My students would always tell me that bacon makes everything better and I agree!  There’s just something about bacon that amps up the flavor of whatever it is paired with! I created this Bacon Lesson & Labs to help students learn more about bacon; where it comes from, cooking techniques, seasonings and even some fun, tasty labs!

Set

• Kick off the topic by asking students to name the sound. Play this video clip with sound only and see if students can guess what the food is. Share guesses to see if they are correct.
• Survey students with the following prompt (can’t say eggs and no repeats):  Bacon goes with…? 
• Explain that we will be focusing everything bacon over the next several days. However, before we get started, I want to see what you already know about bacon. Before sharing as a whole class, you’ll have 5 minutes to complete a group brain dump. It’s been my experience that students know the basics about bacon, but not much else.  My students were typically familiar with the butchering as many butcher a hog every Thanksgiving as a family tradition.

Materials

• iPad or Laptop
• Projector & Screen
• Colored Markers, pencils, crayons, etc.
• Yarn & Scissors
• Appetizer Skewers (affiliate link)

Activities

• Students will explore and learn more about bacon as they complete a Bacon Scavenger Hunt. What does this mean?  Individually or with a partner, students will use Google searches to help them complete the scavenger hunt that is all about bacon!
• Go over answers as a class and have students make changes or add additional information as needed to prompts they got incorrect or didn’t have sufficient information.
• Because bacon can be incorporated into a variety of different dishes, show students the Struggle Meals video titled, “Bacon My Heart” with Frankie Celenza. As they view the episode, have them complete the corresponding guide sheet.
• The first bacon lab students will do with bacon is a spiced lab. Each kitchen will prepare a different spiced bacon and then each group will sample and rate the bacon flavor to see which is most preferred. See attached below.
• Before the next lab, students will view an episode of 4 Levels by Epicurious titled, “4 Levels of BLT: Amateur to Food Scientist” to see the variety of ways that a BLT can be prepared.
• Students will complete the lab questions and fill out their lab sheet for their lab which is in the form of BLT Sliders.
• The Bacon Banner Project is assigned as an individual or small group project (your choice) to be completed in class as a graded assignment to apply what they’ve learned about bacon in their own words. See guide sheet for details. When finished, students will share their pennants with the class before they are hung as a display on the bulletin board or on the wall outside the classroom!

Attachments

• Bacon Scavenger Hunt (please make a copy of all of these resources if you wish to edit, by going to file and then clicking make a copy)
• Bacon My Heart Video Prompts
• Spiced Bacon Lab & Pre-Lab Questions
• BLT Sliders Lab & Pre-Lab Questions
• Bacon Banner Project
• Bacon Banner Letters Template (best printed on cardstock for sturdiness when hanging)

Pexels Photo by Polina Tankilevitch: