I expanded on the typical unknown powder lab and included parents and diversity. First, before the lab, I have the students work with their parents to find white powders in their kitchen....examine them.....and then create an experiment with them. Many of them burnt them or put them in water. Because they did this first, when they started the powder lab they had previous knowledge that they can use to start making hypothesis. To make it a true inquiry activity I told them I was never going to tell them what the powders were......they were just required to make a good argument about what powders they thought they had. Then I collected the data from all of the groups in every class and ....if groups with cup #5 from every class came up with the same conclusion then we could make a scientific law that those powders were in the mixture.

To finish the activity and the unit of chemical and physical changes, I had them bake something using at least three white powders and they were encouraged to bring in something that represented their heritage or a family recipe. Along with the food they were asked to research each ingredient and talk about how it contributes to the final product. They also had to list chemical and physical changes that they saw. I made a stipulation that they had to put it in the oven to make sure they would have chemical changes. They learned things like sugar is what makes the food brown, baking soda makes the batter rise because of a chemical change that produces gas, and corn starch is what thicken sauces. It as fun and it was the first time many of them had ever baked. When they gave presentations many of them were proud of their ethnic dishes and the students loved tasting new things. Students had to bring in a small sample of what they cooked but if they wanted they could bring in enough for the whole class. They loved it..especially because they could eat in the classroom. For handouts e-mail me at jlarendt@cps.edu

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