Every Friday morning, students and teachers sniff the air as the smell of delicious food wafts along the verandah. Where is that lovely aroma coming from?
From the wonderful LEX@R students, of course! This Term, Year 5 and 6 students who are part of our Kenwick and Wilson Learning Extension at Rehoboth (LEX@R) Program, have been learning food chemistry basics. They have had an overview of basic chemistry – atoms, molecules, the periodic table, bonds – as well as the elements that make up the foods we eat.
In the first two weeks, we focused on “Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice”, as we looked at types of sugars, how they are formed and what foods we find them in. Some of them were surprising! We did a taste test of different sugars and everyone decided you couldn’t eat straight molasses, but molasses gingerbread cake was another matter! Making toffees proved that a lot of sugar could be dissolved into a little water.
Salts and Spices were next – examining the history of the spice trade, trying to identify spices from a sniff test, and finding out that table salt was not the only kind of salt available!
“Rising to the Occasion” was the topic for our next two weeks, as we examined raising agents in foods – particularly baking powder, bicarb soda, and yeast. Three kinds of scone recipes (including a gluten free kind to accommodate some students) were trialled. Most of us agreed that we liked the Lemonade Scones the best. Gluten helps the air stay trapped in breads, so we tested six kinds of flour for gluten, squeezing them in water to dissolve the water-soluble parts and weighing the resulting gluten. Gluten-free flours were also tested.
We baked caramel sweet rolls, a loaf of white bread, and enjoyed Dutch Oliebollen (regular and gluten-free) – Yum! No one needed lunch after our last class!
I wonder what wonderful foods will emerge from the LEX@R room for the rest of the term?
Mrs Vivian and Mrs Pleysier
