Kellyville High School students will see not the fruits, but the cheese of their labours in six weeks' time.
A group of gifted and talented year 10 students bleached equipment and mixed unhomogenised milk and cultures on Monday for Camembert in the Classroom, a Dairy Australia competition to raise awareness of careers in the dairy industry.
They followed several chemical processes to make the solution that will turn into the creamy wheels that make it to shop shelves.
"It's quite a slow process," said food technology teacher Djigdem Numan.
"They've had a lot of measuring to do. They almost feel like they're in a medical-type situation because it's point this of rennet, this much penicillin, this much culture.
"The culture takes 16 hours to prepare."
Faith Martin, 15, said the competition was not like any other school activity she had done.
"There's a lot of hygiene involved because there's a possibility of developing bad bacteria, which can be fatal," she said.
Her competition partner Riannah Foster, 15, said it was the second time they had gone through the cheese-making process.
"It was nerve-racking the first time because we were told if we didn't do it properly we could possibly kill someone," she said.
"We've learnt a lot through each step. It was really fun."
The students will create an advertisement to accompany their product before it is judged in September.