Soy beautiful: applied chemistry

What STEM equipment is used to make soy-based beauty products?
Students act as lab technicians working for a cosmetic company and learn the names, functions and units of common lab and measuring equipment by generating soy-based beauty products. Students will learn how to use SLOPs to create soy-based beauty products and research STEM career fields within the cosmetic industry. See teacher background →

Lessons

# Tools of the Trade

Students will identify common laboratory equipment that is used to measure ingredients of beauty products.

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# Fingernail Polish Color Creation

Students mix mica, glitter and nail polish base, to make nail polish.

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# Soy Milk Bath

Students make milk bath in tea bags with soy milk, cocoa butter, sea salt and fragrance.

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# Soy Milk Soap

Students make soap with glycerin from soy milk.

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# Soy Based Lip Balm

Students make soy-based lip balm with soy wax and flavorings.

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Teacher background

Chemists work in every level of the cosmetic creation process, from writing formulas to testing new products. They can be responsible for basic laboratory procedures and for managing materials acquisition and distribution within a company. Some cosmetic chemists work in the laboratory, and some focus on sales and marketing of the products they create. Another area of expertise for cosmetic chemists is strict adherence to safety protocols and regional regulations governing the manufacture and sale of products intended for human use. Safe testing procedures of cosmetic products are also followed and monitored by a cosmetic chemist.

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Next gen science standards

Science and engineering practices

  • Using mathematics and computational thinking

Crosscutting concepts

  • Scale, proportion, and quantity

Disciplinary core ideas/content

  • ESS3C Human impacts on Earth systems
  • LS1D Information processing
  • PS1A Structure of matter
  • PS2B Types of interactions

Curriculum author