Here’s another grateful grant winner! Trevor Horn, an Agriculture and Food Science instructor at Reynoldsburg City Schools’ Health Sciences and Human Services (HS)2 STEM Academy, received a fermentation kit, along with other science supplies, thanks to Ohio Corn & Wheat.
Here, students in his Applications of Food Science and Safety class are working on the corn fermentation lesson. Ethanol production is based upon a process called “fermentation,” yeast eat simple sugars and produce carbon dioxide and ethanol as waste products. In this lesson, students test the process of fermentation using resealable bags with yeast, warm water, various feedstocks and enzymes. They measure the changes in plastic bags due to fermentation of the feedstocks with breathalyzers and bag inflation.
“This group of seniors loved learning the concepts of what happens when the corn and different sugars work together to activate the yeast. Being able to get their hands on the process started to connect the dots with some of the food science concepts they’ve been taught!” Horn said.
