It's a sleepy Saturday morning for most people, but not for Iris, who has to feed her many pets before Aunt Mary arrives. Iris likes to call Aunt Mary "Plant Mary" because she is a plant scientist. Today Aunt Mary wants to experiment with making whole wheat sourdough bread from scratch! As the family kitchen transforms into a bread lab, Iris is surprised that bread needs only four ingredients—flour, water, salt, and starter. She also learns about the invisible microbes that make the dough rise, and how flour comes from wheat grown by farmers. It all seems magical, but it's really science.

Check out the Explore the WSU Breadlab video. In this video, students will meet Kim Binczewski, co-author of Bread Lab!, as she and King Arthur Baking School Instructor Leah Starr demonstrate making bread and explore the bread lab, milling room, and seed library at Washington State University.

You can also hear from Kim Binczewski, managing director of WSU Breadlab and co-author of Bread Lab!, provide a message for kids who would like to turn their home kitchen into their very own bread lab in this video.

Kim Binczewski and Bethany Econopouly