Ready for action?
Resources
Web links
Tangible Resources
transportation, projector screen for videos, world map, string, pins, cooking facilities, cooking equipment, ingredients
Human Resources
parents to share family recipe
Preparation
Organisation/purchase of equipment and ingredients to cook; find a local produce farm or allotment for students to visit; prepare paperwork for off-site visit if necessary; arrange location for cooking activities such as school kitchen
Goals, messages & concepts
Specific goals
- To understand the process of growing and processing food.
- To understand the importance of technology and engineering to create affordability in the food industry.
- To recognise that food travels around the world; not everything can grow locally.
Specific messages
- It takes a lot of time and effort to grow food.
- Food needs specific circumstances to grow, it can’t just grow anywhere.
- Growing food and sending it around the world has a big ecological footprint.
- With the use of technology and engineering we can make food more affordable.
Main terms
- growing food
- technology and engineering
- food chains
- food hygiene
Practices & skills
STEM practices
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
- Asking questions and defining problems
- Planning and carrying out investigations
Soft skills
- Dealing with uncertainty
- Learning failure is a part of learning
- Teamwork and collaboration
Management skills
- Planning
- Use of resources
Course of activity
step 1
Students will ask their parents to teach them how to make their family’s favourite recipes (ingredients and method).
step 2
Field trip – students will visit a local farm or allotment to learn what types of food can grow locally.
- Students travel to location
- Introduction and tour
- Location manager presents what type of foods are grown, how they grow, how long it takes to grow, harvest and process the food, and what is needed to maintain the garden.
- Students get the opportunity to ask questions
- Students will then harvest the ingredients for their family recipe
step 3
Students then return to the classroom and watch short movies about (the future of) agricultural machines, technologies and innovations with the aim of improving yield, efficiency, and profitability (see Resources).
step 4
After the visit to the food garden students are aware that not all products grow locally (see Appendix 1 for further information). They will make a list of the missing ingredients for their family recipe and gather these from the local supermarket.
step 5
Working groups, students will research the origin of their missing ingredients and how they were transported to the supermarket. They will visualise this on a world map with pictures and string.
step 6
Students will then work together to cook their family recipe, and share the meals with their teachers. Not all students have experience with cooking so for some of them it will be the first time preparing a homemade meal.