Despite a hiccup in one class, where a disgruntled student took a bag of gummi bears for themselves, this was the best year of doing the Ice Cream Lab yet!
I had all of my tables covered with butcher paper to prevent the massive salty messes that have plagued my room in the past. Anything that could be ruined by salty water was put safely on a counter or in a cabinet, and I had plenty of large, black garbage bags, and garbage cans. I had my ice, milk, sugar, salt, vanilla, bags and baggies, and my students were bringing toppings.
Instead of trying to grade the previous night's homework, taking notes or even talking too much (as I am often guilty of doing), I simply got started right away. For the Bellwork, I introduced the lab and related it to what they had been learning about with phase changes. As a class, we discussed these four questions:
1) What phase change takes place as a liquid changes into a solid?
2) Is energy absorbed or released during this phase change?
3) What temperature does water generally freeze at?
4) If ice cream can only really freeze below -10 degrees Celsius, how can we lower the temperature of the ice even more?
Afterwards, I had the students view a seven and a half minute long "How-To" video that I had created in a previous Lesley University course. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wozJUETxwdo) Unfortunately, the students didn't pay as close attention to the instructions as they did to the video itself and the music in it, so I ended up reviewing the steps needed to make the ice cream. Once the students started, however, everything ran smoothly. Students had enough time to make and eat their ice cream, and even did a good job cleaning up!
Improvements for Next Year...
1) Get another set of measuring cups... I need 1/4 cup measuring scoop!
2) Fix the How-To video! The video skips and is off from the audio.
3) Have students work on the lab while they are flipping the bags of ice cream.
4) Write up the lab for the "Alternative Ice Cream Lab: Lemon Sorbet"
This reminded me of something I remember doing in school. This post sounded like a fun lesson. The video was great. Cool idea for the video. Lemon Sorbet...I'm going to add this sweets blog.
ReplyDeleteI like e idea of your page. Reflecting on lessons taught is great because in this career field we are lucky enough to get the chance to try again with lessons! Good luck improving this one!
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of this page as well. What a great way to share great lessons with other teachers. I can't wait to read what comes next!
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