Seventh lesson: report of students, through a work on what they learned in the
classroom about marketing and during the meetings with Mr Sbardella on the promotion
of the oil from Volterra (cooperative learning, peer tutoring); subsequent delivery of a
final report carried out individually as a homework.
Following lessons: meetings with experts in the field; activities carried out in the
computer lab.
LABORATORY WORK
At the computer lab students develop a label for the oil bottles from Volterra to be
promoted in Bulgaria.
Methodologies used: Peer tutoring, work in pairs and/or specially created small groups.
Teacher: Beatrice Dei
Project developed in the area of Chemistry
Forms 2AA, 2BA, 2AG, ITCG Niccolini
Activity title: " Laboratory of the chemical analysis of the oil"
Presentation
In the area of the "Volterrano" which includes part of the Val di Cecina and Val d'Elsa
there is a large production of good quality olive oil, "typical product" of our agriculture.
In our countryside 400 hectares of land are planted with olive trees by 600
manufacturers, that is a number of 120000 plants, from which every year about 110,0
tons of oil are produced. Since the oil is one of the riches of our land we students from
the ITCG NICCOLINI of Volterra set out to do a survey in this area and analyse, in the
chemistry laboratory, the different oil samples.
The aim of our work
The aim of our study was to determine the quality of the oil coming from different
areas. In determining the quality of the olive oil the value of its acidity has a great
importance, the degree of acidity is a specific parameter that measures the free fatty
acids in oils and which conventionally is expressed in % of oleic acid. The degree of
acidity is not, for obvious reasons, characteristic of individual oils, being its variability
rather linked to the origin of the olives and their state of conservation. Its importance is
essential because in relation to it we establish the commercial classification. According
to the Italian law (DM 31 -10 -1987, n. 509) olive oil is classified according to the acidity
expressed in oleic acid. In extra virgin olive oil such acidity in oleic acid has to be 1 g x
100 g of oil.
1. extra virgin olive oil < 0,8
2. virgin olive oil < 2,0