TEACHER BETTY CROCKER LOOKED OUT AT HER eighth-grade class. The
blank stares were not encouraging. “So much for the traditional
method of teaching the difference between a fossil mold and a fossil
cast,” she thought.
evening in 1982, she went home and prepared a Thanksgiving gelatin
day, she removed the mold from the gelatin and asked her class,
“Do you want to eat the mold or the cast?”
in a name?
name like Betty Crocker, who could resist?” remembers Eddie Shaw,
professor of elementary science education at the University of Alabama.
years ago, doctoral students Betty Crocker, now UNT associate professor
of teacher education and administration, Barbara Reed and Eddie
Shaw observed that they had all made similar discoveries in the
classroom — food analogies motivate students to learn difficult
concepts. Their teaching backgrounds covered the gamut — elementary,
middle and high school — and it worked on all levels.
the workshop “Food for Thought” at a national conference for science
teachers. The biggest draw was Crocker.
really a Betty Crocker?” After carefully explaining that Crocker
was neither the Betty on the box nor a representative of the company,
the three got down to business. One workshop after another, those
in attendance shared their stories in return. Crocker, Reed and
Shaw became a repository for other food ideas. A book series — designed
for children, written for and field tested by teachers — was born.
Food for Thought books provide teachers with 65 edible lessons in
process skills, physical science, life science and earth science.
have fun learning, they are more likely to remember what they’ve
learned,” says Reed, K-12 science coordinator for Gwinnett County
Schools in Georgia. “I haven’t met a child yet who didn’t like to
eat the lab equipment.”
One of Crocker’s
favorite activities is “Meringue Magic.” Students prepare Baked
Alaska, an ice cream treat sealed with meringue and baked in a small
toaster oven. In the process, they learn about insulation.
has drama,” says Crocker. “Even those students who have had the
dessert before don’t believe it will work.”
can be manipulated help students understand and master complex ideas
— and the potential ingredients are endless. The “Processing Pancakes”
experiment uses four types of milk and the same pancake recipe to
communicate the concept of manipulating variables. In “Which Can
Can?” students float cans of regular and diet soft drinks in an
aquarium to demonstrate density. “Mighty Messengers” links gumdrops
with toothpicks for DNA and RNA models.
enjoyed simulating an earthquake (moving two halves of a layered
sandwich up and down),” says Brenda Swirczynski (’93), now an educator
with Botanical Research Institute of Texas. “They learned new knowledge
in an unexpected way.”
science of learning
the lessons in the books list careers associated with the concepts
being taught, and teachers are encouraged to dress the part. To
set the stage for an environmental field lesson, for example, Swirczynski
once dressed as a field biologist, wearing Indiana Jones-type attire.
Immediately the students knew this was not going to be a normal
their interest even more,” she remembers.
can seem intimidating,” says Alice Delaney, a UNT graduate student
in education. “Making it fun and interesting for students now may
encourage them to consider science careers later. It’s a start.”
class can have more new vocabulary than a foreign language course.
It is up to the teacher to use the familiar as a bridge to the unfamiliar,
according to Crocker, and food analogies can introduce such relationships.
are motivated by anything they can eat,” says Mary Ellen Fernandez
(’99 M.Ed.), a fifth- grade teacher at Heritage Elementary in Highland
Village. “And it’s easier when students can see things and
move things with their hands.”
Fernandez took a survey at the beginning of the school year. Three
students said science was their favorite subject. At the end of
the year, she queried the class again. Seventeen children raised
their hands. She attributes the increase to her use of food-based
love science,” says Crocker. “The younger they are, the more they
love it. The older they get, the less you hear this because they
are given the idea that science is for someone else, someone smarter.
to change that.”