Helen+Andrews+(French)

Helen Andrews

CSIRO is encouraging scientists to form partnerships with schools to promote an interest in science among the growing generation. I work for CSIRO division of Food and Nutrition Science. My training is in agricultural engineering and food science. Science is not only Physics and Chemistry. Every facet of our world is described or affected by science. I am currently working on emulsion formation and describing the mechanisms at the oil-water interface. I am also producing food formats for our nutritionists to test the way nutrients are absorbed from vegetables.

In 2009 and 2010, I visited the Grade 1s to help them learn where dairy foods come from. All the children had an opportunity to stir cream until it turned into butter and watch how the whey or butter milk is squeezed out of the butter. We talked about the bacteria which are used to make milk into yogurt. The children helped inoculate some milk, which I incubated and returned to them the next morning they could see and smell the yogurt that they had made. We discussed how powdered milk is made by spray drying and then reconstituted milk powder into liquid milk.