03 Oct The Science of Pizza, Diets, and the Esophagus

Last week two of my favorite YouTube channels, TED-Ed and SciShow Kids, published new videos on the topics of food and weight loss. And those videos reminded me of the Reactions playlist of 76 videos about food science including Better Pizza Through Chemistry. Between the three videos there are lessons for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. 

In How Does Food Get to Our Stomach and More Answers to Your Questions SciShow Kids explains to primary grade students the role of the esophagus in getting food into our stomachs. The video also explains the difference between the esophagus and the trachea and what it means when we say “something went down the wrong tube.” Jump to the 3:03 mark in the video for the lesson. 

Is It Possible to Lose Weight Fast? is a new TED-Ed lesson that explains the basic concept of weight loss and what happens in your body when you have a calorie deficit. The video gives a scientific explanation of why just having a calorie deficit or using a “detoxification” diet in which you entirely avoid certain types of foods don’t work in the long run. Unlike some TED-Ed lessons, this one has some good questions to support your use of the video in your classroom.

Like a lot of families, every few Friday nights is pizza night in our house. As you can see in the picture in this post, even our cat gets in on the fun. And try as we might, we just can’t make pizza that turns out as well as pizza from a local pizza restaurant. But that could change if we utilize some of the tips in the Reactions video titled Better Pizza Through Chemistry. The video does a nice job of explaining the science of making a good pizza dough including why we need to give it more time to rise and need to bake it at a much higher temperature.

Last week two of my favorite YouTube channels, TED-Ed and SciShow Kids, published new videos on the topics of food and weight loss. And those videos reminded me of the Reactions playlist of 76 videos about food science including Better Pizza Through Chemistry. Between the three videos there are lessons for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. In How Does Food Get to Our Stomach and More Answers to Your Questions SciShow Kids explains to primary grade students the role of the esophagus in getting food into our stomachs. The video also explains the difference between the esophagus and the trachea and what it means when we say “something went down the wrong tube.” Jump to the 3:03 mark in the video for the lesson. Is It Possible to Lose Weight Fast? is a new TED-Ed lesson that explains the basic concept of weight loss and what happens in your body when you have a calorie deficit. The video gives a scientific explanation of why just having a calorie deficit or using a “detoxification” diet in which you entirely avoid certain types of foods don’t work in the long run. Unlike some TED-Ed lessons, this one has some good questions to support your use of the video in your classroom. Like a lot of families, every few Friday nights is pizza night in our house. As you can see in the picture in this post, even our cat gets in on the fun. And try as we might, we just can’t make pizza that turns out as well as pizza from a local pizza restaurant. But that could change if we utilize some of the tips in the Reactions video titled Better Pizza Through Chemistry. The video does a nice job of explaining the science of making a good pizza dough including why we need to give it more time to rise and need to bake it at a much higher temperature.
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