Geek Out On A Show

Ok, I discovered a show on Netflix that I absolutely love because it combine two interesting and rather different activities into one.  The show, "Baking Impossible" pairs bakers up with engineers and each week they are given an assignment to complete.  One pair wins and one pair goes home.

Although it does not directly "show" math, one can see it being used in every single show.  I love the combination of engineering with baking because it shows some unique problem solving.  Yes, problem solving in that if one thing doesn't work, they'll try something else. There were some spectacular loses and some equally spectacular wins.  

The first week started with something fairly simple but each week, the show raised the bar and the challenges became more and more complicated.  The show began with nine pairs and then by the eighth week, only two couples were left.  

The projects were judged on the engineering aspect, the flavor of the cake that had to be moved or protected, and a couple of other things.  Usually the frame of the product is made of wood, electronics, or other nonedible material but the rest of it had to be made of any edible product and there was a cake involved that had to be transported, protected, or presented and the judges tried and enjoyed. For every project, competitors were given parameters including size, any special electronics. 

The first episode had the collaborators create an edible boat that would travel a specific distance in water. Only three boats actually floated and two made it all the way to the end within the time limit.  The majority of boats were too top heavy and just flipped on their sides as soon as they ended up in the water but they all had a second cake for the judges just in case something messed up.  

The second episode brought us a robot that had to navigate an obstacle course included foods such as marshmallows. It was interesting in that only two robots managed to get through the whole course.  All the rest either couldn't turn left or right so they got stuck at the slalom, or they got bogged down in the marshmallow pit.  It was interesting to watch the engineers try to create a robot that could be covered in edible foods.  One failure ended up too wide and heavy so it couldn't even move.  

The third episode had each team create a run with three simple machines to create a Rube Goldberg type machine so if everything worked well, the cake hidden inside a container would be exposed.  The majority of teams started the ball at the top and worked their way down but one team started the energy at the bottom and it went upwards.  Of course some had paths that went directly to the end and others got super creative so they had higher chances of failure.

In the fourth episode, the competitors had the assignment to create mini-golf courses. This episode differed in that the competitors were divided into two teams to create three putt putt golf holes with some sort of theme.  The winning pair came from the winning team and the pair chosen to leave came from the loosing team.  The size was predetermined by the size of the wooden base. 

The fifth episode differed from all the other episodes because the pairs were required to create fashion from edible materials to walk down a runway.  Some of the designs were disjointed while others got so creative and I was impressed by the results.  The models came from previous competitors who had been eliminated.  One group made a cyborg samurai  out of pineapple skins, watermelons, chocolate, pasta and a few other things.

Then the sixth episode required pairs to create a city block with one tall building, a couple of small buildings, surrounding countryside and it had to survive on a shaking table.  The same kind of table that is used in real life to test scale models to see how well they would survive an earthquake.  The cooking competition provided gingerbread for the highest building so the competitors used the same basic building material

By the seventh episode, they were down to three pairs who had to build a car that was five feet wide by eight feet long.  It had to be able to survive a crash going 25 miles per hour.  This meant they had to build the bumper with edible materials so that it would absorb the energy to protect the car.  It was fascinating to see the three different styles of vehicles. Rather than mess with an engine, they hooked the car/truck up to a tow rope.

The last episode had the couples building bridges that would raise for a ship to pass under, allow a weighed car to drive over, and be able to survive having 160 pounds placed on it.  The bridges were over some sort of body of water with the surrounding area decorated.  It was fascinating to see the two different bridges they came up with.  One group basically lost because the road leading up to their bridge was a bit too steep and the car couldn't go up it.

Although they didn't show much direct math, you'd see the engineers sketching out ideas, see people measuring, the bakers determining how much they needed for everything and problem solving.  You could see problem solving being used from start to finish.

I can see this showing students when I had to be out of the classroom.  It is entertaining and if you watch ahead of time, you could easily create a list of questions for students to answer.  I admit much of the obvious things are science based but the math is there.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.