On cooking practical days I have found that breaking the students into two person teams and rotating individuals in teams that this promotes the need to work with persons who you may be unfamiliar with. Also having the teams responsible for completing components of a larger project such as creating a buffet presentation demonstrates that it is necessary for all teams to work as a unit in order to complete the project by service time.
Oral presentation projects can be assigned and be broken down into groups rather than individual presentations causing each person within the team to be accountable for a certain subsection of the presentation. This causes the group to work together and become organized to fulfill a common theme
Theresa,
That sounds like an excellent project. What was the feedback from the students?
Jae Gruber
talk about your favored Chef and why it is that makes it unique.
Real life scenarios. Creating a wedding portfolio for a fictional client. This allows all the creativity to come out in the menu design and venue set up, but also the math requirements on pricing and labor controls exemplifies the general education piece of the puzzle. After the group goes through this excercise their passion for math and food cost percentages always rises
Chris ,
I agree. Some instructors also use peer evaluations when doing a final assessment of group projects. What are your thoughts on using that tool?
Jae Gruber
I have my students do a group project on american regional cuisine. They do power point presentation and cook as a team that assigned region. It makes them assign a team leader as well have them figure out how they are going to make it happened.
I have my students write a contemporary menu. Price and yield the recipes based on a market basket i provide. Survey the popularity of the menu, create a menu matrix and cook a meal based on the menu.
we have them do a project on the classical brigade system and the modern brigade system. We also have pick a chef from the past and one from the present and do a report on their differences and what they had in common.
Typically a project that allows a bit of creativity on their part or something they can get into. We currently do a presentation on a segment of the industry that they are interesting in pursuing. We typically get a good result.
John,
The wedding portfolio idea is excellent! I agree, if they can incoporate the creative aspects with the bottom line aspects, it is far more appealing and relatable than simply doing the costing by itself.
Jae Gruber
James,
Sounds like a great project! Do the students enjoy it?
Jae Gruber
We also do the Foodborne illness report and kitchen inspections. These can be great as the students are excited to participate and they learn more from the project, than they learn from me! It is true that when they get the information on their own and report to the class, they really know the information much more thoroughly.
We also do the kitchen inspection and foodborne illness presentations, and they are great as students work to excel at these. I like to show examples of great work done by groups before them. This illustrates very clearly how the group can do well. If it is exceptional, I ask them to present to other classes as well.
I have always had the students do the disection of the animal but I like the idea of putting it back to gehter as well. I t keeps thenm engaged when they think class is almost over
Lev,
The idea of surveying the popularity of the menu is very good! It makes the idea of analyzing sales much more realistic.
Jae Gruber
Mike,
It is interesting and entertaining how much students enjoy doing the foodborne illness presentations. I've had students do skits, make movies, and dress in bacteria costumes!
Jae Gruber
Mike,
The kitchen inspections are very helpful if they are given a template of report that the local county uses during their inspections. Students also enjoy finding and reading about the inspection scores at restaurants they currently visit or have visited in the past.
Jae Gruber
Laura ,
That is a great idea. It definitely reinforces where the particular cuts come from, while also reinforcing the initial fabrication technique.
Jae Gruber
The students like the competition aspect of cooking. So, one of the group projects is for groups to come up with a menu from a mystery basket and then execute this in the kitchen. Afterwards we collaborate and see what everyone thinks. I find that there is always one person in the group that takes the initiative and guides the following group members in the direction they want.
