Sarah Henderson ( with Lori Holm )
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
FROM THE FIELD
Culinary Arts Integration :
Tasty and Engaging Project- Based Learning
Sarah Henderson ( with Lori Holm )
“ I only remember making food in your class , I don ’ t think I wrote a single paper ,” offered a particularly forthcoming student recently . She was speaking of the English course she had taken from me the year before when she actually wrote numerous papers . Interestingly , at that moment , she didn ’ t remember writing them ; she only remembered the food she had made for her book report projects . For instance , after reading The Hunger Games , this student made three dishes representing the food of Panem ’ s districts and after reading The Fault in Our Stars , she recreated the characters ’ Amsterdam meal . Of course , she also wrote essays for me that year , but only one year later , she struggled to remember anything that wasn ’ t directly arts integrated .
Long considered to enhance retention , recent educational research confirms that students tend to retain information they learn through the arts . The culinary arts can be no exception . Culinary arts integration combines project-based and personalized learning with heightened engagement and intrinsic motivation to naturally enhance content retention . As with all arts integration , student effort and research connects subject area knowledge to an art form , deepening the knowledge of both .
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
Although some may imagine an elementary classroom when they consider culinary arts integration ; we have found that it can be highly effective in high school courses as well . For example , in my twelfthgrade Shakespeare course , students hold a whole-class renaissance meal as their midterm project . They research English renaissance food , make dishes and then present them to their classmates . For a
STEAMed Magazine
40
January 2016 Edition