On May 17th, 18th and 19th, 2016  Mrs. Sandra Hartman, Family and Consumer Sciences and Mrs. Melanie Kerr, Science worked together on a co-curricular classroom project. Mrs. Kerr teaches Organic Chemistry, a senior science elective; most of her students have all taken at least one cooking class and are very comfortable in the kitchen. The Organic Chem students developed the idea to examine the chemistry of cooking, Mrs. Hartman and Mrs. Kerr discussed this topic several times before, and were happy to make this happen.  

Mrs. Hartman’s schedule coincided with Mrs. Kerr’s, so she could help facilitate a lesson. The two teachers worked hard to find a way to challenge the students to understand the importance of science, specifically chemistry, in cooking also known as molecular gastronomy. The teachers found time in their busy schedules to meet and plan a set activities to support the lesson. 

Before going to the kitchen, students were required to research the chemistry involved in the making of dough, cheese and tomato sauce. Students presented the material to their peers via a google slides presentation. Both Mrs. Hartman and Mrs. Kerr watched the presentations and assessed the students with respect to both chemistry and cooking. Following this activity, students made mozzarella cheese and pizza dough from scratch over 2 days, then used the dough and cheese along with store bought sauce to create delicious pizzas. The collaborative project allowed students to take a subject like chemistry. which is often seen as abstract and theoretical, and allow them to directly apply it to something that they do everyday. The lesson also gave students the hands on experience in the kitchen; students physically make cheese from milk and dough from flour. Students left the 4 day experience with both knowledge and practical skills.

Many colleges are already using this as their model to teach chemistry.

The images below represent the processing of the cheese from raw ingredients, kneading of the dough and pizza assembly.

STEM Committee 2015-2016  Accomplishments

•  Science National Honor Society Established at both NHHS and VHS
•  Math Science Articulation Plan
•  Attend and participate in staff development activities that introduce the cross curricular overlap between math and science (and other STEAM subjects in the future)
•  Review the math practices documents and identify areas where the science and math overlap.
•  Meet with Math Department at provided in-service to develop joint lessons for topics
•  Joint Observations with Math/Science Department for interrater reliability
•  Joint Grant Approved by NHEF and VHEF to train Science Departments in Inquiry Based Instructional Model to support this aspect of the Next Generation Science Standards
•  Vertical Curriculum Writing Project Grades 6-12.
•  All Sending Districts and Both High Schools have participated in this project. Regional Units of Instruction for Science grades 6-8 have been created based on the NJ Model Curriculum and Next Generation Science Standards.
• Added Online Chemical Inventory
• Increased the number of and focus of the articulation meetings with sending districts to help strengthen and align math programs in all districts.
• New computer course for the upcoming school year in both schools – AP Computer Science Principles.
• Both schools encouraged the entire student body to participate in One Hour of Code in December.
• Math Awareness month celebrated at both schools.  Guest speaker from Muhlenberg College came to North to discuss the theme The Future of Prediction through statistical analysis of baseball stats.
•  More teachers are being educated to teach computer classes – two are earning computer science certification through CSTA.
• Teachers attended the Ignite STEM Conference at Columbia University in April to gain ideas in encouraging more interest in programming.
• Outcomes from this conference is a proposal to hold a Maker Fair in our district that would be held on a Saturday and open to the sending district students as well as to our own students.
• Include Makey Makey kits in our Intro to Programming classes to encourage more interest.
• Hold a district-wide hackathon.
• Voorhees Tech Ed/Music lab was updated with a new projector, new computers and was used for all Tech Ed and Music Tech classes. The Music department also used the lab for ear training for Band, Choir, and Music Theory classes.
• Plans to include STEAM connections in lesson plans for the Art, Music, and Practical Arts classes.