Cultural activities

The molecules we eat...! Cooking in test tubes

The molecules we eat...! Cooking in test tubes AID/a.collectionRF / amanaimages / Universal Images Group

Workshop designed for secondary school students from 12 to 18 years old.
 
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are present in many cooking techniques, as well as in the way we smell/taste food (neuroscience of taste) and in the aspects related to our diet, the processing of the food in our organism (metabolism) and our health (molecular basis of disease). All of these aspects will be covered in the introduction (20-30 min.), preceding the interactive workshop.
 
The 50 participants will rotate through 4 different lab-tables in which they will perform simple experiments (densitometries, precipitations, spherifications, etc.) with ingredients easily found in the grocery shopping: meal, eggs, vegetables and fruit. These experiments will be coordinated by four scientists from the SEBBM (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Spanish Society as its initials in Spanish).
 
Workshop description
Students will complete two experiments in the first lab. First of all, they will observe how lactose is transformed into glucose by the lactase enzyme.  This will be followed by a study of different types of milk’s density (cow’s whole milk, cow’s skimmed milk, soy milk).
 
In the second lab they will complete three tasks. They will make an egg bounce back as a rubber ball with the use of acetic acid (vinegar). They will observe the coagulation of an egg and understand why it coagulates due to its protein content. They will also fry an egg using cold ethanol.
 
In the third lab they will use red cabbage as an indicator of pH. Its extracts will be made to react and change colour in the different environments, becoming red in an acid environment, blue in a neutral one and yellow in a basic one.
 
In the fourth lab they will measure the vitamin C content of some fruits and students will make spherifications (gelified spheres) with apples and strawberries; a very commonly used technique used in contemporary cuisine and for which is used sodium alginate (E-401) and calcium chloride (E-509).
 
The duration of the activity is two hours. In Spanish. Bookings at: bookings.dublin@cervantes.es.

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