HGA | Food Index

Purpose: How have traditions changed from one generation to the next? Students will talk with their parents and/or grandparents about some of the traditional foods in their family. How did grandma prepare the Mun Doo Soup, the New Year's Mochi, those famous dishes we all love? What once took hours of preparation and cooking can now be bought and heated up for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Better yet, often times we can simply "nuke" our cuisine. Yummy's Korean Bar-B-Que, Noodle shops, Taco Bell, Kozo sushi, and various other food establishments make eating a little bit of culture a whole lot faster and easier. Students will discover some of the changes that have taken place in our communities as well as in their own families.

Objective: Students will:

1. talk with older family members about favorite family foods and where they have originated
2. learn the process that went into the preparation and cooking of these foods
3. contrast how technology has affected food preparation and cooking
4. make connections and understand the interdependence that takes place even with our families

Geographic Standards:
The National Geography Standards that apply to this lesson are:

Standard 11) The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surfaces.

Standard 17) How to apply geography to interpret the past.

Standard 18) How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.

Geographic Themes: This lesson will include Place, Human Environmental Interaction, and Movement.

Materials Needed:

• Large map of the world,
• colored stickers to tab map,
• Luau style paper plates,
• colored pens,
• atlas or maps for student reference

Procedure:

1. Students will talk to an older relative about what it was like preparing a family meal (specifically a favorite cultural dish) when they were younger (preferably one or two generations ago).
2. Compare the work and time it took one or two generations ago to prepare a meal to today. Students will list reasons for the change (packaged ingredients, blenders, microwaves, etc.)
3. Students will look in the yellow pages for a food establishment that is comparable to their cultural cuisine (Yummy's, Kozo, Lung Fung, etc.)
4. Students will choose their favorite dish and list all the ingredients. They will go to the store with their parents and find out, by reading the labels, where each of those ingredients came from.
5. On their luau style paper plate students will write and draw an ingredient and where it came from (Hawaii, Japan, Montana, New Zealand, etc.) in each section of the paper plate.
6. Students will present to the class what they learned talking to their relatives and share their plate of ingredients. Each student will place a sticker on the large world map indicating where their ingredients came from.
7. Students and parents who wish to bring in a sample of their dishes, may share with the class.

Assessment and Evaluation: Students will be evaluated based on their:

1. discussion with relatives (notes taken and information shared with class)
2. completion of luau plate of ingredients
3. participation in discussion and feedback to other students

Extensions:

1. Students could create "future cuisines." What will be available 20 years from now? We already have just about every microwaveable dish, what next?
2. Extend the activity using the stickers placed on the world map. Are their any patterns? What types of things come from the western US? central US? Asia? Europe?
3. Students can write and act in their own commercials, selling an ingredient needed for that mouth watering dish.