Bring
A Museum Field Trip
to Your School or Community Venue
CELEBRATE
YOUR FOOD!
The FOOD
Museum is bringing two of its lively,
interdisciplinary, multi-cultural programs,
to communities across the country during the
2005-2006 school year.
Chocolate,
Chiles, Corn and More: Foods of the Americas
Lunchtime
Around the World
The
Food Museum is an independent, non-profit organization
which has no food industry support.
The
museum's work is financed by charging fees for
our educational programs.
Click here
to see if your city is on our tour.
The
Programs
Suitable
for students of all ages, these interactive
40 minute programs explore
what we eat, where it comes from, how we grow,
prepare and eat it, and how foods have transformed
the way we all live.
Using museum artifacts,
objects, toys and other props, Tom Hughes takes
a look at how history and social studies have
been influenced through food and how geography
has determined what people eat. He engages students
directly, inviting their active participation
in the program. ( No matter what people eat,
it all ends up in the same place, the digestive
system or gut. At the close of each program,
using a funny prop, Tom shows how what we eat
really does matter.)
All programs mesh
with and support National Education Standards
in Social Studies, History and Geography. They
are interdisciplinary, (selected math and science
concepts are included,) multi-cultural and hands
on, with an emphasis on cross curriculum global
awareness. The programs enrich and bolster current
school curricula.
STUDENTS
WILL:
--Never look at food the same way again.
--Know about the history of food.
--Be active participants in role-playing, math
and science demonstrations.
--Understand that their food choices have important
consequences.
--Be motivated to lead active, healthy, intellectually
engaged lives.
Chocolate,
Chiles, Corn and More:
Foods of the Americas
Who can
imagine Italian food without the tomato? Chinese
food without hot chiles? Africa without cassava
or corn? And Europe without potatoes?
Yet these foods only reached Europe, Asia and
Africa a little over 500 years ago.
60% of what everyone in the world eats today
came originally from the Americas.
Using museum artifacts,
props, and toys, Tom involves the audience by
asking questions, and inviting volunteers from
the audience to assist. Students try to pick
what foods are from the Americas, and what from
Eurasia and Africa. They explore how food has
changed the world and changed their own ways
of eating. They see that “globalization”
occurs right on their dinnerplate.
•
What foods originated in the Americas?
• What foods did Europeans bring to the
Americas?
• How did Native people, Hispanics, and
others nurture and pass on the foods we all
eat today?
• How did American foods influence cultures
well beyond this hemisphere?
The most swift and dramatic
movement of foods in the world began with Columbus
and his desire to become rich by finding a shorter
easier route to India, the home of black pepper.
He sailed west.
•
Why black pepper?
• Was the world flat or oval?
• Were Columbus and his team lost?
• What was the first ‘new’
food Columbus tasted? What did he find that
reminded him of the pepper he sought?
• How did foods contribute to historical
events such as the ecological transformation
of the Caribbean, slavery, the Industrial Revolution?
• How did the introduction of new plants
and animals radically change environments?
• What foods became high tech elements?
• What dishes are truly “American”
today?
• What’s an example of a dish that
is genuinely “global?
Lunchtime
Around the World
One People, One World: Differing Tastes
•
All of us need to eat lunch, to fuel ourselves
for the rest of the day
• What we eat, and how and where we eat
lunch differ
• Customs, culture, climate and income
determine the foods we choose
Around the world, people eat unusual
foods. Even if some foods mentioned in the program
may seem “yucky” to us, we need
to respect everyone and their food choices.
Americans have many choices of what to eat.
Many in the rest of the world consider themselves
lucky to have anything at all to eat.
Going around
the world at lunchtime usually includes about
25 countries. Tom demonstrates lunchboxes and
carrying devices typical of each geographic
region and relates stories of the children who
might be eating lunch from them. And, of course,
what they are likely to be eating.
Here’s a selection:
Finland (open
fire pit in snow)---- reindeer meat and cheese
Saudi Arabia (desert tent on big tray)---- mutton
(sheep) stew on bed of bread
Greece (sailboat vacation)----- fish, vegetables,
fruit, bread, cheese
Hawaii (luau big feast)--- roast pig, tropical
vegetables and fruits
Mali, West Africa ( from cooking pot)--- rice
or millet with chili peppers and fish paste
Kenya, East Africa (wood bowl or gourd)---Masai
drink of cow blood and milk
Egypt (soup in tin bowl)--- beans, rice and
onion soup
England (fast food in newspaper)--- fish and
chips ( fries) with salt and vinegar
No
matter what people eat, it all ends up in the
same place—the digestive system.
(Tom wears an amusing prop that illustrates
this universal truth.) At the close of every
program, The FOOD Museum has one message—be
go od to yourselves, enjoy your food, eat well
and be well.
The Food Museum is an independent,
non-profit organization which has no food industry
support.
The museum's work is financed
by charging fees for our educational programs.
