Cooking is
Chemistry
Without fail, students always rush
into science class each new year asking, “Are we going to work with chemicals,
like acid, and blow things up?” The response I’ve honed over the years is, “Well,
water is a chemical and we always use that.” Then, students look at me like I
just drained all hope from their lives. But I do have some fun up my sleeves.
Chemistry is a small unit where I
have a ton of cool things I can do to show off how awesome science is. This
year I’m choosing to base it in cooking and baking. I developed a week of
Project Based Learning in which students will learn new chemistry concepts and
then ground them in their own cooking. All week students are focusing on
seemingly easy tasks such as making grilled cheese sandwiches or flavored whipped
cream but they are diving into the science behind all of it. What compounds are
actually in heavy cream? What are all those weird ingredients in American cheese?
What chemical changes are occurring on the edges of the bread to toast them?
What physical changes are happening within the whipped cream? Their heads began
to spin the very first day, but in the good way that makes teachers smile
because it shows they are learning and applying their knowledge.
Learning new concepts every day is
enough to stress out even the best students, but by anchoring it into the same
cooking example everyday helps to ground the information into their world and
help them make sense of all the science.
Here’s what some students have to say
about the project work they have been doing this week:
“The project is really, really fun. It is my
favorite project yet!!” Cynthea
“This project is fun because the format makes
it a lot easier.” Kyle
“It’s good that we’re learning something new each day and making progress on our project.” Kayleigh
“This project is going really good because we’re
learning a ton of new things every day, but keeping up with it and it’s fun.”
Brandon
Here's to much for fun in 6th Grade Science!
Ms. Lauren Cabrera
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