Technology News
Year 9 Food Fundamentals Dessert Challenge
Towards the end of Term 3, Food Fundamental Students have been practising the process involved in working from a design brief: To design, produce and evaluate a solution. The process involves creating several potential solution options before choosing and justifying a final option based on which option meets the criteria established from the design brief.
For the practice run of this task, students were required to produce a dessert in under 30 minutes! The considerations and constraints they were given included that the dessert had to contain at least one fruit, must have at least four layers and the students could only select from a given list of ingredients.
Planning ensued. Ideas were generated, modified, discarded and then resumed. There were several great ideas discussed – Connor debated the benefits of a pyramid type, freestanding structure. Matt recognised the importance of texture, taste and appearance of the final product. Jasmine’s diagrams, planning, and follow through were exemplary, and enhanced the final creation for the group. In summary - ideas, thoughts and passions were championed and supported through expertly drawn diagrams.
All Year 9 Food Fundamental students placed food orders for their chosen ingredients and produced production plans to carefully manage their time to produce the best-looking desserts they could muster together.
The results were a colourful collection of yummy looking, sugar laden, and scrumptious desserts. A few of those creations would not look out of place at some of our very own favourite eating establishments. They were a testament to the creative minds, and careful planning by the students involved.
A special mention needs to go out to Alana, who produced a stunning dessert of a cream chocolate cake. The waiting time of our food technology kitchens is affording our students an incredible learning opportunity, however, it does not represent the family table, or our top class restaurants, where ice cream is enjoyed with dessert straight away. 30 minutes of waiting for peer and teacher assessment meant that her stunning dessert had to wait, and wait, and wait. The melted ice cream did not detract from the perfect dessert.
The outcome of all products aside, the task was a good opportunity for students to experience the process involved from the design brief stage. All students participated and were involved through the design phase, the planning and production, and then finally an evaluation.
The exact same process is now underway in a “Ready Steady Cook” task that students will complete as their assessment task for this unit of work. We, as the Technology (food) crew, and no doubt you - as their guardians, parents, friends, siblings, mates and taste testers - wish them well as they prepare for this task.
Suggestion: maybe ask them to practise on you first.
Disclaimer: Perhaps wait until they have had one crack at it under pressure then ask them to re-create.
As a school community, how much faith do we have in them? The answer is – Plenty. “Be not afraid.”
Mr P. Cooper
Food Fundamentals Teacher - Cranbourne Campus