In this hands-on “Farm to Table” experience, students will get the chance to interact with adorable farm animals.
What’s Covered
Students will try their hand at milking animals, collect eggs, and use the milk to make ice cream. The activity will include a visit to the animals and a fun, educational egg collection process. Eggshells could even be used for a recycling project or an art project that students can take home. This engaging experience connects students with the origins of their food while offering a memorable day on the farm!
Educational Standards
Applicable Standards:
- 3-PS2-4 Forces and Interactions: This standard involves understanding how forces cause changes in motion. When making ice cream, students can explore the concept of heat transfer and the effect of temperature on the state of matter (from liquid to solid as the ice cream freezes).
- 4-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity: Understanding how human activities can change the environment. Making ice cream involves using resources like ice, salt, and milk, and you can discuss how these materials come from the earth and impact the environment.
- 5-PS1-4 Matter and Its Interactions: This standard focuses on the properties of matter and how substances can change states. Making ice cream from scratch is a great example of how the liquid ingredients change to solid through freezing. The use of salt to lower the freezing point of ice can be explored here.
- 6-ESS2-4 Earth’s Systems: Understanding how energy (in this case, heat energy) flows between the Earth’s systems. Making ice cream demonstrates the process of energy transfer (e.g., the endothermic reaction of melting ice absorbing heat).
- 7-LS1-3 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes: This standard looks at how living organisms take in nutrients to grow. When discussing ice cream, you can explore the biological properties of milk and how its components (like proteins and fats) interact during freezing.
- 8-PS2-4 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions: The interaction of ice, salt, and the ice cream mixture involves forces that affect the motion of the molecules, turning the liquid into solid. The principles of thermal conductivity and temperature change apply here.
- MS-LS1-7: Students to develop a model that explains how food is chemically rearranged to create new molecules. These molecules support growth and release energy as food moves through an organism.