CHEMISTRY, THE HEALTHY INGREDIENT

This project is based in two different objectives, but at the same time very related to each other. One of the main goals is to enhance the importance of alimentation as the people health concerned, showing that chemistry is one of the indispensable nutrients. On the other hand, the improvement of the chemistry image is the other objective, as it has been bad treated during the last decades.

We designed two different set of workshop, which can be adapted to any range of ages:

- Oxidation
o What is missing if the natural orange juice is not drunk immediately?
o What is going on when we cut some fresh vegetables?
o Which are the benefits of grating and waiting to eat an apple?
o Model the different processes with molecular models

- Cooking with no fire
o Cooking with lemon and vinager: marination. Acid effect on proteins
o Keep vegetables within vinager: Why?
o Phase changes: from liquid (milk) to solid (cheese)
o Salting: effect of NaCl on proteins

These workshops, which can be adapted to different levels, were offered during Sciencie Week but, as they are very easy to performed, can be exported to any primary and secondary school level. A part of being a good example of transferring discipline project, it can be used as a undergraduate experience to enhance general science learning.