How cool is your drink?
5
Using a blender
In Session 3 of the suggested teaching sequence children learn to use a variety of hand tools that will be useful in producing their cold drinks. This is an important part of their learning and should not be omitted.
However giving the class access to a blender can provide an exciting and useful addition to the practical work. If any child wants to produce a 'slush' drink, the blender can be used to produce crushed ice. If any child wishes to produce a 'smoothie' the blender can be used to produce fruit purees that can be whisked into a milky mixture. Of course the blender will have to be used mainly by you or another adult or by a child under close individual supervision.
There is the added opportunity of a class discussion about a technical product - what it does, why it is useful and how it works. If your particular blender is easy to take to pieces (and put back together again!) it is well worth showing the class the blender disassembled so that they can identify the function of the hidden parts - the motor, the gearbox, the shaft that drives the blending tools, etc.