Science comes to life in Hope Township

HOPE While one could make a connection between science and food, it might be more difficult to understand how using food to present an understanding of science a bit more challenging. However, for Hope Township students, Ciara Tickner, Sean Delahunty, and Michael Rodriguez, the task was a challenge that they took on as an assessment of their knowledge of plant and animal cells.

Sylvia Mohlmann, veteran science teacher for Hopes middle school, used the Incredible Edible Cell as a creative project that allowed the students to use their imaginations. The requirements were minimal stylistically, but questions that had to be addressed involved organelles, relationships between parts, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus, chloroplasts, vacuoles and other scientific labeling.

Ciara Tickner remarked that the project boosted her knowledge of plant cell parts. She also admitted that the best part was eating the leftover candy. Ciara used a vanilla cake as her base and then adorned her edible cell with red licorice, raspberry slices, sprinkles, marshmallows and sour gummy worms.

Sean Delahunty shared that he had fun with the challenge and found it interesting to piece together what he already knew about the plant cell. Sean particularly enjoyed using all the different food colorings for decorating the structures. Sean used crackers, corn break, pieces of chocolate, black and pink candies.

In addition to learning about the animal cell parts, Michael Rodriguez disclosed that he experimented with alternatives to using regular glue for the attachment of his edible structures. Michael used icing to piece together his edible cell capturing all the parts with chocolate, licorice, gum drops, and marshmallows.

Standard quiz and test would have clearly shown the knowledge of these budding scientists, however, with a bit of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, Mohlmann proved that traditional methods arent the only route for assessment. That being said, Ciara, Sean, and Michael a! ll recei ved top grades for their work.