A "Sweet Twist" to a Saturday Night

At 8:12 p.m. on a spring Saturday night, students are stirring steaming pots on the ground floor of the Schoolhouse. Thermometers, sticking out of the pots, are monitored closely. A sweet smell begins to drift around the room, and Genevieve Fowler '12, a Groton physics teacher, tells an eager student that he can finally, finally start pouring out the chocolate.

Ms. Fowler provides extracurricular opportunities for students to use Groton’s new science classrooms, especially the Fab Lab, which houses machines and equipment used by engineering and physics classes—and by other students who want to tinker. On the evening of April 8, she is teaching students how to use silicon molds—made with the help of the Fab Lab's laser cutter and 3D printer—to create chocolate in any shape they choose.  
 
Students' molds include a grasshopper, the face of Second Former, retainers, the head of a character in The Walking Dead, and a raccoon. To create these molds, moldable silicon is pressed against a "positive," which acts as a stamp. The negative space created by the positive is then filled with melted chocolate, and once the chocolate cools and hardens, the silicon is peeled off.
 
Students were marveling at how this workshop mixes their favorite food and their favorite academic subject. Ms. Fowler says it provides a “great opportunity to combine science fabrication skills and food that people love.” It also appears to teach students patience, because students had to wait for the silicon to harden, the chocolate to be properly tempered, and then the melted chocolate to harden again in the mold. One participant was spotted multiple times eating gobs of melted chocolate from a cooling pot. 

As Macy Lipkin ’18 says, the chocolate workshop certainly gives a “sweet twist” to a Saturday night.—Hanna Kim ’17

Photos by Genevieve Fowler '12 and Hanna Kim '17
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