Our courses and activities
Since 2019, we have developed various in-person and remote courses for undergraduate Chemistry, Medical Biosciences and Medicine students. We have also worked collaboratively with the Technical University of Munich to deliver our teaching to their students, and worked on various outreach activities. An iExplore module is also under development to be implemented this academic year.
Our Courses and Activities
Chemical Kitchen
Chemical Kitchen, our first and flagship project, aims to introduce all incoming undergraduate Chemistry students to laboratory practice through the transdisciplinary parallel of gastronomy.
The students engage in a series of experiments mimicking the work in a Synthetic Chemistry laboratory, ranging from simply following a protocol to make cheese, designing an experiment to cook the perfect egg yolk, and exploring their creativity through molecular gastronomy recipes, all while learning how to work in a laboratory and take detailed notes. In the end, they create three small dishes utilizing the products of their work.
Medical Kitchen
The Medical Kitchen course addresses the skill gap experienced by 2nd year students when they start their clinical skills training by having them practice meticulous culinary knife skills.
The students engage in two activities: turning vegetables - a classic French culinary skills, and suturing a banana - resembling suturing a patient. They explore the similarities in learning these skills, and complexities that arise from performing these skills in front of their colleagues, with reflective sessions consolidating their learning.
Biomedical Kitchen
Biomedical Kitchen aims to introduce 1st year Medical Biosciences students to laboratory practice through the transdisciplinary parallel of gastronomy. An adaptation of Chemical Kitchen, it has been tailored to suit the particular skills needed in their further studies.
To resemble the LabPod 1 module, the students engage in extensive eModule activities. In the Biomedical Kitchen, they learn how to work in a sterile and organized way by designing a yogurt experiment, have their first experience handling delicate thin gels, and engage with creative molecular gastronomy techniques to create 10 identical canapes.
Our Courses and Activities
Science, Cooking and Performance - iExplore
We are currently developing an I-Explore module to start in term 2 of AY 22-23 called Science, Cooking and Performance, to be provided by the Department of Chemistry in close collaboration with the Centre for Performance Science. This will be an advanced 10-week course, in which UG students from across the College will be able to explore interdisciplinary teamwork, establish a sense of agency, and focus on themselves as "performers" under the guise of developing a sustainable food product.
Collaboration with Technical University of Munich
In 2020, we have started a collaboration with the Technical University of Munich within the Imperial–TUM Strategic Partnership in Education, Research and Innovation. Since then, we have delivered both the Chemical and Medical Kitchen courses to Neuroscience and Medicine students remotely and in person. We are currently in the process of defining a new teaching innovation project to be developed and implemented collaboratively.
Outreach activities
The universal nature of gastronomy, or working in the kitchen, makes it uniquely suited to be a transdisciplinary parallel for public engagement and outreach activities in STEMM. Everyone has a relationship with food, and almost everyone has access to a kitchen - making the activities engaging and deliverable both in person in remotely.
The Chemical Kitchen has engaged, among others, students from Year 12 Sutton Trust Summer School, STEM Potential, as well as the general public during Imperial Lates and the Great Exhibition Road Festival. The activities and workshops focus on and introducing and engaging them in practical laboratory work through the lens of the kitchen. Currently, we are developing new outreach activities in collaboration with Invention Rooms, and are looking to develop our outreach portfolio in White City.
Student engagement
In the last few years, we have engaged with and contributed to the undergraduate and postgraduate student communities at Imperial College London.
The activities we have organized include Chemical Kitchen-themed competitions with ChemSoc, and live-streamed cookalongs and kitchen-themed discussions with experts during the pandemic for students to enjoy at home.
Moreover, on an annual basis, we are organizing welcome week Chemical Kitchen workshops for incoming postgraduate students, together with ICB CDT and MultiSci MRC DPT programmes - and we are seeking for scope to develop new teaching interventions directed at postgraduates.