Alice’s Magic Cake
Teacher Name: Gemma Griffin
Date: June, 7 2003
Grade Level: 2-3
Subject: Science
Time: 45 minutes
Concept: Chemistry
Topic: Changes in matter
SOL: Science 2.3 and 3.3: Matter
Rationale:
Science becomes more meaningful for students when the problem of inquiry is something relevant and interesting to their lives. Fairy tales and magic hold a special interest for most children. The linking of scientific concepts to children’s stories has been proven an effective method to capture a majority of the children’s interests, increasing motivation, and leading students towards a more meaningful understanding of the scientific concept.
Goal: To help students become aware that many seemingly unexplainable, or “magical,” events may have scientific explanations.
Objectives:
Cognitive:
The student will be able to identify orally a variable in an experiment with a control, by investigating two mixtures and the materials they are made up of. See attached rubric.
The student will be able to differentiate changes in matter (solid, liquid, gas) through observation and recording in writing on a worksheet during an experiment dealing with mixtures. See attached rubric.
Affective:
The student will be able to compare a “magical” discrepant event in a familiar fairy tale to a possible scientific explanation, evidenced by their participation in an experiment dealing with mixtures and changes in matter.
The student will be able to accept, reject, or further question a scientific explanation for a “magical” event in a familiar fairy tale, through completion of an experiment dealing with mixtures and changes in matter and a journal activity. See attached rubric.
The student will be able work cooperatively in a group, while simultaneously making individual contributions, evidenced by successful completion of the experiment.
Psychomotor:
The student will be able to practice scientific investigation skills by participating, in cooperative learning groups, to complete an experiment dealing with mixtures and changes in matter. See attached rubric.
Materials:
For each group:
½ cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of sugar
½ package of dry yeast
2 bowls
3 ½ cups of flour
measuring cup
½ cup of water
pinch of salt
wax paper
Advanced Organizer: 5 minutes
Show the brief clip in Disney’s movie Alice in Wonderland where she eats a magic cake and grows very large. The book can also be used here instead of the movie.
Procedure: 25 minutes
1. Pose the question: “In Wonderland, Alice ate a little cake and grew and grew and grew. What do you suppose was in that cake to make her grow so large?”
2. In a journal activity, have students individually brainstorm what they think the cake could have had in it to cause Alice’s enormous growth.
3. Have students share their ideas and explain their reasoning with their classmates.
4. Explain to students that in small groups (3-4) they are going to be experimenting with different mixtures to see if they can recreate the cake that Alice ate!
Within groups, roles should be assigned as observation recorder, timekeeper, and materials manager.All students should share in the responsibility of measuring and combining ingredients.
Each group should be given:
½ cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of sugar
½ package of dry yeast
2 bowls
3 ½ cups of flour
measuring cup
½ cup of water
pinch of salt
wax paper
Directions: 1. Place ½ cup of warm water into a cup and stir in the sugar and yeast.
2. Let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. While you are waiting, mix the flour, salt, and ½ cup of room temperature water in one of the bowls.
4. Divide the flour mixture equally, and put half into each of the two bowls.
5. Label one bowl #1 and one #2
6. Add the bubbly yeast solution in the cup to the bowl labeled
#1. Cover both bowls.
*Note: The bowls need to sit for 45 minutes to an hour. If this presents a time constraint, the teacher can have prepared both ahead of time, and show students what both of their bowls will look like in an hour.
5. After students have mixed their ingredients and discussed with one another what they think might happen, either wait 45 minutes for the results, or at this time show students the two bowls prepared ahead of time.
6. Have students make observations and discuss in their groups the difference between the bowls. See if students can identify the ingredient that causes this difference (yeast).
Closure 10 minutes
As a class discuss why the mixture with the yeast doubles in size, when the other mixture remains the same size. Have students return to their journal activity completed at the beginning of the lesson, and complete the second part, in which they are to discuss whether after completing this experiment they might accept, reject, or further question if yeast was the “magic” in Alice’s pill that made her grow bigger.
Reason: The yeast converts the flour into sugar molecules. It eats the sugar, digests it, and uses it for energy, producing carbon dioxide bubbles, which puffs up the mixture.
Ask the class if they suppose the cake Alice ate may have been made of yeast?
*Note: There are no wrong or right answers!
Assessment: See attached rubric for worksheet.