Kitchen Chemistry - Fizzy ginger beer

We were split into five groups for our next kitchen chemistry learning experience - to make fizzy ginger beer. There were two different recipes that were used, so each group had to carefully read their recipe to see which ingredients were needed and what to do step-by-step.

Step by step...... carefully following the recipe

TEAMWORK in action - evidence of everybody PARTICIPATING AND CONTRIBUTING!!!

Time to get the ginger beer strained and bottled.

Bottled, named and waiting for the ginger beer to develop it's 'fizziness'.

A week was a very long time to wait for some of the class!

The finished product! Enjoyed by some but not all.

Check out those bubbles!!!!!

The science behind Ginger Beer......

In a ginger beer mixture you have sugar and yeast. The yeast uses the sugar to make energy.
As the energy is made so is carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide gas dissolves into the liquid - the water and makes the water fizzy.
This process is called fermentation and is the same process that’s used to make things like beer and wine.

The carbon dioxide causes the pressure inside the bottle to increase which makes the bottle feel tight and hard.
When the lid is opened the carbon dioxide gas forms bubbles that rush to the top of the ginger beer to escape out of the bottle neck into the air.

What’s wet and hisses like a snake?
A fizzy drink!!

Kitchen Chemistry - Hokey Pokey

Last Friday we made Hokey Pokey with Mrs Kenny in the Home Ec room.

We began by heating the golden syrup and sugar in a pot.

The next step was to add baking soda to our syrupy mixture.

Then we had to stir it really quickly.

The mixture fluffed up to a thick golden mixture which we quickly spooned onto pre-sprayed trays. It set really quickly so we had to be fast.

It set in big dollops of rich golden toffee, and it looked and smelled delicious.

Everyone got to take part and have a taste, and it was so much fun!!!

The science behind Hokey Pokey is this:

When the golden syrup and sugar are heated it causes a reaction with the baking soda which creates carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is trapped in the heavier syrupy mixture which causes it to fluff up into the thick golden mixture. As it cools it sets into a firm solid.

Clay Creations

Sleeves pulled up, newspaper down, clay boards out, tools at the ready, clay cut and..... time to experiment. We began our clay unit by looking at some clay creations made by Mrs O with students in the past. This made us aware of the range of possiblities that lay ahead of us in regards to clay sculpture. It was then time for us to experiment. We were each given a lump of clay to work with. We began by moulding it in our hands to warm it up and then manipulated it in a variety of ways. We tried rolling, stretching, poking holes, squeezing, pulling and pinching the clay. We had access to a range of tools and experimented with creating patterns and texture on our clay. This was a free time to explore the properties and possiblities when working with clay.

Our next challenge was a group one - to create pinched/pulled dinosaur sculptures. We all started off with our own piece of clay which we rolled into a ball. From this ball we had to pull out a dinosaur neck. Once this was completed we passed our clay onto our neighbour (in a circle around the group). We then had to pull out the four legs and feet. Once finished we once again passed our clay on again...... and again..... and again..... adding a neck, head, scales along it's back etc. Once completed we all had a dinosaur that had features made by different people in our group.

Our final task of the day was to use our skills developed today to create a clay creature.
We began with a ball of clay and had to pinch or pull out the body parts and features (no joining of clay allowed). We ended up with a wide range of creatures - penguin, dog, snake, spider, snail, bull, bird, turtle.... We had to make sure that we used the damp sponges to keep our clay moist so that it didn't develop cracks and dry out too much as we don't want bits falling off our sculptures as they dry.