COASTAL PROCESSES

This cake stemmed from a GCSE fieldwork adventure to the Dorset Coast. Thanks to the vision of my then HoD (and a bit of a long term planning/calendar nightmare) we took a group of our year 10 and 11 students to the coast for 3 days, before they had started the unit. We covered in 3 days what we might have arguably taken 6 weeks to teach in the classroom, and on our return the students took charge of the rest of the classes’ learning, based on their newly discovered knowledge and understanding.

In these first couple of years of teaching I have heard many arguments for and against the timing and objectives of fieldwork – to introduce, to consolidate, to bring to life, and in fact I have seen all of these done to good effect so I don’t really hold an opinion of whether one or other is “better”.  This particular trip was an example of quite literally teaching in the field. I thought it was great, the boys weren’t allowed to throw a stone into the sea until they had identified it or checked it for a fossil, and the girls could only take arty photos if they could label and annotate it on screen immediately afterwards. I enjoyed this very much, afterall, how easy is it in the classroom to understand that cliffs are millions of years old? Far better to see them right there in front of you and witness for yourself the evidence of their age, isn’t it? Anyway, I digress…where were we?

Method

This one involved branching out into a bit of geology… Experimenting with types of cake to represent types of rock. Hence I used not only the staple brownie recipe, but also a plain sponge recipe (I added a drop of milk to the usual recipe to make it slightly more gooey and pliable). 

·         One portion of sponge mix had blue food colouring added for the sea (the usual blue butter icing was applied over the top)

·         One portion had mixed peal added (to create a matrix rock)

·         One portion was layered in a loaf tin with the brownie to create the horizontal bedding seen on the coastline east of Bournemouth

·         Amaretto chocolate fingers (groynes)

·         Chocolate sprinkles (to show build-up of sediment on one side of groynes)

·         Crumbled layer-cake and pieces of crystallised ginger (landslip)

Application

Being aimed at GCSE students, this cake provides an ideal backdrop for practise exam questions. For example; Using the resource, describe and explain the processes affecting sediment movement on the coast (4) or Explain the management options available for coastal areas where erosion is taking place (6)

As before, it could be used at the centre of a discussion on what was learnt – in this case in the field. Students could use the cake to teach others about what they learnt, or as the basis for a particular case study. You could even branch out and ask “how might be measure the processes going on here?” if the cake is used prior to a fieldtrip. Maybe it could finally provide a fun way of involving students in the pre-trip risk assessment process?!

TSUNAMI!

In a somewhat spooky turn of events, I made this cake just 4 days before the Japanese Tsunami 2011. It was all quite bizarre especially as many people commented that the land set up and overall design looked like the classic textbook diagram of Kobe. Needless to say I was then getting requests for “lottery winner” cakes from the Head of Department, but whatever, it was unexpectedly relevant.

Method

This was a plain-and-chocolate-brownie-marble-cake, and honestly, beyond thinking that the sea bed isn’t cocoa-coloured I can’t really remember my reasoning for moving away from the brownie base I had was comfortable with. You will see there are certain patterns beginning to be repeated, for example, the blue butter icing river and sea, and the green to represent agricultural/fertile land.

It’s not very clear on the photo but the sea in fact was spread on with a pallet knife and there is a pattern depicting the withdrawal of the sea prior to the tsunami waves hitting the shore. Other features:

·         A bit of desiccated coconut again, this time as waves crash

·         Glace cherry (epicentre)

·         Boot laces (S-Waves)

·         Liquorice Allsorts provided the closest I could get to buildings – and once squidged and broken slightly, showed signs of being damaged by an earthquake

·         Melted chocolate and brown icing (liquefaction)

·         Spare brownie, chocolate butter icing and crystallised ginger (high ground)

·         Butter icing so far seems to be the most reliable “glue” in this case for sticking the settlement to the main cake

Application

Nothing new here…see previous uses! Any other ideas? Perhaps could be used as an introduction to, rather than a summary of, the topic. What do students think are the main impacts? Do they understand the processes that cause this event? What Protection, Prevention and Prediction strategies could be used? Or have been used in Asia?