Delivery
Students combining ingredients
Introduction to Food Technology
The students learn about Food Technology and build up a 'skills bank' during the first four lessons – which includes simple skills such as how to wash dishes! They are introduced to sensory testing and the hedonic scale, then conduct their own testing and complete a ranking chart on smell, appearance, taste and texture. They also construct a star diagram with a product profile, as well as simple charts and tables. Food Technology terminology is presented in the form of laminated posters, which Judith says the students use for inspiration as they write up their results and conclusions.
When sensory testing, Judith doesn't use the same food with each class – the selection may depend on what's left in the store cupboard or on sale in the supermarket, but she will often use a range of commercial yoghurts, chippies or dried fruit. This sensory testing also provides an opportunity to discuss nutrition. For example, when a class tests dried fruit, Judith talks about where it might be appropriate in a healthy diet, the students taste samples of commercial snacks based on dried fruit, and discuss the ingredients and how healthy, or not, the product might be. All the samples are of foods relevant to this age group, which increases student interest in the discussion.
In another sensory testing lesson the students make dough from flour, salt and water, which they cut into chips. Each group is given an unidentified flavour (generally flavours that would be familiar to them) and when they taste the baked chips the students try to guess what it is.
The final lesson concentrates on the interaction of ingredients and the students learn some food chemistry, along with cooking skills, when they make hokey pokey.
Sensory testing
Pikelets
The Pikelets module is largely focussed on measurement – students learn the abbreviations and the importance of accurate measuring when they make their pikelets, using a basic recipe. Having successfully accomplished pikelet-making, they move on to modifying a recipe. Working in teams of three or four, half the class makes a pikelet mix using less milk while the other half uses more – the students with the thick batter make biscuits, and those with the thinner batter make an upside-down pudding.
Judith says that changing the proportion of just one ingredient teaches the students that if they make a mistake at home, such as putting in too much milk, they can still turn their mixture into something successful.
Each team then decides whether they want to use a thick or thin batter in their product development. They can substitute ingredients such as honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, jelly crystals, or Raro, for the sugar; or use flavoured milk, juice, yoghurt, cream cheese, or crème fraiche, in place of the milk. The substitutions must be the same quantity as the original ingredients, and Judith notes that the repetition in the unit is really good for the students' measurement skills.
The teams are encouraged to use two additional ingredients, which means that the final products can vary substantially. Judith points out that despite her suggestions for healthier or more interesting options, most of the students choose some form of chocolate. She has decided that although it's not the ideal ingredient, if that's what makes a product better to 11- and 12-year-old tastes, then she can live with it: "It's the process that we're looking at."
During the planning stage each student comes up with six ideas for their biscuit or dessert-type product to discuss with their project team, which selects six team concepts to develop further. After modelling these, they will choose two to trial further and, after making any modifications, choose one to develop as their final outcome.
The students note the ingredients for each concept in their worksheet which serves as a reference tool when they're deciding on the two concepts to develop further, and gives extra practice in using measurement abbreviations.
The students also need to decide how each concept should be cooked and choose from the variety of cake tins, muffin tins and gem irons in the store cupboard. This provides another learning experience – the team that uses a big cake tin and ends up with a thin, tough cake quickly realises the need for a smaller tin in their next trial.
Each team has a two- to three-minute meeting at the beginning of the lesson, which helps them get focussed and organised – some students arrive early so Judith encourages them to put on their aprons and get started straight away. She doesn't necessarily start every lesson with instructions and reminders, preferring that the students concentrate on what they are already doing. Instead, Judith will gather them around for a demonstration if she needs to show them a skill which will help in their product development. "I do that for the basic pikelets, and the thick/thin recipe, and after that they're basically on their own. It can be a bit scary, but when I ask them 'Who's really nervous?' the hands sort of go up, and when it's 'Who's really excited?' the hands fly up."
