Science

[queenie]

I feel like I have tried every science available with my 11 yr old dd. She has not enjoyed any of them! She loves the show Good Eats so I was thinking about coming up with something based off the show. Maybe she could watch one show a week and do some sort of informal write up about the episode or I could make a simple sheet to fill out for each episode and at the end of the month she picks one show she watched and tries to create that food and maybe does a more formal write up of what she learned. I would love any feedback or ideas!

[bwdiaz]

I think that's a cool idea. Alton Brown actually published a couple of cookbooks based on the show with lengthy sections on the science behind it. You could see if your library has those. Then you could take a topic and have her do further research from whatever your library has.

 

For example, I have one of his books, "I'm just here for the food." I just randomly flipped it open to chapter 9 about eggs. You'd have her read the chapter, lookup the scientific terms (such as "thermal," "protein," and "BTU"), devise and carry out an experiment related to something he mentions (something simple like cooking old and young eggs in double boilers) and then note booking her conclusions. Additionally, try a recipe every other week (home ec can = food science) and photograph the results to add to the notebook. Then go to the library and look up books on egg production, salmonella, measuring eggs, whatever. You could spread it out like doing a chapter every three or four weeks to leave yourself time for the enrichment activities.

Edited July 20, 2016 by bwdiaz