Outdoor Learning and STEM  

Baking.

A skills based task that ends with cakes !

Every child loves making up lotions and potions, whether it's mud and pebbles or water and flower petals !  Since time began, people have loved mixing things together to see what happens, and this, at the end of the day, is exactly what baking is !  Using some basic ingredients, we can teach basic number work, measuring, hygiene and lifeskills (tidying up after ourselves).  And the reward !  Cakes !  (And who doesn't like cake ?)
Fair Cake Recipe
Click the image to left to open up the NetMums.com recipe for Fairy Cakes.  
A quick video on some tips and tricks for decorating fairy cakes.

Eating healthily.

As much fun as cakes are, it is important that we do not encourage children to eat cakes and sweets all the time.  They need to learn about how to eat healthily.  The British Nutrition Foundation has some excellent advice and guidance on healthy diets for children on this page. 

Healthy Choices

Click the image below to watch a video which explains healthy eating choices in way that children might engage with.

Points to ponder ...

Like many of the activities we have worked on, baking does contain an element of risk, but, properly managed, there's no reason why this, like the other activities, can't be a safe and enjoyable task.

The main risk, of course, is in using a hot oven.  Te reduce this risk, you could have an adult place the trays into oven and remove them once the baking time is up.

Another risk to consider might be allergies or intolerance to certain ingredients, but it is normal practice in a nursery setting, for example, to have some knowledge of allergies and intolerances so that, if necessary, the task can be adapted accordingly.

How does this activity relate to S.T.E.M ?

Some of the concepts that you might want to explore could be ...
Science.

  • Mixing of substances,

  • consistency - thin, thick,

  • Parallax error when reading scales.  To understand parallax error, try this experiment ... place the tip of your outstretched thumb against the tip of your nose, so that your outstretched index finger is pointing straight up.  Close your right eye, and take a note of whatever is 'blocked' by your index finger.  Now close your left eye only ... is the finger still 'blocking' the same thing ?  No !  Your eyes are about 10 cm apart, which means they have slightly different points of view.  Your index' finger hadn't moved, but, when you 'swapped eyes' your 'point of view' DID, and so your index finger appeared to be in a different place.  Imagine you are reading a set of scales where a needle moves over a scale marked in the viewing panel..   If you move your head to the left or right, the needle might appear to move slightly, but it's your 'point of view' that has moved.  THIS is parallax error !  It's not going to make a lot of differnce to us making fairy cakes ... but the activity offers a great opportunity to introduce the concept of parallax error to children.  To learn more, watch this video.

Technology.

  • Using hand tools (kitchen utensils).

  • Using powered machines (mixer, for example) safely.

Engineering.

  • Unless the children develop some fantastic structures using the flour and egg mix, there's really not a lot of engineering principles to discuss here !

Maths

  • Measuring quantities,

  • reading scales,

  • working with numbers,

  • adding,

  • subtracting

  • multiplying

  • dividing