Fifth-grade students at Southern Local Elementary School are learning how science is involved in everyday foods by using an induction oven for cooking up experiments. Their first attempt was making delicious chocolate chip cookies and they learned how properly measured and combined ingredients are essential in forming the cookies through physical and chemical changes. Pictured with their products are, from left, teacher Karen Marquis and students Katelynn Barker, Brooklyn Spooner at back, Carlina Morales and Karli Salisberry. (Submitted photo)
SALINEVILLE — Fifth-grade students at Southern Local Elementary are cooking up some delectable experiments with the addition of a new induction oven in their classroom.
Teacher Karen Marquis said the oven provided a way for her pupils to learn that everyday foods they consume were actually produced through science.
Through some real-life “Lessons in Chemistry,” kids are learning how proper measurements and combinations of ingredients cause reactions and the introduction of heat through the baking process also contributes to the final product. Their first delicious attempt was making chocolate chip cookies, where Marquis separated students into groups and called individual members to add the flour, sugar, eggs and butter. With the topping of some chips, the batter was blended in a mixer and each group got to dole out small balls of dough onto parchment paper, then the paper was slid onto special trays used for the oven and baked. Finally, they were cooled on racks and sampled to the delight of the budding chefs.
Marquis explained that she found it to be a fun, teachable moment for her students.
“We are going to use the oven for science and talk about the science of what we cook with,” she said. “The district purchased the oven and the plan is to do experiments with yeast to make pretzels and using baking soda, which chemically changes it. Everything is made through chemical reactions and cooking is a chemical change. When you mix things, it’s a physical change. It’s a matter of molecules in a pan affected by heat and water.”
The Samsung appliance is an induction oven which uses electromagnetic energy to heat special trays. The electricity for the oven was installed during Thanksgiving break and Marquis continued that the oven was installed in recent weeks. The class celebrated by making their first trays of cookies.
“They get to see that and we’re going to learn the process of cooking,” she said.
Some of her students noted their delight in the two-fold process, saying it’s a lesson they could continue at home.
“I like making the cookies,” said Hudson Ketchum, adding that he never realized it was a scientific process.
“We’re going to be learning about the chemistry and have to mix it properly so it turns out good,” added classmate Delanie Ketchum. “You have to have the right measurements. It’s really fun and I love baking at home.”
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