September 16: The Science of Baking Bread

"So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being." – Franz Kafka

Milling flour

Monday, September 16:  
yeast and bread baking
(Sources: The Little Red Hen (Project Gutenberg), Science in School: Bread-baking, teaching science in primary school, Homebaking.org: Second Grade: Science of Baking)

Grade Level: Elementary

Objective:
Students will learn more about fungi, yeast, and chemistry through baking bread.

Materials:
flour, salt, yeast, sugar, olive oil, warm water, baking tray or loaf tin, tea towel, measuring cup, mixing bowl, fork

Class Introduction/hook:
yeast review, flour grinding, and baking soda experiment.

September 9th-11th: Mushrooms, Yeast, Bug Traps, and Trees

"Observing expands your world; the more you see, hear, feel smell and taste, the more you will understand. You become attuned to the context of objects you previously thought of as isolated; you find they are connected to other objects and events."- Claire Walker Leslie, author of Keeping a Nature Journal

Observing animal behavior

Mule deer on the playground

Monday, September 9:

mushroom walk, sorting mushrooms, and making spore prints

Sources: The Fungus Files: An Educator's Guide (source: the North American Mycological Institute)

Grade Level: Elementary

Objective: Students will begin to learn about mushrooms/fungi/decomposers through guided exploration of their environment.

Materials: Fungus Files handouts, National Audubon Society Familiar Mushrooms Pocket Guide, Mushrooms of North America, an assortment of preselected wild mushrooms, construction paper, cups

Class introduction/hook: Mary Oliver poem (Mushrooms), mushroom walk