Chew on This!

Lorraine Douglas is the youth services co-ordinator at the Winnipeg
Public Library.

The Chew on This! kit contains a handbook, a cooking tray, a stir stick,
and the ingredients for cooking bubble gum. Featured in the book are gum
facts, gum jokes, the history of gum, and step-by-step instructions for
cooking the gum and making gum wrappers. The packages of ingredients
contain corn syrup, gum base, and icing sugar. The kit is useful for
only the one activity because the exact ingredients for the gum base are
not given. Although the box claims that the kit is “scientific fun,”
there is little science in the contents. Instead, this “one-shot”
cooking activity and instruction book does not give children the
opportunity to investigate science independently. Not recommended.