In this recorded professional learning session, Lyn Rogers and Angela Schipper explore aspects of kitchen science. They discuss how kitchen science can be used to deepen students’ understanding of science in everyday contexts and demonstrate how simple kitchen ingredients and equipment can be utilised to excite and engage students in science learning.
Nice thing about kitchen science is that kids can find these things and replicate these experiments at home.
Teacher
This session will be useful for primary, intermediate and junior secondary school teachers.
Click on the links above to view the video of this professional development session and the slideshow presentation.
| Topic | Slide number(s) | Video timecode |
| Introduction, welcome and purpose of the webinar | 1–2 | 00:00 |
| Simple science activities | 3–4 | 00:53 |
| Fostering students’ thinking | 5 | 07:47 |
| Making ice cream | 6–9 | 09:43 |
| Making a solar oven | 10–14 | 30:57 |
| Carbon dioxide | 15–18 | 37:31 |
| Curriculum connections | 19–20 | 44:05 |
| Supporting resources | 21 | 45:00 |
| Reflection | 22 | 46:35 |
| Contact details and thanks | 23 | 46:47 |
Thank you. I am looking forward to exploring some of these ideas.
Teacher
Nature of science
This webinar provides ideas for teachers and students to model the scientific process of investigation. In the NZC, the nature of science1 strands include investigating in science. The activities outlined offer students opportunity to think through the design of simple investigations and experiments that explore the science involved in everyday kitchen activities, modelling the way scientists can work methodically to investigate the answers to their questions.
Related content
There are several related activities on the Science Learning Hub that could offer students further opportunities to extend their learning. These include Exploring states of matter, Using evidence – heat and change of state, Looking at water – solid, liquid or gas and Drama in the microworld.
There are also several resources on the Hub that can be referred to for further information or explanation of concepts such as states of matter2. These include Observing water – unit plan, States of matter, Alternative conceptions about water’s states of matter, Solids, liquids and gases and Heat energy.
The global citizen science3 project Wild Sourdough explores the microbial4 communities in sourdough.
Other PLD covering the Material World includes Chemistry in the primary classroom, Chemistry made simple – atoms and Chemistry made simple – properties of matter.Useful link
A selection of resources around kitchen science can be viewed on this Pinterest board.
- nature of science: The Nature of Science (NoS), is an overarching and unifying strand of the New Zealand science curriculum. Through it, students develop the skills, attitudes and values to build a foundation for understanding the world around them – understanding how science works in order to make links between scientific knowledge and everyday decisions and actions.
- states of matter: The classical states of matter are solid, liquid and gas. Several other states, such as plasma, do exist. Plasma is the most common form of matter in the universe.
- citizen science: Citizen volunteers participate in scientific projects and work in partnership with scientists to answer scientific questions.
- microbial: Anything of, or related to microorganisms.
