Thursday 21 April 2016

Home School - Taste Test

 
Both the boys and I love the exploration of different Key Stage 1 topics that come under this banner. Our latest is about senses and with that we thought that we would start off with taste.

http://www.insidemartynsthoughts.com/2016/03/home-school-walt-and-wilf.html
For the boys to know that it is important to collect evidence by making observations when trying to answer a question.
Explore, using the senses smell and taste as appropriate, and make and record observations and measurements.
Make simple comparisons and identify simple patterns or associations.
Use terms Salty, Bitter, Sweet and Sour.
Extension: Descriptive words on flavour and texture.
 
A lot of lesson plans very on this and to be honest that is a bonus for us; it means I can adjust the experiment to suit the boys.
The WILF above is the standard objectives within science for KS1 (William’s level) but there are no specific guidelines for what can and can’t be used.
A prime example can be seen below where this is the resources suggested in the taste experiment by a leading lesson plan site and organisation.
“A sugar covered sweet, a salty crisp, a piece of unsweetened chocolate, a piece of lemon. Scissors, crayons.”

I like the suggestions of sweet, salty, sour and bitter but why on earth would you include a crayon and a pair of scissors?
Anyway, I digress.
 
The Experiment
I decided that I would include food that offered the basic taste experience but added different food experiences with it, like heat, spice and texture.
We started off with 2 different plates.  
 
We used on one plate lemon (sour), lime (Sour but sweeter than lemon) cucumber (different texture) cooked avocado (bitter) mild cheese (texture) raw onion (sharp and texture) and spring onion, including the leaves (sweet and bitter) 
 
 
 
We used different sauces here: Bovril (salty) mayonnaise (bland) English mustard (pepper and heat) hot peri-peri sauce (spice and heat)
 
Now, I know some of these are extreme flavours and I am also aware that when doing this experiment some people on social media were shocked that I would give the boys these. So, with that in mind, I thought I would clear something up: everything the boys were served is a regular used product in our house and liked by the boys. However, by themselves provide a clear distinct in flavours.
 
The Experiment

To fully experience both the smell and taste the boys were blindfolded.

 
We started off with Bovril. William was clear on identifying it as salty and continued to say that it had a strong flavour. James added that it was sticky, smooth and strong.


Next they tried English mustard. William and James both had extreme reactions and instantly described it as hot. William continued to say that it was a lot of pepper used and that, by itself, was very hot. James described it as hot, spicy and gooey.


 

 
Next the boys tried mayonnaise. I found this interesting as both boys instantly recognised it as mayonnaise but couldn't find any words to described it other than "yummy".

 
Next they tried the peri-peri sauce. William was instantly wary as he could smell that it would be spicy and hot. James was quite happy as we use this in a lot of our cooking and knew that he liked it.
 
 
Despite the look that he crying (he wasn't), William actually asked to try it again. He said that initially the flavour and taste was too intense and couldn't decide which words he wanted to use. After dipping his little finger in and tasting he added that it was hot, spicy and full of pepper. James said that it was too runny compared to the others and that it didn't taste like the sauce because it was too hot.
 
The boys then decided to mix some of these ingredients together. They both found that the mayonnaise minimised the extreme flavours of any food they found hot and the suggested that it was cooler in taste.

 
Starting on the different plate the boys tasted raw onion. William described them as sharp, strong but a little sweet in flavour. James really didn't like them and said that he prefers the way they taste like sugar when cooked; I believe he was highlighting how the flavour would change in a different format. They did both describe them as crunchy and that the flavour got stronger when they ate them.


 
When eating the cucumber William remarked that it was the same as the mayonnaise and used the word "bland" but said that it was equally soft and crunchy in texture.

 
Next was avocado and the two boys actually had different views on this. James found it sweet and soft whilst William found it bitter and actually spat it out.
 

 
The cheese showed a different response too. Both boys recognised it as cheese but James could concentrate on the flavour where William couldn't; he felt that it was bland where as James said "it's not the strongest of cheese we've eaten" highlighting that he was aware that they had different flavours.


 
Both of the boys were quick to say that both the lime and the lemon were sour. James didn't like either where William found that he wanted to eat more of the lime as it was sweeter after eating the lemon.
 
 
Outcome
 
The boys really enjoyed doing this despite the taste. They showed good understanding of taste and flavour and both found good descriptive words on both taste and texture; William especially excelled in this and found ways of combining the different aspects to improve the taste showing an understanding that combinations of foods and flavours enhance our tastes when eating.
 
This is a great little experiment to do and is quite fun and can be used outside of the school environment.
 
What do you think? Would you try this experiment with yours?
 



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