黑料网

Now We鈥檙e Cooking with STEM

鈥淲hy does popcorn pop?鈥 and other food-related topics help students engage with math and science

Bradley Morris, Ph.D., is an associate professor and program coordinator of Educational Psychology in 黑料网鈥檚 School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences. He is also co-director of the university鈥檚 Science of Learning Education (SOLE) Center.

Bradley Morris Food for Thought presentation R&I Forum Spring 2023

 

At his recent presentation at a Research and Innovation Forum, sponsored by SOLE and the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs (RASP), he said 鈥淭he first question I get is 鈥榳hy would NSF (National Science Foundation) give you money to pop popcorn with kids?鈥欌

The leaky pipeline

To answer the question, Morris references what educators call 鈥渢he leaky STEM pipeline.鈥 STEM refers to education and careers in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. The 鈥渓eaky pipeline鈥 refers to the idea that very young children enter school with great interest in scientific discovery and math, but that interest declines over the course of their academic experience. The result being that only a small percentage of students will continue STEM studies and pursue STEM careers. Morris wanted to find a way to stop those leaks in the pipeline by leveraging that early interest in science and keep it going.

Feeding sustained interest in STEM

Morris observed that students spend 80% of their lives outside of school, but they are still learning during that time. 鈥淏ut鈥 he said, 鈥渢eachers will tell you; students are learning all the time and what they鈥檙e learning isn鈥檛 always great. They come in with profound misconceptions about things like science and math.鈥

Student with goggles learning STEM food preparation.

 

The 鈥淔ood For Thought鈥 project targets early experiences by leveraging an activity that鈥檚 part of children鈥檚 everyday lives: preparing food.  He said 鈥淐ooking is a rich context for science and math learning. Cooking is also an authentic, culturally rich context for families to engage in conversations about STEM.鈥

Students learning STEM through food preparation.

 

A video presentation about the project can be found in the .  

鈥淎 lot of kids have this misconception that STEM is something that happens in the classroom or the laboratory, but it鈥檚 going on all around us,鈥 Morris said.

鈥淲e can make very meaningful STEM connections all the time.鈥

It started with popcorn

One of Morris鈥 early research activities was an informal science activity conducted in classrooms with students in the third, fourth and fifth grades. Educators brought two pots for popping with different types of popcorn and cooking oils. They had magnetic boards with icons to record experiment conditions and variables. From the success of these interactive demonstrations in schools came the next evolution of the project: engaging students and their parents at home.

Popcorn-making experiment in a classroom.

 

As part of a food drive in Cincinnati, the project put together an at-home experiment that families could conduct by popping popcorn. The packaging came with a QR code that gave the families different instructions. One group of families received a recipe with general prompts about having discussion and asking questions. The other group received the recipe along with specific questions to ask in their discussions while preparing the popcorn. The researchers asked the participating families to record their conversations while they popped the corn.

The study found no difference in the task-related talk during the experiment. But in the families that received the question prompts, 鈥渏ust including those prompts in the recipe led to much more use of STEM-related words, like cause-and-effect words, many more explanations to each other, and lots of follow-up questions,鈥 Morris said. 鈥淪o, just asking the questions didn鈥檛 stop there. They used more terms; they had more exchanges and there were more exchanges that were related to science talk.鈥

Expanding the experimental menu

Some of Morris鈥 partners on the project have engaged students in similar classroom learning experiences, making eggplant pizzas and discovering egg science, by making French toast.

Food For Thought demonstration of making French toast.

 

Going forward, Morris said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to do more food science camps this summer. We have new experiments rolling out in terms of light intervention and ongoing community activities.

鈥淏ut the goals again, are to try to expand the notion of what鈥檚 legitimate STEM inquiry in kids as they start to see that there鈥檚 science in food.鈥

Partners on the project include 黑料网, the , (a food repurposing organization), the (COSI), the ,  and (NSF AISL).

Research and innovation

Morris presented his research at a recent Research and Innovation Forum sponsored by 黑料网鈥檚 SOLE Center and Research and Sponsored Programs (RASP). RASP sponsors two Research and Innovation forums each year.

黑料网 has earned the prestigious R1 designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. R1 status is the highest recognition that doctoral universities can receive, and 黑料网 is one of only five universities in Ohio to have earned it. This designation recognizes the high level of research activity on 黑料网鈥檚 campuses.

POSTED: Sunday, February 19, 2023 05:45 PM
Updated: Tuesday, March 14, 2023 05:32 PM
WRITTEN BY:
Phil B. Soencksen