Wild edible, medicinal and poisonous plants are an ideal way to connect students to the natural world just outside their door. In this unit, students will be able to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants using guide books and plotting them on the Siftr app. Using the collected edibles, students will then follow a procedural text to create food from their wild edibles. Students will then create recipes on their own based on a wild edible of their choice to create community cookbooks.

Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction and convection.

Overview: Students will research herbs and decide which herb do they feel is the most versatile herb that they can grow in the greenhouse.Time: Multiple class periods (2-3 for researching, all semester for the herbs to grow, 2-day lab)Intro: Herb ID Kahoot: https://create.kahoot.it/details/herb-spice-identification/ca2227db-b6bf-4054-9619-2bd9f0575140Have students research and make a presentation about different herbsshare presentation with classBody:After students have explored many different herbs (or learned about them from their classmates) have students answer this driving question, "what herb do you feel is the most versatile herb for cooking that we can grow indoors"Students will group with others that choose their same herb.Together as a group, the students will further research their herb, grow their herb in the school greenhouse (or in the classroom window?) and will be ready to defend their choice to a panel of judges (remind them to use persuasive language when defending their choice).Conclusion:At the end of the semester host a cooking challenge day:Students will cook with the herb they grewThey will present their defense to the judgesFinally, plate and feed the judgesJudges will then choose which defense and plated food were the best. Optional resource:This is my intro iMovie...feel free to make your own: https://youtu.be/acWB110aoBE 

Students work in engineering teams to optimize cleaner energy solutions for cooking and heating in rural China. They choose between various options for heating, cooking, hot water, and lights and other electricity, balancing between the cost and health effects of different energy choices.

Students learn about five types of renewable energy that are part of engineering solutions to help people in rural communities use less and cleaner energy for cooking and heating. Specifically, students learn about the pollution and health challenges facing families in rural China, and they are introduced to the concept of optimization. Through an energy game, students differentiate between renewable and non-renewable sources of energy.

The participants in this seminar will dive into learning basic conversational Italian, Italian culture, and the Mediterranean diet. Each class is based on the preparation of a delicious dish and on the bite-sized acquisition of parts of the Italian language and culture. A good diet is not based on recipes only, it is also rooted in healthy habits and in culture. At the end of the seminar the participants will be able to cook some healthy and tasty recipes and to understand and speak basic Italian.

Students are introduced to the health risks caused by cooking and heating with inefficient cook stoves inside homes, a common practice in rural developing communities. Students simulate the cook stove scenario and use the engineering design process, including iterative trials, to increase warmth inside a building while reducing air quality problems. Students then collect and graph data, and analyze their findings.