The smell of sweet warming cookies wafted through the halls. While other students were working on assignments, the food science students were baking cookies.

Student teacher Chelsea Harter assigned this lab to her students as a fun way to celebrate National Homemade Cookie Day.

“I was looking forward to baking cookies,” senior Saloni Jariwala said. “I usually don’t bake, so it was my first time making cookies.”

The students were put into four different groups. Each student had a different task of either gathering baking utensils, preparing the cookie dough, keeping time, washing dishes or drying and putting dishes back in the cabinets.

“My job was to wash dishes and help prepare the stuff we needed,” senior Cassidy Cooke said. “I really enjoyed being able to bake cookies in school.”

Weeks before going into the kitchen, students went over food lab rules, procedures and kitchen safety. Students were required to know the rules while cooking or baking and how to prevent or react to dangerous situations.

“Learning about all the procedures and rules was pretty boring, but I understand why we needed to learn them,” senior Addison Lathrop said. “I was just ready to start baking.”

Students wrote a recipe and filled out a food lab plan before participating in the lab. This was to make sure that students knew what they were going to do while in the kitchen.

“Filling out the lab plan and going over the recipe was a good idea,” senior Dishaben Patel said. “I was able to see what we had to do and how to make these cookies.”

After cookies were done baking, students had to let their cookies cool. They set them out in the teachers’ lounge as a treat for the staff.

“It was so tempting not to eat one while they were cooling down,” Jariwala said. “They looked so delicious, and I thought we did such a great job.”

Once students finished cleaning up and washing the dishes, they divided the remaining cookies and ate them at the end of class.

“My favorite part was eating the cookies; they were really good,” senior Jazlynn Early said. “It was fun being able to work with my friends.”