This material was produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education in 2000 and 2001. It was written
to assist teachers and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau
curriculum statements. The project was jointly coordinated by personnel
from the Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material was carried
out by a national project advisory group.
Making ice cream from sheep's milk has won a St Mary's College, Wellington
student a CREST award for creativity in science and technology.
The student who made the ice cream admitted that her choice of topic
was obvious. "New Zealand has lots of sheep – and I like ice cream",
she said.
She explained that the sheep's milk ice cream would be a good alternative
to existing brands for the small percentage of people who are allergic
to cow's milk. Sheep's milk has the added bonus that it provides more
energy and protein than cow's milk.
She produced samples of vanilla-flavoured sheep's milk ice cream and
compared it to cow's milk ice cream and a half-and-half mix in blind
taste tests she conducted on her classmates.
While she had to admit that the cow's milk ice cream was the most popular,
sheep's milk by itself was heavily favoured over a mix of the two. Some
of the students were of the opinion that the new ice cream had a cheesy
aftertaste, but this was thought to be a problem that could be solved
by adjusting the flavouring.
This award was one of eight CREST awards to be presented to students
at St Mary's in one year.
Ideas
for classroom use
This, in itself, is an idea that students may find worth pursuing further
in their technology course. It is a new product that utilizes a freely
available resource and which has nutritional advantages over existing
products on the market. An opportunity may be seen for further exploration
and development work in a classroom technology programme. Looking at
this example may generate other ideas for technological practice.
CREST awards can be an excellent motivational influence in schools and
more information can be obtained from:
The CREST coordinator The Royal Society of New Zealand
Email: CREST@rsnz.govt.nz
