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Technologies K–10 · Years 3–4

From wheat grain to flour: milling by hand

Living World (NSW Science and Technology K–6, 2017, agriculture); Design and Technologies: Knowledge and understanding, Technologies context: Food and fibre production (ACARA v9)

PracticalLow risk

The idea

Milling breaks wheat grains into flour, and sieving separates the brown bran from the white endosperm flour, while the total mass stays the same apart from dust that escapes.

Safety card

Low riskAn adult supervises

Hazards

  • Wheat allergy and coeliac disease
  • Flour dust
  • Grain on the floor is slippery

Controls

  • Check allergy and medical plans; no tasting; affected learners observe rather than grind
  • Grind gently at table height; sweep spills at once

Note

No heat or chemicals. Record on Primary School RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au).

What you need

  • 50 g of whole wheat grain (food grade) per group
  • 1 mortar and pestle
  • 1 kitchen scale reading to 1 g
  • 1 fine kitchen sieve and 2 bowls
  • 1 hand lens and a paper towel

How to do it

  1. Look at a few grains with the hand lens and find the brown outer layer (bran) and the small bump at one end (germ).
  2. Weigh 50 g of grain.
  3. Take turns grinding for 10 minutes in total, a small handful at a time.
  4. Sieve the ground grain. Weigh the fine flour that passes through and the coarse part left in the sieve.
  5. Grind the coarse part again for 5 minutes, sieve and weigh again.
  6. Add the masses and compare with 50 g; compare hand milling with a flour mill.

What you should see

Fine pale flour passes the sieve and brown bran flakes stay in it. The fine flour plus the coarse part adds up to 50 g less a small loss to dust and to the mortar, which the learner finds by subtraction. Hand grinding is slow: after 10 minutes much of the grain is still coarse, which is why flour is milled by machine. White flour uses only the endosperm; wholemeal flour keeps the bran and germ. The learner knows it worked when the masses balance to within the lost dust and they can point to bran and endosperm.

What changes

This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

  • Flour is a different substance from wheat (it is the same grain broken into small pieces).
  • White flour and wholemeal flour come from different plants (white flour has the bran and germ removed).
  • Grinding makes the grain lose mass (only dust that escapes is lost).

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

  • Science and Technology K–6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. The syllabus taught in 2026; the 2024 syllabus replaces it from 2027. Code read from the official syllabus document (DOCX) on 2026-09-22.ST2-5LW-TST2-2DP-T
  • Science and Technology K–6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.ST2-DDT-01
  • Australian Curriculum v9AC9TDE4K03

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

  1. www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/curriculum/science/science-and-technology-k-6-2017
  2. curriculum.nsw.edu.au/learning-areas/science/science-and-technology-k-6-2024/outcomes
  3. primezone.edu.au/resource/grains-paddock-to-plate-yrs-3-4
  4. primezone.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Grains-Paddocktoplate-34.pdf

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