Avoiding the Direct Teach

Labs will absolutely kill me, direct teaching can be extremely boring for the kids. Sometimes it's a necessary component of making sure everyone is in the same place, but I'm always looking for ways to get around it. In math, direct teach can be extremely interactive mostly because there are so many opportunities for students to try a problem or explore for solutions on their own. As for science... I'm still looking for ways. Here's my conundrum - I hate showing videos with a question sheet attached and I don't assign readings for this class. Where are the direct teach methods that are somewhat exploratory yet don't involve a lot of "listen and lecture"?

Today, I'm going to try something different. Instead of direct teaching the tree of chemistry mixtures, I'm going to assign a different sub-classification of mixture to each student, have them research the components, and then they'll present and direct teach it to each other.

Hmm... Maybe that's still a direct teach after all...

Food Design

I just saw Food Design at the Alamo Drafthouse. It's a great German documentary about the design of mass-produced commercial foods for public sale. From a scientific perspective, it was awesome. From a eater-centric perspective, it's a little disturbing. It talked about food design from psychological, visual, olfactory, aural and functional standpoints without ever once delving into... taste.

We had a great 3 course menu created by the Drafthouse's executive chef John Bullington. He'll probably post the menu on the Drafthouse blog later, but here's what I remember:

Potato Course

Sorbet, Fried Gallette on a Stick, Foam, Smoked Chips, Creme Brulee

Carrot Course

Sorbet, Puree, Caviar, Smoked Chips, Something Else I Can't Remember

Tuna Course

Granita, Foam, Sorbet, Tartare, Fish Stick

They did a great Q&A afterward with John Bullington and the editor of Edible Austin. Some interesting things Chef Bullington mentioned:

• The Alamo serves tons of food every year, more so than a hotel. In a single year, they will serve more than 150,000 pounds of french fries.
• Food served for Alamo special feasts is shopped locally whereas general consumption food is bought from large scale vendors. Local purveyors typically don't produce the quantities necessary to mass serve food. For example, Boggy Creek Farms didn't have enough carrots to serve our theater for this single meal.
• Food consumed at the Alamo has to be functional because you're eating in a movie theater in the dark. The French Fries they serve are coated in rice flour because they preserve heat and crunch, and they taste good cold when the staff is running behind on service. They tend not to serve on plates because silverware on porcelain is loud in a theater.
• When Chef Bullington comes up with food for themed meals, he will go beyond the confines of local or seasonal food to match what's up on the screen. It's not how he likes to eat at home, but it's what brings customers in the door. He also mentioned that after becoming an executive chef for 11 movie theaters, he found himself with only enough energy to eat junk food rather than eating the wonderful things he likes.
• I just used an Oxford comma.

Oranges + Soy Sauce

It looks really bad when you take a whole bunch of unidentified liquids and pour them into the same sample cup. Then you say to a kid eating an orange, "dip it in this." That's what I did today, in my math class. This semester, I don't have a conference period available for cleanup after my food class. My math class will be subjected to numerous strange sights and smells that they didn't sign up for. This time it was the leftovers from the taste lab that I've done half a dozen times now.

Turns out, the kid was pleasantly surprised by what he ate.

Reflexivity

In math, it means that what works one way goes the other. X equals Y, Y also equals X. What does this have to do with food? Well, mostly that if you've never been to this blog before, you probably got here from Fed Up: The School Lunch Project. Specifically, you probably read my guest post there about Restaurant Day. And now these website exhibit the property of reflexivity.

In less nerdy news, I will freely admit to not posting here consistently. My second semester teaching the class meant reusing and reconfiguring old material. I spent more time reading what I had written on this blog than writing new material. But in that vein, please feel free to look back through my old posts. They're still mostly relevant, even if I've had to factually correct some of the material from way back then.

This year, my New Years' Resolution is to do more posting here. I'm teaching one section of the class, it now has all middle school grades and the class size is about 18. The dynamic is very different which means I have the freedom to do different things - and that's definitely worth posting about.

What's Better Than Shark Week?

Steak Week!


I'll use the excuse of heat transfer and basic thermodynamics as an excuse for doing Sous Vide steak. I'll also use the carrot on the stick of Steak Week to get my kids interested in thermodynamics. (Maybe it's a steak on a stick... since I'm using toothpicks.) I can also use this as an excuse to fry dumplings, since there are multiple forms of heat transfer there.

More after the jump.

Circle of Food Commonalities

I played this game with my kids on the first day. I ripped off what the English teachers do in their touchy-feely getting to know you sessions. Everyone takes turns standing up, introducing themselves, and stating a food related fact about themselves. Everyone who the fact is true for also stands, and students get to view what they share in common with others or what makes them unique. No fact can be repeated.

Interesting tidbits:

• Students like sharing what foods they like to eat, typically by ingredient such as "chocolate" or general food category like "pie."
• At the sixth grade level, some students have trouble identifying foods by culture. You'll get things like, "Is seafood a culture?"
• This game can be played with questions like "name a fact related to your dietary habits" or "name a fact related to your experience in a kitchen."

All hands, brace for impact!

Summer had to end sooner or later, turns out it was sooner. I actually took a pretty big break from food, only engaging in one major "food project," which I will write about later on. (This project was extremely caustic, not a word that one typically uses with food.) For the most part I learned to cook simple things and rely on some old standards, although I did attempt to make Thai Yellow Curry one day. That was fun.

This year in Culinary Science Class:

• I have an off period before the class, which is scheduled at the end of the day. This gives me time to both prep AND clean. I have friends in high places.
• The semester is shorter, so I will pick and choose what to do from last year and not worry about prepping a jillion labs. (I promise.)
• I won't have access to the kitchen during the week. It was a major component of the course and a big draw for the kids, but I will relegate it to a weekend activity where the kids will have hours to cook and clean.

Second year's always the best.