Science Fair Suggestions: November 2012

Thanksgiving is a wonderful family time to come together and celebrate fall and feast on good foods. Here are some fun science activities to do with food and feasting.

Food Science:

From E-How Mom:
Make your own sourdough bread
To make the sourdough starter, have students combine one cup flour, one cup room temperature water, one tablespoon sugar and one package of active dry yeast. Cover the mixture with a dish towel and store in a warm place for three days, stirring

it once a day with a wooden spoon. The yeast, a one-celled organism, will grow over the three days. Students can observe the growth along with the sour smell produced as waste. The starter can be kept in the fridge and the yeast fed with equal amounts of water and flour and a proportionate amount of sugar.

Use your favorite Sourdough recipe to make rolls or bread for Thanksgiving dinner.
Here's one from Cooks.com: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,164,149170-241203,00.html

SOURDOUGH BREAD AND ROLLS

1 c. sourdough starter
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 pkg. yeast dissolved in 1/4 c. warm water
1/4 c. oil
2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 egg (optional)

Mix all ingredients together, dough will be sticky. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Add a small amount of flour and knead for 10 minutes. Shape into loaf or rolls (egg is best in rolls). Place in greased pans and let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes for bread. For rolls, bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

San Francisco's Exploratorium has a great full page on Sourdough starters and the science involved. http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-sourdough.html

Make a potato clock: Thanksgiving would not be the same without mashed potatoes. Students can explore the hidden energy in potatoes by making a potato battery. Remove the button battery from a low-voltage LED clock. Insert one galvanized nail each in two potatoes. On the opposite end of each potato, insert one piece of heavy copper wire. Using an alligator clip, connect the copper wire of potato one to the positive terminal in the clock's battery compartment. Connect the copper wire of potato two to the negative terminal using an alligator clip. Use a third alligator clip to connect the nail in potato one to the copper wire of potato two. The clock will now work.

For a more complete explanation visit http://www.kidzworld.com/article/4726-how-potato-batteries-work#

Make Butter: Change whipping cream into butter for a Thanksgiving feast. Give each child a small baby jar container filled halfway with whipping cream. Place a marble inside of each jar. Shake the jar vigorously until the cream becomes butter. Take note of whose turns into butter first and how steadily or quickly the student shook the jar. Make a chart of the time it took different children's cream to change into butter. Talk about churns and other methods of making butter in the Pilgrims' times.

Drain off the buttermilk (or let kids sample it and see what they think), and rinse the butter lumps in cold water. Store them in the refrigerator before sending them home with the kids to grace their Thanksgiving tables or using them at the school Thanksgiving feast.