Teacher's Guide for ODYSSEY ^TM How Sweet It Is: The Chemistry of Chocolate

Format:
Article, Page
Summary
Skills

"Chocolate & You," pg. 6
Chocolate contains flavenols that promote cardiovascular health and ward off age-related diseases. However, chocolate is high in calories, and too much can cause weight gain, increasing the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Sidebars explore nutritional labeling, the myth about chocolate causing acne, and the "love chemical" in chocolate.
Cause and Effect, Vocabulary

"Growing Chocolate!," pg. 10
The ancient Aztecs revered chocolate, and the Spanish explorer Cort' ©s introduced the bitter drink to Europe. Today, chocolate comes in many forms and is enjoyed all over the world, although chocolate trees grow only in the tropics.
Process Analysis, Historical Context

"From Bean to Bar," pg. 13
Turning cacao beans into chocolate bars requires fermentation, drying, roasting, chopping, grinding, and pressing.
Process Analysis, Cause and Effect

"Home, Sweet Home -- Milton S. Hershey's Chocolate Legacy," pg. 16
Through keen insight and hard work, a poor boy who barely acquired a fourth-grade education built a chocolate empire and became a generous philanthropist.
Biographical Analysis, Science and Society

"Coming Soon to a Museum Near You. . .The Traveling Chocolate Tour!," pg. 20
The traveling exhibit titled "Chocolate" may soon visit a museum near you.
Historical Context, Cultural Awareness

"Ahhh. . .Chocolate. . .Ahhh. . .Candy Bars!," pg. 21
Take a candy bar trivia quiz.
Historical Context, Drawing Conclusions

"Chocolate Ghosts," pg. 23
An early Mayan "teapot" tells us that chocolate was consumed much earlier in history than was once thought, apparently first by the Olmecs nearly 3,000 years ago. Tracing the history of chocolate is serious detective work, as revealed by the sidebar (pg. 25) describing ancient Mayan hieroglyphs.
Laboratory Methods, Inductive Reasoning

"Melts in Your Mouth -- Not in Iraq" (Activity to Discover), pg. 26
High school students in Wales experimented until they found a way to prevent chocolate from melting in the searing desert climate of Iraq. Follow their recipe in your own kitchen (pg. 28).
Scientific Methods, Following Directions

"Sweet Dreams?" (Activity to Discover), pg. 29
Using a glossary of chocolate terms, fill in the blanks in the story of a fantastic dream.
Vocabulary, Following Directions

"The Other Chocolate," pg. 32
White chocolate is not true chocolate, but the Food and Drug Administration permits the name to be used. A recipe using white chocolate chips is included (pg. 34).
Classification, Comparing and Contrasting

"Cut the Chocolate" (Brain Strain), pg. 35
Can you cut a bar of chocolate into quadrilaterals containing the right numbers of squares? Sharpen your wits as you solve this sweet puzzle.
Following Directions, Spatial Relations

"Chocolate to Die For: An Interview with Chef Marcel Desaulniers" (People to Discover), pg. 36
Follow the career of the "Death by Chocolate" inventor, from his teen years when he worked in restaurants to his present status as an award-winning chef and author. Included is one of his yummy recipes (pg. 37).
Career Paths, Applications

"The Chocolate Club," pg. 38
A student club at MIT makes chocolate truffles. Follow their instructions to prepare your own truffles (pg. 40).
Applications, Following Directions

"Giant Planet Gazing! and Messages to Space" (What's Up and You Can Do Astronomy), pg. 42
Discover the messages sent into space in hope of making alien contact, and then design your own. While you wait for an answer, check out Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn in the evening sky and Venus and Mars in the morning.
Observation, Following Directions

1. In what forms do we use and consume chocolate? Which is your favorite? How do the forms of chocolate differ in their physical, chemical, and aesthetic properties? Make lists to compare and contrast those attributes.
2. What characteristics make chocolate special and distinctly different from other foods? What "needs" does chocolate satisfy that other foods, such as Brussels sprouts, do not?

Pg. 6 - "Chocolate and You"

• Talk It Over:
  1. What are some of the myths about chocolate that are discussed in the article? (For this discussion, define a "myth" as something that people mistakenly believe to be true.) What other myths about chocolate and other foods can you identify?
  2. What makes us "like" one food and "hate" another? Why does (nearly) everyone like chocolate, while few people pick lettuce as their favorite food?
• Connections:
  1. History: Research the origin and evolution of Valentine's Day. Write a report or give a speech about how the holiday began and how its observance has changed over the years. Include information on how and why chocolate became a favorite Valentine's Day gift.
  2. Graphic Arts/Nutrition: Cut out or copy the nutrition labels from food products that contain chocolate. Arrange them on a poster, using arrows and tags to explain what each entry on the labels means and why it is important.
  3. Creative Writing: Choose a popular song and write alternative lyrics praising chocolate. Don't like chocolate? Compose an antichocolate anthem, sure to make even a serious chocoholic think twice before chomping another melting morsel.
• Student Assessment:
  1. Write an expository essay that explains the biology and chemistry behind why humans enjoy chocolate. Give at least two specific examples.
  2. Prepare a speech to persuade weight watchers to include small amounts of chocolate in their diets. Be sure to address your audience's likely objections to your proposal.

Pg. 16 - "Home, Sweet Home -- Milton S. Hershey's Chocolate Legacy"

• Talk It Over:
  1. Did Milton Hershey get better advice from his mother or his father? What makes you think so?
  2. How do you define success? What are the traits you see in all successful people? What defined success for Milton Hershey? Was there more to his success than money?
• Connections:
  1. Visual Arts: Milton Hershey built his own "chocolate town." If you owned a candy factory and wanted to build a town around it, how would you design it? What buildings and services would you need? Who would live where? Display a map of your town on a poster. Label all the structures and be ready to offer your classmates a verbal "tour."
  2. Language Arts: Pretend that you are a student living at the Hershey Industrial School. Write a letter to a friend describing your daily routines, as well as the unique sort of education you are receiving.
  3. Graphic Design/History: Research the events of Hershey's life and organize them into a time line. Next, convert your timeline into a map, showing his movements around the nation as well as through time.
• Student Assessment:
  1. Write an obituary for Milton Hershey, who died in 1945. Include key moments in his life and write about how his life had meaning for everyone, both then and now.
  2. In a brief essay, define the word philanthropist. Explain how your definition applies to Milton Hershey. Then apply your definition to someone else you know or have read about.

In 1938, NECCO used a skywriting campaign to introduce the Skybar.

Whole-Class Project: You know you want to conduct a taste test! Set a specific goal (e.g., to compare the flavor of milk and dark chocolate, to determine the smoothest candy bar, etc.). Make sure tasters are blindfolded. Keep the test unbiased by cutting candy bars into unrecognizable pieces or placing samples in closed containers. Record preferences and comments. Analyze data for trends -- for example, to determine if males and females have different preferences or if students and faculty differ in their ratings.

Frank and Ethel Mars introduced the Snickers bar in 1929. They named it after a horse.

Community Connection: Look in the phone book and find a local chocolatier. Invite him or her to speak to your class about candy-making techniques and about how new chocolate products are invented and developed. Perhaps the class can visit a chocolate factory.

James Welch saw a Broadway play in 1949 called Junior Miss. He liked the play so much that he named his candy treat Junior Mints.

Individual Project: Have each student bring in a family-favorite chocolate recipe. The recipes can come from a cookbook the family uses (cite the reference), or they can be handed down over generations. Collect the recipes and organize them into a cookbook. Photocopy your cookbook for the school and community libraries.

In 1923, Otto Schnering of the Curtiss Candy Co. promoted Butterfingers and Baby Ruths by dropping hundreds of them from an airplane -- each with its own little parachute.

Small-Group Collaboration: Plan and conduct a chocolate scavenger hunt. Include on your "hunt list" certain kinds of chocolate, but also have seekers locate such items as a cocoa mug, a magazine ad for chocolate, or a nonedible item that looks like chocolate.

Home

Back

Print

Updated: 7/20/08 06:41 pm
Log In