Edible Science Model Projects, Part 6: 2nd Annual Periodic Table of Cupcakes

Our Second Annual Periodic Table of Cupcakes was a success!

If you want to do this sort of project these are things to keep in mind:

1. Give students plenty of time to plan the project, shop for materials (parents don't like last minute requests) and to make the items that need to be made ahead of time (cupcakes/fondant icing).  We have used a full period to plan it two weeks in advance.  This gives you plenty of time to send a notice home, and plenty of time for parents and kids to shop and make things.
2. This year, it took a little longer to build the table.  I underestimated the difference in construction time that 4 fewer students would make--keep that in mind when you're doing this sort of project in your classroom.  I use our 90 minute block period for table construction (with the cupcakes and fondant icing already made).  Last year, with 11 students we finished it with time to take pictures and clean up.  This year, with 8, it took two hours, PLUS clean up time.  If you have a group of 20 students, with good planning you should be able to get it done in one class period.  
3. Make sure you have one copy of the periodic table per student.  If you want the names of the "newest" elements, check online.  Unununium has a new name now, and so do a few of the others!  Mendelevium, Livermorium and Copernicium are a few.
4. I suggest doing this project towards the end of a unit on the periodic table.  A great way to introduce the periodic table is by explaining why Dmitri Mendeleev's creation was so extraordinary...use this TED-Ed Video to start it off right!

Edible Science Model Projects, Part 6: 2nd Annual Periodic Table of Cupcakes

Edible Science Model Projects: Part 5--Cell Cakes Project, Year #2

Last year, we did a Cell Cake Project in the grand tradition of edible science model-making!  It was a tremendous success, and it remains the most popular post on my blog by far!

This year's newest member of the project;  The Bacterial Cell

This year is the second year of the project, and I decided to make it meatier (or cakier, or whatever) by adding a research and presentation component to it, as well as adding critical thinking to the project by adding different cell types and asking students to compare and contrast them.

"Remember, the primary goal of this project is to describe the similarities and differences between animal, plant and bacterial cells. "

-Mrs. Kaplan

This year's Plant Cell

• A descriptive list of the required elements of the Cell Cake Project
• The super-easy and yummy Marshmallow Fondant recipe that kids can use for labeling and other structures.
• Venn diagram organizer for plant, bacterial and animal cells

The Animal Cell--this cake was saved from a crumbly death by a large batch of delicious homemade fondant icing.

Cell Anatomy Resources:

• RESEARCH FORM: http://www.iecc.edu/wvc/lrc/resrws.pdf
• http://www.johnkyrk.com/CellIndex.html--this site has several links in the drop-down menu that could be useful in identifying additional structures or more detailed explanations that would be helpful in making your poster/model.  For example http://www.johnkyrk.com/golgiAlone.html has detailed descriptions of how the Golgi body works.  
• http://www.cellsalive.com/cells/3dcell.htm  has interactive models of all three cell types.
• Interactive diagram of a bacterial cell: http://www.neok12.com/diagram/Microorganisms-01.htm
• Bacterial cell:http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/bacteriacell.html

• Animal cell: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/animalcell.html
• Plant cell: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/plantcell.html
• Inside the Cell PDF booklet (full color illustrations): http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidethecell/pdf/inside_the_cell.pdf
• **Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(biology)--this site can be used as a STARTING PLACE to find information.  Keep in mind, that Wikipedia has gathered it's information from other places...those places are listed (with links) at the bottom of the page.  Those are the links that should be used in your research forms, NOT "en.wikipedia.org".

• http://cellimagelibrary.org/

Edible Science Model Projects: Part 5--Cell Cakes Project, Year #2

Edible Science Model Projects: Part 3--The Periodic Table of Cupcakes!

Our success with the Cell Cakes in 6th year science inspired our 7th years to create the Periodic Table of the Cupcakes which will be occurring next week on Wednesday.  Maybe I'll ask Daria Musk to join us in a hangout of the creation!?   That would be really fun.  I will post photos and a student-edited video when we are done.

Instead of using icing for the writing, we are going to use edible cake pens (found here) and we are making our own Marshmallow Fondant.  Why the extra work?  The pre-made fondant that you can purchase tastes not-great, and by all accounts this easy recipe makes delectable fondant that you actually enjoy eating, instead of peeling it off the cake (like an orange rind) and then eating it.

Why fondant?  Because then we can pre-make the atomic symbol:  we can write out the symbol and the atomic number (and mass if we have the space) and then form an assembly line of sorts to put it all together. Theoretically.  We'll see.

Anyway, here's the YouTube video that inspired us and the Huffington Post article that describes the video.

Edible Science Model Projects: Part 3--The Periodic Table of Cupcakes!

Edible Science Model Projects: Part 2--Cell Cakes!

So this year, we made Cell Cakes instead of Jello Cells.
This is a project that you don't have to encourage the kids with--they want to spend all of their time discussing, planning and creating it.  They seem to have an inexhaustible supply of energy for learning about cell anatomy when they are going to be able to eat it!

The criteria for these cakes were:

1. Must contain all of the structures that were on the worksheet that I handed to them: (nucleus, golgi body, ER, rough ER, ribosomes, vacuoles, mitochondria, cell membrane and cell wall for plants) 
2. Must contain a minimum of three additional structures (this requires independent research)
3. Labels are clear and legible
4. Each structure is easily discernible from the others and looks as much like the real thing as is practicable.

The advantage of the Cell Cake over the Jello Cell:

• less messy 
• no heating required
• the cakes can be baked at home and brought to school
• more attractive and tastier product

Disadvantage:

• looks (usually) exactly like the diagrams in the text and online, so students don't get a sense of how all cells look slightly different--the ziploc bag animal Jello Cells took care of that.
• no opportunity for sectioning lessons, which was a MAJOR disadvantage

Edible Science Model Projects: Part 2--Cell Cakes!

Edible Science Model Projects

Montessori schools are big on tradition, and so am I!  Highly anticipated events in my classroom are something I strive for and at my new smaller, private school (I taught in public school for 12 years) it happens naturally.  Since I teach all three grades of science (6-8) and I'm the only science teacher, all of my students remember the major events or activities of all of the other grades and it creates a buzz of anticipation within the student body when they know another one of the events is coming up.

One of these traditions is an Edible Project.  Last year, the 6th years made models of cells out of Jello with candies for the organelles and other structures.  We made plant cells using brick-shaped "tupperware" containers for the cell wall, with ziploc bags as the cell membranes.  The animal cells were made of the same materials but without the containers.  

Great things about Jello cells:

• realism: the plant cells had a rigid structure and could be stacked like a brick wall to make plant tissue, and the animal cells were flexible in their ziploc bags--if you layer them in a large bin as they cool, they molded to each other to create something that resembled epithelial cells (each cell was not identical to the next).
• You could practice sectioning the cells (and teaching the names of sections--longitudinal, saggital, transverse, etc) .  This shows how the diagrams in the text (and everwhere else) are perfect cross sections of the cell and that not every organelle is shown in each section.  It also gives the opportunity show that the same organelle will look very different if you slice it another way.

Bad things about Jello cells:

• the water dissolved some of the candy and coloring
• they tasted and looked unappetizing (to most students, not all)

This year, my students wanted to try Cell Cakes.

Edible Science Model Projects