It was a real privilege to joing Miss Ali’s Year 8 science class last Friday morning and see how well the students were engaging with the subject. They entered the classroom in a very orderly and respectful manner and engaged straight away with the ‘Do Now’ activity reflecting back on their prior learning. Miss Ali talked through the context of the lesson based on reactions of yeast with sugar and warm water and provided some lovely real-life examples of how science and cooking are related – the picture of the chocolate cake made us all feel hungry!

After making some key notes in their well-looked after exercise books the students then conducted a brilliant experiment to compare reactions and see which substances reacted to produce carbon dioxide gas which was captured in a balloon on top of a concical flask.

The yeast, sugar, and water experiment demonstrated fermentation by showing how yeast consumes sugar to produce carbon dioxide gas, which caused the balloon to inflate. The experiment was a great way to show the principle used in bread making to make dough rise.

It made for a great and inspirign start to the day.