I’m trying to put more of the initial investigative work on my students instead of me lecturing. As many of you know, lecturing just doesn’t cut it for very long anymore as you can see the interest level wane right before your eyes! So, instead of me going through a slide deck and having them take notes on quick bread info, I changed things up by creating some new quick bread activities! Read on to see how.

Set

• Begin by having students learn more about quick breads by completing the Quick Bread Quest. For most of the prompts, students are using reliable internet resources. However, there are a couple, where I link resources from Baker Bettie’s website which is awesome, by the way!
• Students turn their papers in and the next day, we review their work. This gives them an opportunity to modify their answers if needed. I do use the slide presentation from this post for this.

Materials

• iPad or Laptop
• Projector & Screen
• Baker Bettie’s Better Baking Book (optional, affiliate link)

Activities

• After reviewing the Quick Bread Quest information, students apply what they’ve learned via the Quick Bread Activities. This looks like it would be super simple, but it took my students quite awhile to complete as they had to look up any quick bread examples they were not familiar with before coding.
• Another review game that I’ve been using with my students is Blooket! They absolutely love playing this game and each time we kick off a period with it, I change up the game type to keep it interesting. Just do a search for topics you are interested in before reinventing the wheel. I found this Quick Bread Review and this Magnificent 7 Review already made…so, many thanks to whoever created them!
• The first lab is a Pour Batter lab which can be crepes, pancakes or waffles. Depending on which pour batter recipe I select, I may show a corresponding episode of Epicurious’ 4 Levels so students can see variations in preparation methods. They include: Crepes 4 Levels, Pancakes 4 Levels and Waffles 4 Levels.
• We then turn our focus to Drop Batter quick breads, focusing on muffins. I give them the assignment “Diagnose the Muffin Mess” where they must use reliable internet resourcesto diagnose the probable cause(s) and/or remedy for each of the scenarios.
• Prior to the muffin lab, I have students complete the “Mangled Muffins Measuring Scenario” as a review to measuring ingredients and following the proper mixing methods for muffins.
• The next lab, is a Drop Batter lab which is muffins. Each kitchen makes a different flavor such as banana muffins, peach muffins and corn muffins. All are easy to prepare in a 43 minute period, all keep well until the next day, if necessary, and all use relatively inexpensive ingredients. You also notice that one of the recipes has students adjusting their recipe amounts. All students do the adjustsments as they don’t know which kitchen will be preparing that recipe.
• The final quick bread is the Soft-Dough quick bread done in the form of a biscuit demo with a guest presenter or students prepare their own biscuits with this tutorial or you could add a cultural twist, make this Irish Scone recipe from the Twins & Teaching Blog.

Attachments

• Quick Bread Quest (PDF)
• Quick Bread Activities (PDF)
• Diagnose the Muffin Mess (PDF)
• Mangled Muffins Measuring Scenario (PDF)

Similar Quick Bread Lessons

• Quick Bread: Lesson & Lab
• Muffin Lab
• SKETCHNOTES: The “Magnificent 7” Baking Ingredients
• Basic Baking Ingredients:  What’s My Function?
• Biscuit Brigade
• Leavening Agents
• Desserts in a Jar
• Chobani Flip Muffins

Photo by Lain De Macias from Pexels