Tag Archives: Columbian Exchange

2022 Vol 6: Carolina Cuisine: History and Science of Food

Amazing Maize: Authentic Foodways in the World Languages Classroom 

Matt Kelly, Spanish, Independence High School

Curriculum Unit (PDF)

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Synopsis: As explained by Elizabeth Engelhardt, foodways is a term for thinking about food in a holistic perspective that considers not foodstuffs, but the social, cultural, and economic context in which our food is produced and consumed. Foodways encompass not only what we eat, but how we prepare it, who produced it, who taught us to produce it, with whom we eat it and with whom we do not eat it.(Edge et al.) In this unit I will connect student’s prior knowledge of foods using nixtamalized corn (hominy grits and Mexican style totopos, or tortilla chips) with Mexican and Central American traditions such as tamales. Students will also learn about the cultural continuity in indigenous communities in the processing and consumption of corn between Mexico and the United States. Students will learn about the commonalities and differences between Mexican and Salvadoran tamales and related foods such as Navajo tamales and Cherokee bean bread. Students will learn how the European appropriation of maize corn divorced from its traditional processing (soaking in an alkali solution) led to widespread disease, disability and death in the American South in the first part of the twentieth century. 

2020 Curriculum Units Vol 7: Mindfulness & Education: Transforming Learning Through Awareness

Mindfulness Through Creation: Age of Exploration

Timothy Wells, Social Studies, Mallard Creek High

Curriculum Unit (PDF)

Synopsis

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2016 Curriculum Units Vol 7: Tracing the Legacy of Hispanic Cultures - 1492 to Today

The Potato; from Peru to Our Table: How the Columbian Exchange Played a Role in Demonstrating the Value of Potatoes from Latin America to Our Classroom

Tod Skinner, Science, Coulwood S.T.E.M. Academy

Curriculum Unit (pdf)

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2016 Curriculum Units Vol 7: Tracing the Legacy of Hispanic Cultures - 1492 to Today

“In 1492, Christopher Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue.”

Paméla Shembo, Fifth Grade, E.E. Waddell International Language Academy

Curriculum Unit (pdf)

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