This classic, fun food has been around for over 5000 years, transforms itself into snowflake and mushroom shapes, goes from un-edible to edible when exposed to heat, makes noise and is celebrated every January 19th! You got it…it’s POPCORN! These…
In case you’ve missed it, here are a few of the up and coming technologies in the fiber and fabrics world. Use these clips, lectures, and articles as introductions or fillers with your other lessons. Spider Silk: stronger than steel…
Families are unique and each family has different practices that become traditions over the years. Traditions can be established early in life and will often be remembered and practiced into adulthood. This project allows students to create a collage using…
Study after study shows that birth order plays a huge role in developing one’s personality. Each birth order position has a unique set of characteristics. This lesson engages every student in the class because everyone has a birth order position…
In the 1930’s Ruth Wafefield invented Tollhouse Cookies. I wonder if she ever thought they’d still be so popular eighty years later and that so many variations of her original recipe would exist. This demonstration, lesson and lab using two…
Thinking about some new ideas for middle school labs got me to thinking about a lab I did early in my teaching career when I taught a foreign foods cooking class. At the time we were studying French cuisine and the lab was making homemade CREPES. Initially I was intimidated by crepes because they looked too difficult and fancy, but after working through some demonstrations with my students I found they really were a lot easier to prepare than they looked! Crepes are basically really thin, delicate pancakes filled with a sweet or savory filling. Since I know teenagers love desserts and chocolate is a favorite filling, I thought I would explore a recipe that would combine the two popular ingredients along with fruit and work a creative crepe lab back into the curriculum.
It’s been said that the only thing that is constant in life is “change”. Our world is constantly changing and families are not insulated from the changes that occur in the society in which they live. One thing that seems…
It’s hard to escape the children’s toy lesson without addressing the prevalence of Apps for Smart phones and tablets as the new toys for toddlers. Give it just a couple of years and this lesson will be obsolete as the students you’ll be teaching grew up playing more with Apps than physical toys and they will have no idea why that may be a problem. Regardless of your bias, we need to teach tomorrow’s child care workers & parents how to evaluate Apps that are good for children from the ones that are fluff.
The winner of the February give away is this lesson from Jessica Uplinger, a Family Consumer Science teacher from Ohio. In her lesson, students learn how important goals are and learn to make their own.
One of my favorite things to do with students are taste tests. They absolutely love it if they are brave enough to give it a try. So many students never get the chance to try different fruits unless their parents expose them to them. Bring on this lesson that will be sure to be some students’ favorite.
