St Francis de Sales College student Charlotte Peacock combined science and chocolate in her Activating Identities and Futures (AIF) project, exploring the chemistry behind tempering chocolate.

"I'm a visual and Kinaesthetic  learner," Charlotte said. 

"I chose to do food chemistry, which has lots of visual elements, but also lots of technical elements as well."

After exploring a range of possibilities and seeking advice from teachers and industry professionals, Charlotte narrowed her focus to chocolate tempering, the process of heating and cooling chocolate to create the glossy finish and satisfying snap found in quality chocolate.

What followed was seven rounds of experimentation, setbacks and refinement. Charlotte sought feedback from Melba’s Chocolates, an industry chocolatier and her chemistry teacher, adjusting everything from the type of chocolate to heat distribution, bowl size and cooling methods.

“Each time it went wrong, I took that into account when planning my next trial,” she said. “I had a basic method in trial one, and then I built upon it up until trial seven.”

By the seventh trial, Charlotte had successfully tempered her chocolate.

"The chocolate had a shine to it, and when it's not dull and it doesn't leave fingerprints, it's normally a pretty good sign that you've tempered chocolate correctly," she said.

"It was so good to finally see it." 

Her project is a strong example of Natural Evidence of Learning. Rather than relying on a traditional test, Charlotte demonstrated her learning through practical experimentation, expert feedback, problem-solving and a tangible final product.