Pancake Lab

I cannot begin to tell you the excitement that was in the air in my classroom for the second lab of the semester!  I have not seen such interest in a long time.  Most students were in the classroom early washing hands, getting out equipment, and measuring ingredients.  All groups worked well together trying not to ask me as many questions as this lab.  There was a calmness in the air as if everyone knew exactly what they were doing.  The students were much more confident washing dishes, setting the table, and eating with their group.  All of them were working against the clock.  Class members had to be ready to serve in 45 minutes.    I have done this lab many times in a 55 minute class period so I knew from past experience that it could be done. Since the classes are 90 minutes long they sometimes will drag activities out needlessly.   All groups I am happy to report  were seated in less than forty minutes. 

Each group could choose between this recipe and the Oatmeal- Brown Sugar Pancake recipe.  About third of the classes chose this one.  As the class  filled the halls with the aroma of pancakes baking and bacon cooking we had many visitors stopping by.  One of the students asked me, “Doesn’t if it bother you that so many people stop in to see what we were doing?”  My reply,” No, it is just good advertisement for my class.”

I was extremely pleased with the results. There was only one case of measuring improperly caused by writing the recipe incorrectly, but it worked out anyway.   The pancakes tasted great.  Their creativity gets an A+!  Check out the results for yourself.