[Jennifer Smith]

East Asian Foodways Across Borders

While participating in the East Asian Foodways Across Borders I learned about many new resources that I plan to share with my students in the classroom. During the first week of the seminar we learned about some of the staples of East Asian cuisine. As a class, my students and I could explore these staples in greater detail and examine their use in our favorite cuisines as well. The discussion about chopsticks was also intriguing and I could have my science students explore the structure and function (a key aspect of the Next Generation Science Standards) of chopsticks as compared and contrasted with forks/spoons/sporks. 

Similarly, the discussion about different types of vending machines in East Asia would also work well in my science classroom as the students learned about the types of foods distributed by these machines. We could also explore the structure and functions of these machines, learning more about how they are made and how they operate.

I think my students would be most interested in the discussions about fast food restaurants though because this is something that they are all easily able to relate to and connect with. My students would be intrigued by the different types of menu items served in various countries in East Asia. We could discuss the availability of the items in association with supply and demand as well as by examining the growth/production of different food items in places around the world.

In general, I am most likely to share information about East Asian cuisine through the lens of science (perhaps in discussing nutritional content or how the food is made/processed). Because my students are in middle school, finding ways to introduce the topic and relate the information to their current schema will be vital. This means that sharing ideas about items such as fast food will be interesting and informative for my students.

 

[Jennifer Smith]

Rebecca,

This website is fantastic! It contains so much information on a wide variety of topics. I really appreciate that the site includes information about how produce is grown and harvested, as well as the people who produce the foods. This will be a great resource for my science class.

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

Amy,

This is an interesting video. You hit on a very important aspect in your post regarding the relationship aspect of food. The films that we watched for this course also depicted the manner in which relationships and food are intertwined. It would be interesting to explore this connection further.

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

Amy,

This website is really interesting. I think my students would enjoy looking at the different types of packaging as well as reviewing the different types of flavors. They could even make a list of flavors they would be interested in trying. I also liked that prices were included, so my students could compare the website price to local prices.

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

Amy,

Thank you for sharing this resource. I can envision using this resource as a way to build my understanding of the topic and then sharing some of the information with my students.

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

Hello,

My name is Jennifer Smith. I teach 7th and 8th grade language arts for Illinois Virtual School and a science methods course for elementary education majors at Illinois State University. My favorite part of teaching is developing and delivering lesson plans, coming up with new ways to convey content. I am continually seeking ways to better improve my lessons (both content and technique). I have found that networking with other teachers and participating in programs like this one help to expand my thinking and improve my lessons.

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

Bill,

You may have mentioned this already, but where do you get the candy wrappers? Do you personally taste test all of the items?

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

Bill,

The pictures you post of your food are pretty amazing. I used a premade sauce. I don't have much time to spend in the kitchen, so premade is usually my go-to.

[Jennifer Smith]

Viewing the wide range of media about food in this week's lecture was interesting. The information about manga popularizing wine was new to me and it made me think about asking students to discuss the different types of foods that they encounter as they read manga or when they watch anime. It would be interesting to hear about the foods they are familiar with through these media sources. While many of the video clips were interesting, they are generally too long to show during a class. I could possibly use some YouTube clips or commercials though. In a different course this past week I read an article about the portrayal of foods in children's books, so it may be interesting to look for children's books that include information about food.

I chose to watch Eat Drink Man Woman. I was in awe when watching the scenes that included food preparation.

[Jennifer Smith]

This week's video was thought-provoking and gave me several ideas for ways that I could discuss food ways with my students. I especially enjoyed the various video clips and think my students would enjoy them as well. One way that I could incorporate this information into my language arts course would be to have students examine the similarities and differences between the types of advertisements from different countries, including word choice, music, and photo/video arrangement. I think students would also enjoy examining a timeline of ads/commercials to see how they have changed over time. 

I think my students would be most interested in examining the menu differences in different countries. I was able to quickly find a couple of different McDonald's menus (Korea, Japan). I could have students work in small groups and assign each group a menu from a different country. This could include a variety of activities from looking at the availability of seasonal items to completing math activities to explore how much these menu items would cost in the United States. I am curious to learn more about the mass production of the items served by McDonalds and the processes food scientists use to generate the recipes.

The aspect of food vending machines was also interesting and I could use the different types of food vending machines as the basis for a STEM lesson in which students would explore the mechanisms necessary to create and vend different foods and then have the students design a new vending machine to create and vend their favorite East Asian cuisine. This could also be very detailed as we discussed the importance of sanitation and the different temperatures at which foods needed to be kept to avoid spoilage.

One aspect that I look forward to discussing and learning more about this week is the similarities and differences in food trucks in different part of the world. 

[Jennifer Smith]

I grew up in a rural area in Illinois, where small cattle and pig farms are common. As I listened to this week's video, the information about pork production sparked my interest as I wondered about pork production in Asia. I did some very quick research and found a company that produces equipment for piggeries. I also found an article about high-rise piggeries as well. In my search for information I also learned that China produces about half of the pork in the world, though recent numbers are down due to swine fever. Information about pork production could be used in a variety of science and math lessons as students learn about the engineering involved in creating piggeries that including automatic feeders and systems for managing waste.

Sushi was another topic that I think my students would be interested in. I mentioned in a previous post that I have had students complete a food technology timeline. In previous years I have had some students choose sushi as their timeline topic. My students would also be interested in learning about the different types of fish that are used to make sushi and why those types of fish are used. Microplastics is a topic that I have taught about in the past, but I did not specifically include information about sushi in the topic, so that is something I could add.  The chart (from the video and the article by Rath) about the nutrition content of supermarket sushi could be used as part of a math or science lesson.

A final aspect of the unit that stood out to me was the use of food as a basis for exclusion. In her TED Talk, Jennifer Lee briefly showed examples of ads and information from the Library of Congress that depicted Asian foods in a negative way. It would be interesting to have students examine these ads for stereotypes and as propaganda.

[Jennifer Smith]

I followed a recipe and used udon noodles. 

[Jennifer Smith]

There were two aspects of this video that best connect with my classroom curriculum. The first was the discussion of umami. The science textbook utilized by my previous school was so old that it only listed four different tastes. Each year I had to research my lessons to make sure they were up-to-date. Umami was a topic that I added into my lessons. I hadn't previously thought to include the chemistry aspect of umami or the history of its research to the lessons, but now think that would be a good idea.

The other aspect of the video/readings that struck my interest was spam. I have students complete a food history timeline as they explore the science technologies that drive the changes in food production. The article about spam would serve as a great basis for showing students how to develop a timeline and to explain how foods move across borders. I wouldn't be able to give them the entire article due to some profanity, but would be able to review sections of the article with them.

I spent some time looking for articles about spam and visited the spam website. I didn't realize there were so many different types of spam. There is also a spam museum, which does virtual tours, something that might be useful with students. I tried to find some old advertisements for spam that I could use with my language arts courses but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. This webpage does have an ad example that I could use though.

Finally, one aspect of this week's video that caused me to pause and think was in the explanation of the department store restaurant and the difference between family style eating versus each person ordering off of the menu for themselves. As I pondered the information I thought about the different cultural aspects of food, how it is selected, and who selects it and for whom. I also thought about school cafeterias and how, at least in the district where my children attend school, young children do not have a choice in what they eat for lunch but as they get older they are given more choices in the cafeteria lunch line.

Jennifer

[Jennifer Smith]

In our meeting on Wednesday we discussed posting a picture of East Asian cuisine. I am not much of a photographer, but this weekend my children and I had steak bulgogi. 

 

Jennifer

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[Jennifer Smith]

I was a little unsure of what to expect from the first video (and am a little uncertain of how to draft this first response). I appreciated the definitions of key terms and the inclusion of brief descriptions of some of the dynasties in China. The lecture and readings were also my first encounter with the term "glocalization." I found Farrer's description of the Westernization of Japananese cuisine to be portrayed less negatively than in articles I had read for other NCTA/TEA activities. In general, I was surprised by the number of times that KFC came up in the articles. I wasn't surprised by the number of times McDonalds was mentioned.

I appreciated the explanation of the food commonalities of East Asian cuisine. I hadn't stopped to think about the different types of rice. As I reviewed the information about rice I thought about how examining rice as a plant could be a good classification activity in a middle school science class. Students could examine the life cycle of the plant, explore the plant parts (identifying similarities/differences), the nutritional value of the different types of rice, etc.

I also found the video and article information about chopsticks to be very interesting. Chopsticks could also be used for an interesting science lesson as students explore the structure and function of different types of eating utensils. Students could also create a timeline of different types of eating utensils. My students would be interested in exploring the benefits and drawbacks of reusable versus disposable chopsticks.

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