Fruit / Vegetable Jigsaw

Fruit & Vegetable Project*, A Jigsaw

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the project students will:

• be able to effectively operate a digital camera, utilizing the Digital Camera Basics workbooks
• be able to effectively utilize MultiMedia Lab V software to create projects
• understand the characteristics of various vegetables and fruits, including their identification, uses, cost, physical characteristics, descriptions of flavor. and integration in typical dishes
• create a poster using a digital camera and Tool Factory Workshop software
• create a slide or slides for integration into a MultiMedia Lab V presentation for the entire class to view and learn

Students will be introduced to the new technology available to our class at the beginning of the school year. In preparation for covering the chapter on Fruits and Vegetables, students will receive an assignment which will require them to hone research and writing skills, and utilize their new or developing skills in the use of technology. Students will visit a large local supermarket to see the produce display. Through the cooperation of the manager of the local store, our students will be allowed to touch and photograph the produce, thus creating a permanent record of the visit and a visual means of identification of the foods. Students will use MultiMedia Lab V to create a presentation, with their photographs illustrating the slides which contain text derived from their research.

The entire “jigsaw” slide presentation will be shared with all students in the class and made available to the other teachers in our department, who study fruits and vegetables in their Foods classes. The presentation can later be duplicated, and by editing out the name of each fruit or vegetable, can be made into a study/review tool for student viewing before their assessment on the material. (Or it can become an assessment tool itself.) Finally, using Tool Factory Workshop, a hard copy of the presentation can be published, which becomes another reference resource for the classroom.

*Please note: this same project outline can be used with other topics that our curriculum covers, such as “herbs and spices,” and small kitchen equipment, particularly since students who aspire to being successful in the kitchen need to be introduced to many food products/equipment that they are unfamiliar with at the beginning of the course.