 |
Verve’s Make Your Own Gummies Kit is an excellent tool for
teachers and group leaders, suitable for use in the classroom as
well as informal learning environments. To make group activities
easier and more productive, we have created this Educational
Guide to the Make Your Own Gummies Kit.
|
1. Guide to using the Make Your Own Gummies Kit with a group
Verve’s Make Your Own Gummies Kit can be a terrific, interactive
classroom activity for a wide range of ages and class sizes. We
provide a sample lesson plan intended for grades 5 – 8, but the
kit may be used with children from age 5 up, with adult
supervision. It has also been used to great effect with high
school home economics classes and college science classes as a
fun end-of-term project.
The Gummies Kit relates to
many topics, including coastal ecology, social sciences,
chemistry, geography, and more. We recommend using the kit in
conjunction with our sample lesson plan, or creating your own
lesson plan from the resources provided. To view the
instructions and story that come with the kit, go to the Make
Your Own Gummies Kit main page. You may also find
The Gooey Tale of Gummies in our Education Section to be
helpful.
Because this activity requires heat, a stove or microwave is
required. You will also need a cooking pot, spoon, plate,
refrigerator, and any small objects you would like to use to
make molds (optional).
The Gummies Kit makes approximately 15 - 20 gummy candies,
depending on their size, so it is plenty for groups of up to 20
students. We recommend that the teacher or group leader heat the
ingredients and allow students to help add the ingredients,
stir, and pour the gummies. Older students may be allowed to
work in groups to make the gummies themselves, if appropriate.
2. Sample Lesson Plan for Make Your Own
Gummies Kit
Grade Level:
5 – 8
Suggested Subject(s):
Science (Ecology, Chemistry)
Duration:
Introduction: Flexible – 20 minutes or more
Gummies-Making Activity: 20 minutes
Assessment: 15 minutes
Description:
Students will learn about ocean life by exploring the properties
of seaweed as they make a special treat – gummy candies!
Goals:
1) Students will draw connections between ocean life and their
own lives.
2) Students will understand that seaweed is used in many common
food products.
3) Students will understand the phases of matter.
Objectives:
1) Students will understand the many ways in which ocean life is
important to our everyday lives.
2) Students will experience changes in the stages of matter
firsthand by viewing chemical reactions that occur during
cooking.
Materials:
1) Pictures/examples of seaweed
2) Food packages and labels containing carageenan, agar agar or
beta carotene as an ingredient
3) Microwave or stove
4) Bowl or stovepot
5) A few plastic spoons
6) Paper plates for each student
7) Make Your Own Gummy Kit
8) Large sheet of white paper or whiteboard
9) Markers
Vocabulary:
Carageenan: An edible thickening agent made from red algae.
Seaweed: Not true plants, seaweeds are actually algae, of the
kingdom Protista.
Algae: A type of organism that is neither an animal nor a true
(vascular) plant, which gets its energy from photosynthesis.
Algae grow in water or damp environments.
Procedure:
Begin with a discussion of the plant life that is found in the
ocean. Students will be interested to learn that seaweeds are in
fact not plants, but algae, which belong to the kingdom Protista.
Ask your students how algae that grows in the ocean might be
different from plants that grow on land. How do they get their
energy? What other life feeds on them?
Now ask students if people ever eat seaweed, and in what foods.
Ask if they have ever eaten seaweed. Even if your students have
never had sushi, they might be surprised to learn that they
probably eat seaweed every day in form of ingredients like
carrageenan, beta carotene, and alginates (agar agar is a common
one). These products are found in foods such as cottage cheese,
chocolate milk, ice cream, yogurt, mayonnaise, salad dressing,
margarine and cheese. They make liquid foods thicker, creamier,
and more stable against changes in temperature and pH, and over
long periods of time. For example, alginates prevent ice cream
from forming ice crystals. Have students find food labels that
contain carrageenan or beta carotene as an ingredient. Have a
class discussion about the foods students have eaten recently
that contain carrageenan.
Now tell them that they are going to see firsthand what
carrageenan and alginates do to liquids. Ask them to pay
particular attention to the consistency of the raw ingredients
and how they change over time as they are mixed together and
cooked. Tell them to classify the materials at each stage as a
solid, liquid, or something in between. Now make your gummy
candy from the Make Your Own Gummies Kit together as a class.
Because this requires heat, you may want to do the cooking
yourself, but have the students watch. Have each student create
his/her own mold out of the molding starch, which will be the
shape of his/her finished gummy candy.
Assessment:
Have the students create a flow chart showing the stages of
matter the mixture passed through as ingredients were added and
changes in temperature occurred. Have them list the causes and
effects of these changes.
A final option is to have the class create a large diagram
showing what would happen if the world’s algae were to die out.
Make sure to list outcomes that would affect humans, other
animals, our oxygen supply, etc. List as many as you can, using
arrows to show causal links.
Resources and related lessons:
http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/seaweeds/seaweeds.html
Excellent information on seaweed biology, designed for students.
http://www.ecology.com/dr-jacks-natural-world/most-important-organism/index.html
An argument for why algae is the most important organism on
earth. Fascinating!
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow8/dec98/web.html
Links to other sites with information on many ocean topics.
http://www.msc.ucla.edu/oceanglobe/pdf/Kelp_Forests/Kelp_Entire.pdf
This site includes four excellent lesson plans that further
students’ understanding of kelp forests, the food chain, and the
role of aquatic and terrestrial plants.
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/ocean/market/proced.html
This is an excellent interdisciplinary lesson plan that
highlights the many products that come from algae. This site
includes a wide breadth of information about ocean life and our
connections with oceans.
https://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/educate/neptune/lesson/social/ALGAE.HTM
This is an excellent lesson plan about algae products with
plenty of background information about algae and alginates.
http://www.eduplace.com/activity/ocean_food.html
Lesson plan for lower grades: make an ocean food chain.
http://www.beworldwise.org/teachers/ocean_realm_u1_astonishing_algae.php
Interrelated lesson plans on algae.
3. Tips
-
We recommend using a stovetop or hotplate rather than a
microwave for this kit, if possible.
-
Please read through all instructions before beginning.
-
Check with parents to make sure all children are allowed to
eat the final product.
-
Coat the gummies with sour mix in small batches to prevent the
candies from sticking together.
-
Have fun!
|