CASE STUDY IN USING FOOD AS AN ANALOGE MODEL IN A TITLE 1 HIGH SCHOOL

A synopsis of food related breakthroughs and mishaps that have occurred in a title 1, majority-minority high school ever since I tried to explain crystallization temperatures of Bowen’s Reaction Series with something that my teachers taught me. They said, “Imagine a frozen block of ice, butter, and chocolate…” but I was met with nothing but blank stares.

Students had no concept of butter out on a counter, in a city where daily temperatures exceed 100 f for a third of the year. There are also connections between socioeconomic status, race, and shortenings used at home. Finally, solid chocolate is usually only melted when making homemade desserts, or old fashioned hot coco which is also not normal for the student body.

To relate the idea more clearly, a block of this food analogue for granite was constructed and allowed to melt. Initial construction techniques will be described. As the block melted, observations and some weighing of melted material showed that ice does indeed melt before chocolate. To help show the idea to completion, the resulted slurry was heated until everything had melted, then allowed to cool slowly. The analog almost showed fractional crystallization, but butter and chocolate mix relatively well when heated. There are different foods that wouldn’t mix as much when melted that will be discussed, as well as different springboards to more advanced discussions of petrology.