35 topics · Preschool to Grade 8

How food is grown and made

Why does popcorn pop, and how does milk turn into cheese? These topics follow food from the field to the table. Children see how wheat becomes flour and bread, how cocoa beans become chocolate and how maple sap boils down to syrup. On the farm, they explore greenhouses, combine harvesters, drip irrigation, hydroponics and crop rotation, and learn how farmers protect plants with natural pest control. Kitchen science runs through it all: yeast that makes dough rise, pasteurization that keeps milk safe, and freezing, drying and pickling that make food last. Each topic has an animation, a look inside, a simulation to try and a challenge, with words for preschool, elementary and middle school.

1Watch it
2Look inside
3Try it
4Solve a challenge
5Go deeper

35 topics in Food & farming

Food & farming

#21 Food & farming How is bread made, and why does dough rise? Mix ingredients, zoom into dough as gas bubbles develop, and watch a loaf change during baking. Compare different rising times in a simulation.

#22 Food & farming How is ice cream made? Follow mixing, chilling, and churning inside a transparent machine. Experiment with simulated churning conditions and explore how air and ice crystals affect texture.

#23 Food & farming How is chocolate made? Follow cacao from pods through fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding, mixing, and molding. Run a miniature chocolate factory and design a finished shape.

#24 Food & farming Why does popcorn pop? Look inside a kernel as it heats. Watch pressure build and the kernel expand, then compare what happens under different simulated heating conditions.

#25 Food & farming How is cheese made? Watch milk form curds, separate curds from whey, and explore pressing and aging. Compare the production stages of fresh and aged cheeses.

#26 Food & farming How is flour made from wheat? Follow grain through cleaning, grinding, and sifting. Look inside a wheat kernel and compare how whole-wheat and white flour are produced.

#27 Food & farming How is pasta made? Mix dough, roll or push it through different shapes, and explore drying and cooking. Create a pasta shape and watch how it changes.

#28 Food & farming How does canned food stay fresh? Follow a factory's preparation, filling, sealing, and heat-treatment stages. Explore how processing and sealed packaging help preserve food.

#29 Food & farming How do greenhouses help plants grow? Manage sunlight, ventilation, temperature, and water in a virtual greenhouse. Grow a crop while responding to changing outdoor conditions.

#30 Food & farming How does a combine harvester work? Look inside the machine as it cuts a crop, separates grain, and stores it. Drive across a field and follow the material's journey.

#276 Food & farming How is yogurt made? Follow helpful bacteria changing milk and compare simulated fermentation conditions.

#277 Food & farming How is butter made? Churn virtual cream and watch fat gather and separate from the remaining liquid.

#278 Food & farming How is tofu made? Follow soybeans through soaking, grinding, heating, coagulation, and pressing.

#279 Food & farming How is fruit juice made? Run fruit through sorting, washing, crushing, pressing, and packaging.

#280 Food & farming How is olive oil made? Follow olives through cleaning, crushing, mixing, and separation into oil and other material.

#281 Food & farming How is sugar made from plants? Extract juice from cane or beets and explore purification, concentration, and crystallization.

#282 Food & farming How is maple syrup made? Collect virtual sap and follow filtering and evaporation as it becomes concentrated.

#283 Food & farming How does fruit become jam? Combine fruit, sugar, and pectin and observe thickening as the mixture cools.

#284 Food & farming How is peanut butter made? Follow peanuts through shelling, roasting, grinding, and mixing to compare textures.

#285 Food & farming How is chewing gum made? Mix a virtual gum base with flavorings, then roll, cut, and wrap it.

#286 Food & farming How is breakfast cereal made? Choose a cereal style and follow cooking, shaping, drying, toasting, and packaging.

#287 Food & farming How does pasteurization work? Follow controlled factory heating and cooling and visualize changes in microbial numbers.

#288 Food & farming How does fruit ripen? Explore changes in color, firmness, aroma, and stored carbohydrates over time.

#289 Food & farming How does drying preserve food? Remove water from virtual fruit and compare moisture, texture, and microbial growth conditions.

#290 Food & farming How does freezing preserve food? Follow ice formation and compare changes in microbial activity and food texture.

#291 Food & farming How are pickles made? Compare vinegar pickling and fermentation while exploring salt, acidity, and preservation.

#292 Food & farming How does rice get from fields to our plates? Follow harvesting, drying, husking, and optional polishing through a miniature processing line.

#293 Food & farming How do potatoes grow underground? Explore underground stems, developing tubers, and harvesting in a virtual potato bed.

#294 Food & farming How does hydroponic farming work? Grow plants with nutrient solution and compare ways to support roots without soil.

#295 Food & farming How does aquaponics connect fish and plants? Trace water through fish tanks, bacterial processing, and plant roots.

#296 Food & farming How does drip irrigation water crops? Arrange pipes and emitters and compare water delivery to different root zones.

#297 Food & farming How does crop rotation help farms? Plan several seasons and explore changing nutrient needs, pests, and soil cover.

#298 Food & farming How do farmers use natural pest control? Introduce beneficial organisms and observe effects on pests and crop damage.

#299 Food & farming How does a hen make an egg? Assemble yolk, albumen, membranes, and shell along a simplified internal timeline.

#300 Food & farming How is sea salt produced? Guide seawater through evaporation, crystallization, harvesting, cleaning, and packaging.

Keep exploring

Games to play

Ratio KitchenScale recipes, fill ratio tables and find the better buy.
Garden AutomationProgram a garden robot with sensor rules — then watch a whole day play out.
Label LabPut the right labels on beautiful science diagrams, from bean plants to heart chambers.

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