First Practical Lesson for Home Economics Semester 2

Making  Jam Drops

Changing Culture Unit- August 2nd, First Practical  

Teamwork- How did our team work together?

I think that for our first practical lesson as a group that didn't do Home Economics for the first semester, we did very well! I had Connor, Jnaya and Jessica in my group and we seemed to gel quite nicely. We all seemed to know each other quite well and made according to Mrs Hindson "Perfect Jam Drops". We all did our part in cleaning up after as well as cooking and preparing the food. We seemed to work efficiently and had time to spare, that we used for cleaning up and reflecting on our team. As a member of our team is quite quiet compared to the rest of us, it was a bit hard for her to express her opinion, and we will definitely work on including her more into the preparing part, although she did play a big part in the actual forming the dough into balls. I think our team all work very well together and all seem to have some sort of grasp on what exactly it is we are doing. 

Tasks 
In our group, we had different people with different skills and we utilised each of our skills. For example, Jessica is very good at folding the flour into the mixture, we all knew that she was good at that so we had her do that. As Connor has big thumbs, we had him put the little dips into the dough. 

Skills within team 
Each member of our team have different skills, and we tried our best to incorporate those as best as we could. We all communicated who was doing what and our time management was great too. I do think that we could make a small schedule for who is doing what chores such as washing, or drying dishes or wiping the bench. We also need to think more strategically about who is doing what. 

Improvements 
I think we need to continue improving our time management skills. They weren't too bad this lesson, but this task was simple, as each task gets harder, we need to work and communicate together more. 

Outcome- What was the outcome of our product? 

Here we have two photos of our product, the before, and the after. I think we did a very good job of producing our product and all worked together to make something that was tasty to eat and fun to make. Our team was satisfied with how the Jam Drops tasted, and as someone who has never had Jam Drops before, I think they were pretty good and I might make them myself at home! The texture of the biscuits was just right, especially after a nice cooling, the jam wasn't too hot and the biscuits weren't too soft, just the right amount of goldenness on the outside. 


Feedback 
Every member of our team was quite satisfied with our end product. Mrs Hindson said that we did quite a good job as well. 

Taste, Texture of the product
The biscuits were delicious and had quite a nice vanilla tint to them. There was a small crunch to the biscuits and it was very nice. There was a nice jam-biscuit ratio and the edges were a beautiful golden brown. I think they tasted very nice. 

Improvements and modifications 
I think that if I ever make Jam drops next time, I might switch the jam flavours and try maybe apricot or raspberry jam. It would be cool to have different choices if you had them for a party or gathering. 

Next time- What will we improve for next practical? 

I think that for the next practical, our group needs to keep up what we are doing currently, as well as start to better our communication skills. This practical, we did have some times when everyone was talking at once and it was a bit hard to make some decisions based on that. So that's what I think we need to do for next time. We should definitely keep doing what we are doing and soldier on because our group seems to work quite well together. 

Next steps for own learning 
I think that I might try to recreate this recipe at home and experiment with different flavours of jam. Next practical lesson we will try to communicate more efficiently and manage our time.