DoughLab STEM Kit: Bake and Learn

Insty ran another of his Amazon links under the name Helen Smith, as they do, and I checked it out because it was titled gifts for STEM students. When you go to the Amazon page you're asked first which age group you're interested in looking to buy a gift for.

I saw this ad for a yeast experiment for kids. It comes with baking materials in a form intended for children and with instructions for various experiments. 

And the whole time I read through it I was not thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" Instead I was thinking, "I already thought of that and I can put together a kit for 1/10 the cost. And I bet I can do better than this." 

On Amazon it has 16 reviews presently and they're all 5 stars and reading through them, now I'm not so sure that I could do as well. The reviews rave about this project kit. They bought the kit for children much younger and much older than the intended range and all of them properly freaked out. They report the children loved the kits, that the instructions have them making comparisons between types of yeast and conditions and they cause the children to ask rather penetrating questions beyond the questions raised by the provided instructions and suggested experiments. The whole thing goes farther than just making visual the effect of yeast activity.

Fifteen years ago I was talking to my sister, the one that bugs me so sorely, and she was asking me about yeast and about sourdough specifically in terms you expect of a child. She seemed genuinely amazed at the things that I was telling her. She just couldn't see it. I told her that you can actually see what the yeast is doing that you can actually measure it if you cared to. Then she asked me how. I told her I'd show her. She lived in Portland at the time so this would have to be by photography. I'd need a balloon to place over a jar then film the balloon being filled with CO2.  I could stack the photographs and animate the stack to show the yeast activity.

Clever, eh?

So I did. 

While that was going on, Dr. Fred stopped by for a visit. The experiment was in full activity. We sat on opposite sides of my dinner/work table with the jar of active sourdough yeast between us. It was at full 100% activity.

Did I mention that I had no balloons around my apartment? 

I couldn't find any. 

So I used a condom instead. Instead of going out and buying a ballon I used what I could find conveniently.

As the condom filled with CO2 gas the limp thing fills rather quickly. It literally pulsates as it inflates giving the appearance of a living human organ, but still limp the whole way up until the final pulse boing erect straight up and Fred would crack up laughing because it looks real. I'd deflate the condom and it would start filling again boing again and Fred would crack up laughing again just as hard as the first time. We were actually having a serious conversation but punctuated with boing, boing, boing, and Fred dying with laughter every single time. This went on for well over an hour and it never stopped being hilarious to him. That's why he kept dropping by, because he never did know what he would expect. There was no way to predict what he might encounter that's so simultaneously stupid and hilarious and vaguely intellectual somewhat instructive at the same time. 

He wanted to take the jar of yeast home with its condom top.

I said, "Fred, this is temporary. You're going to have to feed the yeast continuously and regularly to keep it going this way." And he was not into anything that takes that much dedication just for a laugh.

I just recently saw that animation somewhere and now I cannot find it. But I know it's still around somewhere. I checked all my sites and my computers, I just cannot find it. So I drew one. Just for you. It looks like this:

See what I mean? Given that I used this to demonstrate to my sister, and given Dr. Fred fell in love with this jar of yeast and condom, I'm convinced that I can make a kit from scratch that does the same thing. 

The kit costs $25.00 and it comes with two stupid little cheap plastic bowls and stir sticks, a small package of flour and packages of yeast. Sugar and salt. A couple of tins for baking. And instructions. And ideas for experiments. That's all. Pfffft. 

I could do this for $1.00. 

I bet. 

I could write the instructions and write the experiments. Provide even more and better materials. Package it up in a box as a gift. 

And then I realize, you know, I'm really not up to all that right now. And these guys already did it. So I bought a kit and had it sent to the boys. Man, are they ever going to have a blast.

And it's awfully clever of them to think of using plastic gloves instead of  condoms. I have to give them credit for that. But I know by experience that condoms would be a LOT more funny. Especially to a medical doctor. 

"Once your gloves wave, Hello." How precious.

So much more kid-worthy than "once your condoms become full and erect." See, it takes a special precious mind to even think of something so pure and innocent.

Why didn't I think of using a latex glove? Oh well.

Dough Lab STEM Kit: Bake and Learn.