Final Concept Map

Here is the final concept map. Let me know if I should add or change anything. Once I hear from everyone I will go ahead and post it on the website.

Concept Map

I am reposting the concept map so we can all look it over again. I can try and get it done in the next couple days. Maybe tonight, but I'm not sure. Let me know what you think we should add/change.

I'm not sure how to get the image in here, so I just posted a link to it. At least that way you don't have to scroll to the old post.

Fourth+Grade++Around+the+World+Project+concept+map.gif

Website

Wow guys I cant believe that we are on our last assignment!!!!! Holy cow though this seems like a lot of work though haha.

If you guys know any places to start go right ahead with the ideas because I'm not sure where to start hahahaha

Scrip Rough Draft

Here is my rough draft guys...please let me know of any changes you think should be made or things to be added because I'm not sure how good it is....and I was thinking that mine would be a good one to go right before the kitchen saftey script.

For this project we will be donig lots of research on cultures and the food of cultures. Doing this kind of research is going to require to spend lots of time on computers and internet searching. This is why something liek computer saftey will be very important in our class room.


The Internet can be a wonderful resource for kids. They can use it to research school reports, communicate with teachers and other kids, and play interactive games. Kids who are old enough to punch in a few letters on the keyboard can literally access the world. But that access can also pose hazards.

For example, student might do an online search for "Lego." But with just one missed keystroke, the word "Legs" is entered instead, and the child may be directed to a slew of websites with a focus on legs — some of which may contain unapproprate material. That's why it's important to be aware of what your students see and hear on the Internet.

Just like any safety issue, it's wise to talk with students about your concerns, take advantage of resources to protect them, and keep a close eye on their activities.

As a teacher there are many options we can use to protect our students. Many online communites like, Tapped In, can be to communicate with other educators. This allows you to share safe places for the students to view on the internet. Wikis are also something very useful to provide internet saftey. They allow users to edit content online. Wikispaces are a form of a wiki and you can use them to set up pages for each group. These pages can have sections in them that have approved sites they can use to research information. This can also help them start a page for their own group to help keep their projects organized.

Providing safe places for our students to research their cultures will help them get to the next step of the project; planning a culture recipie and getting a chance to step into the kitchen.

**Ok that was a super rough draft, and seems like it may not be as well written or as long as you guys have your scripts...so let me know if you have any suggestions please**

Script Rough Draft

Ok.... Here's mine as well. This one is the final part of the project. Please be honest and let me know of any changes that you can see it needing. =) Thx!

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And now we have come to the culmination of our “Around the World” project, the “Country Cuisine Fair”. This will be a chance for the class to share everything they have learned in this project.

The students will create a video report on their country. They will utilize Google Documents to create a script for the video as a group. This video report will cover their research and findings about their chosen country, the climate in that country and the agriculture grown in that country. The report should move on to discuss the culture of the country. The report will summarize in explaining what impact the climate and agriculture have on the cultures cuisine. It is up to the students as to if they want to make their video fictional, non-fictional, humorous, or serious… as long as they have the factual information covered that was previously mentioned. On the day of the Fair, we will show the videos to the whole class. This will be an actual video, not a digital story or slide show. The more creative the students are with this, the better! It is optional, but students are allowed to bring in and wear costumes representing the culture of the country they chose to research.

After the class has viewed all the videos and had an opportunity to learn about the other countries, each group will present the dish that they chose to make to the class. All students will have an opportunity to try the dishes from each group. A surprise to the class will be our “guest judges”, who are chefs from a few of the local restaurants. They will also taste the dishes, review the recipes and provide critical review for the groups on what they could do to improve the dish, or what they really did well.

When the Fair is over, the teaching staff will conduct video interviews on the students regarding their thoughts on the projects, such as what they liked best, and what they liked least. Students will be asked what they learned and also what they did not learn that they would have liked to. This interview will be used for assessment purposes, but also as a tool for the teaching staff to use for assessing the project itself for improvements in the future.

As with the rest of this project, the student’s assessments will be recorded in an online grade book. The students, as well as their parents, will be able to see their grades, but also notes about why they received the grades that they did.

The recipes that each group made will be collected and put into a book. One copy of the book will stay in the classroom, and each student will receive a copy as a keepsake to remember this experience by.

Script Rough Drafts

Here's my rough draft. I wrote it as the first for our group because I had research/culture. Let me know what everyone thinks, it is a rought draft. Thanks Guys!

The fourth grade students are currently working on a project entitled, "Around the World." This project-based learning is allowing the students to learn about cultural understanding and awareness. The students chose a country from the continent of Europe to study and learn about how food influences the culture of that country. The students have been working together in small groups researching their chosen country. In order to ensure safe surfing on the web, we provided the students with a hot list of websites in which they could use for their research.

Once each group had accomplished their initial research of their country, we asked students to compose a list of questions they would want to ask fourth grade students from their chosen country. Each group received a list of the same questions selected by us teachers to ask the other fourth grade students. This list of questions included:

1. What resources are available in your area and how does that affect the things you cook/make for food?
2. On a holiday or special celebration, do you serve a traditional meal or side dish?
3. What kinds of vegetables or fruits are grown in your area?
4. From the available resources in your area, what is used to make your favorite meal?
5. What is the weather like in your area? Does this effect the agriculture there?
6. Are the resources (agriculture) availabe to you seasonal? If so-what season(s)?
7. In your opinion, what type of food is your area "famous" for?

At this point in the project, we used ePals to connect our students with other fourth grade students from the chosen countries. Each group interviewed the students asking them the composed lists of questions. The information obtained from their interviews provided a valuable guide for the second part of their research involving agriculture. The information gathered from the interview, along with the addtional research on agriculture was used for a short research paper comparing and contrasting the culture they chose to our culture.

The focus of our "Around the World" project now turns to the second part of our research, agriculture.

Script Rough Drafts

I am going to go ahead and post my script. I feel like it doesn't have much information, but is more a guide through this portion of the project. I thought about changing it, but I wasn't sure how else to present the information for this topic. Let me know what you guys think, honestly. I am open to suggestions!

We have reached the point in our “Around the World” project where our students are ready to step into the kitchen. There are a few different topics that we need to address as we begin this step. We need to think about how we will choose our recipe. We will be using our group blogs to help with this process. We also need to consider kitchen safety. Each group will research kitchen safety tips, and we will view the digital story on kitchen safety.

We have been working in groups to research different cultures. One of the ways that we have been able to share our research with the group is through group blogs. Each group has created a blog to share information as the project progresses. At this point each member of the group should have posted different recipes on the group blog. After reviewing the recipes your group members have posted, each group needs to agree on one recipe to use. Once the group has chosen their recipe, it is time to talk about how you plan to produce the recipe. You should be using your blog to have this discussion.

A few things that you need to consider are the materials that you will need to create your dish. Are there ingredients that the recipe calls for that could be difficult to find? How can we find these ingredients, or can we use substitutions? Some ways we can find this information is through internet research. We have discussed in class what constitutes a reliable source, and how to search the internet safely. I have provided a hot list that should help guide your research. Use the websites to find out background information on your ingredients, and how accessible these ingredients are. Use your group blog to compare what you have found with your group members.

Once you have chosen your recipe and researched your ingredients you are ready to start cooking. We have to discuss kitchen safety before we begin. We have viewed the digital story on kitchen safety, but I also want to provide a few pointers in this podcast. Working together in the kitchen can be a rewarding experience, but you must be cautious and careful. Each group must have an adult present with them when the prepare their recipe. One way to make sure you are successful in the kitchen is to keep things clean. Make sure to wash all of your fresh ingredients. If you are working with raw meat make sure that it does not come in contact with any other ingredients or surfaces. We also need to be aware of sharp objects when working in the kitchen. Students should be monitored by an adult when cutting and using other sharp tools. The kitchen is also full of hot surfaces. Use an oven mitt when putting things in the oven and when getting things out of the oven. Be very careful around open flames. Make sure long hair is tied back and kitchen towels are kept away from the flames.

At this time our students also need to start considering how they will present their information and their dish in the country fair.

ASSIGNMENT X - Collaborative Podcast discussion

Happy Tuesday ladies!!

Well, looks like we will have to work very closely on the next assignment, which is due in two weeks. We have to create individual podcasts, but they have to tie into each other so that the instructor can "put them together seemlessly". She suggests that once we each decide what we are going to talk about that we use our blog to share our scripts. I am thinking the first place to start is deciding who will "discuss" or explain which aspect of our project. Anybody have any specific requests? Or suggestions?

Concept Map #2 Submission

first draft concept map #2

Second Lesson Plan

Hey guys I know this is really early but I just wanted to get the ball going on our second lesson plan....plus I wanted to post what I'm doing for my lesson right now that way I can just get started right away with this. Anyway for this week our lesson has to be about creating a list in excell and making graphs so for my lesson I am going to have to the students ask the class, from the other country, they are interview during the epals interview what their favorite food is and then compare them with our class choices. I'm thinking that since these kids are from different countries we should give them options to choose from so we can have some what of the same data. For me I'm thinking of using Pizza, Spagetti, fried rice, chicken, and I dont know what else to use....if you guys could think of anything else just let me know.

Have fun guys :D

Movie Maker

I thought I would get the discussion going on the next assignment. It looks like we are working on our own, but we have to coordinate on topics. I haven't really given a lot of thought as to what I would like to do a movie on. Does anyone have any ideas? How should we break apart topics?

Lesson Plan

Hey guys happy Monday :) haha. I hope you had a great weekend. For this week, we each have to create a lesson plan that covers the all the things listed...I'm a little confused though because she said we each can't do the same lesson plan. However, we only have one project so I'm just a little confused as to how to divide it up, and how to each do different lesson plans. If you guys have some insight let me know, I can think of a lesson plan but I want to make sure we are all on the same page and doing different things.

Thanks :D

Submission

I followed all the steps to publish. I hope you guys don't mind that I went ahead and did it. It looks different than the map, and there is no link. But I think that is how it supposed to work!

Project Description

 

Our "Around the World" project will be working with 4th grade students. The focus of this project is for students to gain a first hand understanding how different countries are by means of examining the food of the predominant cultures of those areas. First, the students will divide into groups and choose a country. The countries will be based on a general region we as teachers have chosen for them. Second, each group will have a few class periods to brainstorm about what questions they would like to ask the people in their chosen country. Each group will receive a list of a few of the same questions, selected by the teachers, to ask their chosen country. Students will need to research what type of resources are available in this country and how these available resources effect the dishes their culture prepares. The inquiry they prepare will reflect this objective. After each group has their questions ready, the teachers will use epals to contact fourth grade classes from the other cultures. The location of the other students will depend on the country the group selected. During contact, students will ask their questions and take notes on the "interview".  After the "interview," students will have an opportunity for additional questions or follow-up questions, as well as additional independent research to round out their project.  Next, the students will write a small research paper comparing and contrasting the culture they have chosen to our culture.  We will have a class session discussing safety in the kitchen, showing basic kitchen rules and steps.  The students choose a dish that is representative of all the information they have learned about their culture as well as the use of a classroom kitchen.  At the end of this project, the 4th grade classes will conduct a food fair where each group will present the information they have learned as well as the representative dish they chose to cook.  The "Around the World" food fair will invite parents, all students, and other teachers, providing an excellent opportunity for community involvement. 

 

Here is the list of questions each group will receive:

    1.  What resources are available in your area and how does that affect the things you cook/make for food?

    2.  On a holiday or special celebration, do you serve a traditional meal or side dish?

    3.  What kinds of vegetables or fruits are grown in your area?

    4.  From the available resources in your area, what is used to make your favorite meal? 

    5.  What is the weather like in your area?  Does this effect the agriculture there?

    6.  Are the resources available to you (agriculture) seasonal?  If so - what season(s)?

    7.  What type of food is your area "famous" for in your opinion?

 

 

 

FINAL GOOGLE MAP SUBMISSION - HERE

Description/Explanation of map is below as well as "inside" the google map document as well.

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MAP FOR 4TH GRADE "AROUND THE WORLD" PROJECT.
This map reflects a sampling of countries that our students will research for our "Around the World" project; a study of culture, climate and agriculture of other countries through cuisine. Our students will be working with students from the subject country via epals. We have chosen to focus on the continent of Europe for this project because it provides a good sampling due to it's variety in culture, climate and cuisine in a rather concentrated area. Utilizing this map will give our students a perspective of where "we" are located, in Kalamazoo, MI USA versus where the countries and the students they are working with, are located. We have highlighted eight countries for this map as suggested countries for this project. It is our hope that through this project, students will gain an understanding and appreciation for people in parts of the world that they may otherwise know nothing about.

View edt EUROPE 3470 in a larger map">

Google Map

Hey guys we have to also make a google map for our class project. I would start this but it says a different group memeber, not the one who started the document, has to start this. Also we have to decide on the general region of where are map will be....based on what we have said so far about the project I believe the map is supposed to be the area we are going to have our kids choose their cultures.

Let me know wherer you guys think is the best place for our kids to choose, Im thinking maybe the continents of Africa or Asia only becasue there are lots of countries that the kids could choose from but I am fine with whatever you guys want if someone already had a area in mind.

ePals

I thought I would get the ball rolling on brainstorming for the next assignment. Michelle, thank you for setting up the google folder. It seems like we might need to tweak our project idea a little to fit in to the description. I thought we could do something where they are comparing how local resources effect local cuisine. Students could research what resources are widely available and how they effect what they eat, and then compare with students in other areas. I'm not sure if this would work, but it's all I have right now. I wasn't sure how we could take the idea we started with and have students communicate with students in other areas. Anyone else have any ideas?

My Websites

I think these are the three that I am going to use....
http://www.cookingwithkids.net/
http://www.cookingwithkids.com/
http://www.proteacher.com/

Proteacher.com is full of lesson plans and there is a whole section devoted to countries around the world. They may not be FOOD focused per say... but there should be some good supplemental lessons in there to go along with their studies on the countries themselves.

I'm going to keep looking and will post any other website I find that may be useful for us as a group or for others to use...

My Websites

Here are the websites I am going to use. If anyone has already planned on using one of these let me know and I will find another one. There are two about cooking, and then I am going to use the Michigan Department of Education website for the GLCE's.

http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com/
http://www.spatulatta.com/
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-28753_33232---,00.html


This one is an article about teaching cultures through cooking. I decided not to use it because I think we need a website, but just thought I would share it.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3745690

This is a website on project based learning. I know we have an entire textbook about that, but if someone needs another site it might work.
http://www.projectapproach.org/

Web Evaluations

Good morning!
Well... it looks like our task for this week is to EACH find three different websites to use for our project. Any ideas on the types of websites we should use?

I am sure there are "kid friendly kitchen" type websites... and cultural education websites as well. Other ideas??

Draft version Inspiration Concept Map

Organization

Hey Guys-For our concept map I will enter the general ideas we've discussed. For the main point, I'll enter a title "Around the World"- I think Heidi mentioned this-I think it's a good name for our project. What does everyone think? From this title, I'll build the concept map connecting these ideas:topic/country, 4th grade, groups, research, paper, presentation, food item/dish, culture, traditions/customs,concerns(financial), country fair, objectives(history,geography,social studies, language arts), resources/materials, standards, and assessment. How does this sound and does anyone have any other points to add? I'll start creating the map and I'll post it to our blog on either Friday night or Saturday. Please let me know of any changes or additions. Thanks everyone!

Organization

We can also comment on each others post. Not sure if that will help, but it's just another idea. Then we might be able to keep track of a certain discussion.

Organization

I think that we can make it from any perspective that we want. I think part of the project based learning is that the students have the freedom to take the project wherever makes the most sense to them. A teachers perspective would probably be more beneficial for us. Just let us know what you need for the concept map, Cindy. It sounds like we all have ideas, but we aren't really sure what to do with them yet.

The only way I can see that we can organize our blog posts is by labeling them. In the corner of the text box there is an area that says "Labels for these posts." If we start using the label "brainstorming" or "concept map" we can go back and look at all the posts with that label (I labeled the first post I made with "Assignment 2"). I think it will only work if we all use the exact same one. So I'll try, and if it doesn't help oh well!

Brainstorming...

Michelle - I agree. I think it makes sense for us to do this from a teachers perspective... since we need to learn how to do it as teachers. I too have soooo many little ideas, thoughts, and even thought of a couple "potential issues" we need to work out.... but am not certain at what point we should start noting those?? I'm not very familiar with Blogger, so I don't know if it has the functionality that we can start organizing these things - just to put them out there, and then go back to them as we progress?

Brainstorming

I am not really sure Cindy if we are supposed to do the project from a kids perspective or a teachers. I think that from a teachers perspective might seem more like something we should be doing but again i could be wrong. I think that we should aim for more of the 4th grade level as well, and I think we could have enough to start our concept map, we have a few bugs to work out but again thats what the map is for. I have many idea to but not sure what exactly is needed so just let me know if more ideas are needed that we can expand on.

Brainstorming

I downloaded the Inspiration free trial tonight, so I can start our concept map. I have a question, I'm just making sure... our project, is it from a teacher's perspective(designing a project/lesson plan,etc.) or is it from a student's perspective(actually doing the project/picking a country,learning the culture, and choosing a food from that country)?Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Brainstorming

I love the idea of exploring other cultures through food. I think there are a lot of great connections to different areas of the curriculum that we could tie in. I like the idea of having a country fair at the end. The students would then have to present an overall look at the culture, on top of explaining what the significance of the dish. I had a couple other ideas, but at this point I think we should just go with this one. I like it and I think it will work well! I don't know how realistic we have to be, but in a real classroom you would have to take into consideration that not all families could afford to buy ingredients to participate. Just a thought...

As for grade level, we have to think about what is appropriate for what we want to do. If we go younger we could definitely simplify it. Unless we go with an older grade, we will have to accommodate for the fact that young students can't work alone in the kitchen. I think fourth grade would be the youngest to try this with. That way we can make it a little more difficult and have more to work with for the project.

Cindy, let us know what type of ideas you need to use in the concept map. I have a lot running though my head but I'm not sure what will be helpful.

Brainstorming

Great ideas! I think choosing a country, learning about the culture, and then picking a food to represent that culture is a great project. Like Michelle, I remember doing something very similar to what she did in elementary school, maybe 4th or 5th grade and then having the "country fair" afterwards. I think we decide on a grade level and go from there. I will download the inspiration program and post our 1st rough draft concept map. I think Michelle is right about coming up with ideas and I'll insert them into a concept map. I'm going to watch the video for ideas and get back with you guys tomorrow.

Brainstorming

Cindy thanks for volunteering to do the concept map that would be great...it would be nice if we could all just put our ideas out there and if you wanted just put it all together. I also liked your idea for the project, and Heidies as well. I have actually been in a class when I was younger that did what Heidi was talking about. We had to choose a country and do reasearch on the country and their food, and then at the end of the project my school put on a "country fair" where parents and other classes came and tried the food and learned about the cultures. We also then put out a huge cook book of all the kids recipies, that we gave out. Just some ideas, again not really sure what we are supposed to do with our project ideas, but I am very excited about our topic we all picked, it should be a lot of fun. :D

brainstorming..

After reading chapter 1 and viewing the videos at edutopia.org, I am getting excited about this project!
I have a few thoughts and ideas (they are just bare bones and we can make them as complex as we want - our age group focus would help determine this too) to add...
1) a project where the classroom splits into groups and each group studies a culture or country and researches their food. At the end of the project, each group prepares a dish that is from their culture/country for the class and we have an "around the world" dinner. The groups will havce to not only make their dish, but put together information about the ingredients, the recipe and the significance of that food.
2) other variations of #1 could be things like groups by regions of the US, or groups by season (using foods from that season), or other things similar to...
Just some ideas.....

Hi there! =)
Has anybody viewed the PBL powerpoint yet? I'm going to do that this afternoon.... maybe we'll get some ideas from that as well. I admit - I'm not really certain how to start off on this. Do we have an age group or class level we are focusing this project on? I haven't seen it in any of the class information as of yet... Cindy - you have some great ideas! I'll try to do some brainstorming this afternoon and post something(s) tonight as well.

Project

Another idea - kitchen activities that are incorporated into lesson plans for a classroom or particular grade level. Just a thought. I'm hoping we'll receive more info on the project.

Project

Hey guys. I can post our first concept map if you want me to. I have worked with Inspiration on another concept map. I think we need to come up with ideas about our topic and include them on our concept map. I'm thinking possibly about how to organize or start up a classroom kitchen/catering for a class. What we would do or what we would need. What do you guys think? Also, we need to post our blog URL address in the blog area of module #2 by our team topic for our assignment #1 this week. I'm not sure if we all do this or just one of us and should we wait to find out about Heidi? Let me know what you think? Thanks!

Project

I am at the same point you are...I know we have to make the concept map for ideas on what to do with our assignment but I have no idea even what kind of project we are supposed to be planning. I also have lots of questions at this point and I wouldnt mind making a concept map but again I have no idea on what to put on it, because I am not sure what kind of project we are supposed to be doing.

Inspiration/Kidspiration

Part of our grade for this blog is dependent on us using it for communication. So, I figured I would start by asking about the next assignment. I am a little fuzzy on exactly what needs to be done. We have to make an concept map of ideas for our project? Does that sound right to you guys? I'm not sure what exactly the project entails at this point. I guess we need someone to volunteer to do it because of the 30 day trial. Even though only one person is turning it it are we still supposed to work on the ideas together? I have a lot of questions right now, hopefully you guys have some answers!