All posts by Miss Irvine

S2 fish and wool Trip

Uncategorized, Wider Achievement, , ,

The final topic covered in HE for S2/the new S3 was fishing and agriculture. In class they learned the different species around Shetland and about the seafood sector as well as looking at wool and the Shetland dairy for agriculture. They looked at the huge range of jobs available in each sector and the personal qualities required to be successful in these careers.

On Monday they had a visit to the fish market, Pelagia and the Wool broker in Lerwick organised with support from our work experience organiser Emily Von Tonder who also arranged funding for the transport. It was a great opportunity for the pupils to see the importance of fishing and wool to the local economy and learn about their recognition and impact worldwide.

Our first stop was the fish market, Norma Anderson explained the dutch auction to us and how the fish was auctioned around the world. The bairns could watch the auction take place through the window and on a screen. Norma also spoke through the timeline of fish being caught and brought to market. Miranda took the bairns through to the market to see how fish was landed and with plenty of landings in, they saw a range o species including monkfish, haddock, cod, lemon sole, halibut as well as different sizes.

It was interesting to hear about the different jobs in the market, the competition between boats and buyers and the importance of working hard and having pride in your work to build up a good reputation for your boat.

Next was a whistle stop tour of Pelagia, with herring and mackerel being out of season it was a good chance to have a look around the empty factory and machinery used to process fish. Three of the four adults accompanying the trip were former fish factory workers and were surprised at the changes inside factories and the increase of machinery and technology over the years.

We had a quick look in the -20 cold store before going outside to see where the fish is pumped ashore, see and hear about the factory in Bressay as well as future expansion works.

We had time to walk around the piers and look at the different boats berthed at the piers before having lunch back at the fish market in the auction room. Norma kindly provided the bairns crisps and a twix and pupils enjoyed having their own mock auctions, you never know, some might end up back working in the fish market in some capacity in a few years time!

After lunch we headed up to the wool brokers and had a fascinating insight into the history of Jamieson and Smith’s. Oliver Henry spoke to the bairns and showed off various fleece colours and grades before going through a timeline of wool products, each with a story to tell.

It’s been a really interesting day and certainly makes you feel proud of our world famous produce and appreciate even more the fish on your plate and the wool in our jumpers.

Some comments from the bairns.

It was cool to see inside Pelagia.

I enjoyed looking at the fish in the fish market.

It was good going for a walk around the pier to see the boats.

I thought the way they did the fish auction was interesting.

Hearing about the history of the wool broker was interesting.

RNLI and Home Economics

Home Economics,

Last week to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the lifeboat, pupils in S3 and S4 went to needlefelt RNLI themed gifts at Peerie Oorick with the talented Ann Marie Anderson.

They needle felted 2 designs, which were presented at the Fish and chip fundraiser to Linda and Hazel who came up to represent the lifeboat with items from the shop.

To continue celebrating the sea, S2, S3 and S4 all cooked fish pies this week.

 

S4 Food Science Experiments

Home Economics, Uncategorized

In the past few weeks we’ve been looking at functional properties of different foods. We have been cooking and doing some experiments to test these properties. So far we have carried out an experiment on sugar  caramelisation and today we have been looking at why some fats are not suitable for shortening.

We began by making four batches of shortbread using different fats; butter, sunflower oil, stork margarine and crisp n dry and a dairy free sunflower spread. The quantities of ingredients were the same for each batch, they were shaped the same and baked at the same temperature and  to keep the experiment fair.

Appearance – The only batch to look different before going into the oven was the Sunflower oil. It poured like a thick paste into the tin, the other batches could be shaped into a rectangle. The dairy free spread batch was the most yellow more yellow than the crisp n dry and stork. The dairy free batch stayed the most yellow after cooking.

Texture – The Sunflower oil mixture didn’t bake like the other batches, it dried out when it cooled but very oily and crumbly.

Taste – The shortbread made with butter tasted the best, followed by crisp n dry and stork. The dairy free spread shortbread was dense and tasted salty and the Sunflower oil batch was not good. It was very thin, crumbly and strong tasting.

We had a visit from some eager testers and it was interesting to discuss our findings with other teachers and pupils.