The Baker’s lab

THEMATIC PATHWAY
The Baker’s lab – Chemical reactions in everyday elements

Goals:

1. Enhance pupil’s ability to measure the temperature
2. Enhance the pupils’ knowledge about some chemical reactions occurring in everyday elements
3. Enable pupils to explore the concept of energy and heat
4. Enable pupils to explore the concept of negative and positive energy
5. Enhance the pupils’ knowledge about the process of rising
6. Enable pupils to explore the concept of weight and mass
7. Enable pupils to explore how different ingredients may affect the final result of a cake

Transversal goals:

1. To enhance pupils research attitude
2. To develop pupils’ skills in listening and following instructions
3. To develop pupils’ cooking skills
4. To enable pupils to investigate food changes
5. To develop pupils’ expressive language skills
6. To develop pupils’ ability to work in group

Intended Learning Outcomes

The child will be able to:

• Participate in experiments under the teacher’s supervision
• Recognize and explain changes in a substance
• Understand the bake functioning
• Learn to use the bake under the teacher’s supervision
• Understand the phenomenon of leavening
• Write down the chemical formula of a gas
• Investigate how positive and negative charges interact with each other
• Observe and discuss how pepper and salt are divided through electrostatic energy.

The structure of the learning pathway

Stage I

Measure the temperature, knead, understand the process of rising.

• The magic focaccia – rising
• Gas mixing – fermentation
• Bread in a bag

Stage II

Understand the osmosis and the statics energy processes behind the cooking ingredients; understand how different ingredients can affect the result of a cake.

• Greedy osmosis
• Two weights, two measures – static electricity
• Cake science – Chemical experiment

Assessment

Initial
Building a mind-map: (e.g., What do I know about? What I would like to learn about…?)
Activating the prior knowledge of children

Ongoing – described in every resource

Final assessment
A. Reflection with the mind map prepared at the beginning – What have we learned? What was the most intriguing? What else would we like to know about cooking?
B. Voting for the most interesting experiment (children can put the sticker under the photo presenting their favorite experiment).
C. Self-evaluation of one’s own learning process.
D. Teacher’s evaluation: see the scale below:

He/she can regonize the changes in substances	1	2	3	4
He/she can explain the changes in substances	1	2	3	4
He/She can use the bake (under supervision)	1	2	3	4
He/She can write down the chemical formula of gas	1	2	3	4
He/She can explain the chemical processes	1	2	3	4

1 – Not at all
2
3
4 – At all