This field trip was created by Eduardo Peirano.

This field trip about Bread Baking utilizes Internet resources to introduce the principles, tools, and techniques of bread making. It is designed for elementary school children in grades 4-6 but is appropriate for students of many ages. (Please note that there are important safety issues in baking and take appropriate measures to ensure safety, especially with elementary school children.)

Bread making and sourdough preparation are two lab activities that can result in several experiments. Measurement of the properties of the dough during the bread making process can be done using readily available tools. This offers a convenient way to introduce scientific research to your students because they will be measuring the results of their bread making experiments, while their mothers, in their kitchens, just follow recipes, most of which do not have any scientific background, and they do not control the variables that can affect their work. Teachers can also introduce nutrition issues while talking about the recommended cereal servings in the food pyramid.

There are many ways to be creative with breads and bread products. Almost every family magazine has a bread recipe of some type and there are thousands of bread recipes available. Since bread can be made with just a few simple ingredients (usually flour, liquid, leavening and salt), one way to be creative is to add more ingredients to make specialty breads. But basic ingredients can be varied too and it is a good idea to discover what their basic role is in bread baking so that good products can come from creative experiments.

Learning to make bread is a fun activity. This module will help students better understand the practical application of reading and math in a daily living skill and teach them to work cooperatively with fellow classmates in order to complete a task. Dough can be molded into different shapes to exercise artistic skills of the students. Measuring dough's extensibility and elasticity is appropriate to introduce students to the science of deformation and flow of matter.

This module will also be appropriate for those teachers who need to introduce microbiology to the students. Students can even have their own wild yeast and bacteria and monitor their growth during preparation of a sourdough starter.

The Internet is rich with sites that will enhance this unit for any level of student. Information about wheat, yeast and bread-making itself will add to the study of this fascinating study.

Students can learn about the following topics in this field trip:

Objectives

• To learn social facts about wheat, flour and bread
• To practice conversion of recipes, and to work with fractions
• To assess dough properties, to monitor fermentation and assess bread quality
• To learn how to measure ingredient's volumes and weights
• To practice the Food Guide Pyramid nutritional recommendations
• To develop creative skills, kneading and modeling dough, to make different types of breads and shapes.
• To learn about different types of breads and other cultures and countries (search for ethnic breads: french, rye, etc.)

Terms To Learn