egg lesson included). Students will explore how red blood cells respond to changes in their extracellular environment as well as the nervous system and how this connects to the babies' death. By the end of the lessons, students will realize that salt was accidentally mixed into the babies' formula rather than sugar. Brian Frey of WSKG wrote and produced a documentary titled, "The Salt Babies" released in December of 2022 that wonderfully tells the story of this tragic event with grace and dignity for all involved (1 hour long). Open-ended discussion questions are included in this packet if you choose to watch the documentary. And finally, there is a short storyline assessment included. Two formal lesson plans are also included. You can do as many or as few of the lessons included so the time frame really depends on your preference.