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Resources
Tangible Resources
recipe ingredients, cooking facilities, cooking equipment, food storage, computers
Preparation
Students to organise/purchase ingredients to cook; arrange location for cooking activities such as school kitchen; plan food preparation, cooking, storage and clean-up.
Goals, messages & concepts
Specific goals
- To plan a snack recipe and research where the ingredients come from.
- To find out the ecological footprint of the recipe.
- To use all prior knowledge when creating the snack.
Specific messages
- Cooking can be fun and healthy.
- Everything has an ecological footprint; you can make considered choices to reduce your impact.
- Working together helps us to manage a big project.
Main terms
- ecological footprint
- healthy lifestyle
- food hygiene
Practices & skills
STEM practices
- Analysing and interpreting data
- Constructing explanations and designing solutions
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
- 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
Working in groups, students will determine what type of snack they want to create and assess if it is healthy enough to be considered a healthy snack. This lies not only in its ingredients but also in the preparation method (i.e. a potato is not an unhealthy item, but if you fry it in oil and eat it with a fatty sauce like mayonnaise it becomes an unhealthy snack).
step 2
Students will also research the origin of their ingredients and try to keep their ecological footprint as small as possible (i.e. an avocado is very healthy but also travels a long way, so it makes more sense to use a cucumber which is also healthy and fresh but can be grown locally).
step 3
They will then plan how to prepare their snack and finalise the recipe.
step 4
In their groups, students will gather their ingredients and cooking equipment and prepare their workspace for cooking.
step 5
They will follow their plan to create their healthy snack and closely document the steps they take to recreate the snack for the event later on in the Learning Scenario. Treating this as an enquiry, if the recipe doesn’t work, this documentation will help them to evaluate what they need to change next time.
step 6
They will precisely measure the dimensions of the snack for LU8.
step 7
Finally, students will get to taste their outcome and determine if the recipe is successful or needs adjusting. They will document their taste test findings and note possible improvements. If they are happy with the result, they can serve their snack to other teachers in the school cafeteria. If they are not happy with the outcome, they are advised to find their own experts in cooking/baking and explain the process they documented to find new methods for the next time they produce the snack.