HGA | Food Index

Purpose: We all need spice in our life! Where do these spices come from and how do they affect our daily lives?

Objective: Students will be able to identify major spices found in the world. Students will link spices with countries they are grown in and the uses for these valuable items.

Geography Standards:

• The student uses maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
• The student learns about the physical and human characteristics of places.
• The student explores the characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earths surface.
• The students explores the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earths surface.

Geography Skills:

• The geographically informed student asks geographic questions
• The geographically informed student acquires geographic information
• The geographically informed student organizes geographic information
• The geographically informed student analyzes geographic information
• The geographically informed student answers geographic questions

Geographic Themes:

• Location/ Place
• Place/ Human / Environment Interaction
• Regions
• Movement

This lesson can be used with a unit on Plants and Their Uses, Geography of the world - continents and major oceans, Discovery and Settlement during Colonial Expansion of the World

Materials Needed: Globes, maps, recipes from around the world, spice bottles

Procedure:

1. Construct or examine a globe - emphasis on continents, oceans, equator, Prime Meridian, International Date Line.

2. What is a spice? Information worksheet for students. Map the word spice.... look for its many dimensions.

3. Examine recipes from different countries. List spices or herbs that are needed to make these foods. On a world map, these can be listed and generalizations made about the interdependence of spices.

4. Learn more about spices...where they originated, what part of a plant they are derived from, what types of climates and regions they are grown in, and other interesting data about them.

5. Play a Spice Match game. Students match spice names with cards that tell different spices/herbs and the places where they are used.

6. Field trip to Lyon Arboretum, Foster Garden or other herb garden. Have a scavenger hunt to match the jars of spices with the real plant growing in the gardens. See attachment for a list of the spices and herbs growing on the Lyon Arboretum grounds.

7. Cook something with different spices for the class to experience. Gingerbread cookies can be mixed by the class and baked by the cafeteria for the class. Another suggestion is a stir fry from a country you are studying.

Assessment Strategies:
Assess student understanding of spices and their influence on humans through their journal entries.

Evalaution:
Journal entries should reflect concepts of interdependence, plant uses, and general geographic knowledge of the movement of human resources on the earth.

Extensions:

1. If several classes are involved in the same study, have a food sharing day so different dishes can be sampled using spices and herbs.
2. For older groups of students, this lesson can be extended to focus on the colonial exploitation of some countries for their spices and herbs, which were a golden commodity during those times. It also was a tremendous incentive for finding trade routes that could make these commodities readily accessible for Old World markets.
3. Older students could also research specific spices and see if patterns emerge regarding changes in a countrys cuisine because of the availability of these commodities.

Appendix:

1. Spice Match.
2. Lyon Arboretum Herb Collection 02/18/97 - Culinary, Medicinal, Aromatic, and Economic Herbs. Map of area is included.
3. Spice Information Sheet.

References:

1. Norman, Jill(1998). 101 Essential Tips - Cooking With Spices. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London, 72 pp.

2. Brockway, L. (1979). Science and Colonial Expansion: the Role of the British Royal Botanic Gardens. Academic Press, New York. 215 pp.

3. McCormick and Co. Inc.
   Website
   • http://www.mccormick.com/
     Go to the link with Schwartz - Herb and Spice Guide

   • http://www.schwartz.co.uk