Our third day out with the IEP junior students will be a tough act to follow; I think all agree this was perhaps our best day yet! Why? Anything involving chocolate always wins.

We began the day be visiting three notable temples in Chiang Mai; Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh and Wat Umong. These temples are of significant historical importance to the people of Chiang Mai, and are therefore valuable cultural learning experiences for our students and teachers.

Ancient Ruins and Sacred Holy Sites of the Lanna Kingdom

The second half of our day was spent at Siamaya Chocolate factory, where the magic of alchemy happens! Students experienced first hand how cacao beans are fermented to ultimately become mouth-watering chocolate. We learned about sustainability, farm to table, what it takes to run a small (but very quickly growing!) business and fair trade. The students were mesmerised by the amount of work and know-how it takes to make a bar just one bar of chocolate. We learned that Siamaya is presently producing approximately 650 bars of chocolate per week. All chocolate is handmade, hand packed and super delicious!

Tomorrow will be our last day out for the week, we will return to the classroom on Friday to synthesise all of the wonderful learning experiences we had throughout the week. As always stay tuned to the IEP blog to learn more about our experiential learning adventures. After Thursday’s post, it will be our students’ turn to write for a change.