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Ham and Cheese Muffin/BagelPennsylvania Academic Standards: Science:3.8.7.A and 3.3.7 A
While you are eating your ham and cheese muffin, look around the kitchen at all of the machines your family uses daily. Make a list of the machines you see. Your list might included these items: microwave, refrigerator, oven, stove, coffee maker, toaster, blender, food processor, can opener, etc. Machines make our lives easier and give us time to do other things. Hundreds of years ago, most of the day was spent doing household chores. People had to carry water from a well into the house, gather wood to cook over an open fire and clean the house and clothes by hand. To better appreciate the way machines make our lives easier try the following activities with your family and friends:
Activity #1
Ham and Cheese Muffin 150 Years Ago
Using the recipe for the Ham and Cheese Muffin write down the directions as if you were making the muffin 150 years ago. Remember you cannot rely on modern machines because they have not been invented yet. Your directions might look like this:
Directions
- Gather the wheat from the field and mill it into flour.
- Make whole grain bread dough, let the dough rise.
- Gather wood and start a fire for cooking.
- Bake the whole grain bread
To get the ham, you must either slaughter a pig or use meat that has been preserved with salt (no refrigeration). The cheese (low fat was not an option) would have to be aged from milk that you gathered from your cow or goat.
Questions to answer:
The modern recipe for Ham and Cheese Muffins takes approximately 3 minutes or less to prepare. One hundred and fifty years ago, how long do you think the recipe would have taken?
Which modern machine would you miss the most if you had to prepare the recipe following the new directions that you wrote?
Activity #2
How does a microwave work?
Your family probably uses a microwave every day, but did you ever stop to think about how it works? Try to answer the following questions about the microwave oven. Use the Internet as a resource to help you find the answers if you have trouble completing the questions.
- The microwave oven uses powerful ___________ waves to cook food.
- nuclear
- radio
- light
- ocean
- The microwaves used in cooking are very ___________ in length.
- short
- long
- wiggly
- True or False? Microwave ovens are quicker than traditional ovens because the waves heat the inside as well as the outside of food.
- True or False? Microwaves actually cause the water molecules in food to vibrate quickly. When molecules of any substance vibrate quickly, the substance heats up.
Answers: Show/Hide
- B
- A
- True
- True
Information adapted from: How Things Work By Alison Porter, copyright date 2003, published by Barnes and Nobel, Inc.
Funding provided by The Erie County Department of Health & The Pennsylvania Department of Health