- Dave and I started Modern Steader a couple years ago.
A company that is a
non-traditional educational company.
We've created a curriculum, a program if you will,
that tackles the food production process from soil to table.
It allows students to be ushered through the entire food
production process, using that as a back drop to learn
math, science, develop literacy,
explore ecology.
It looks at the sciences in the process,
it becomes a really good backdrop to teach all of those
core concepts that schools are already trying to tackle.
Alright, it gives, I think, a fresh look
at what teachers have been tasked with teaching for years,
trying to get those concepts, you know,
to make sense to students.
Now you have a hands-on environment where
that becomes a little bit more obvious.
We built the entire curriculum
based on social-cognitive theory.
The idea that we model off of each other.
And in the middle of that modeling,
once you've given your attention as a student,
to the subject matter, then you go from that process
and you move a little bit more in the direction
of being able to retain it.
Does it make sense to me, can I retain that information?
Then I have to be able to produce that information on call,
at some point in the future.
Do I remember how to germinate seeds?
And then I get to the very end of the process,
where I'm actually trying to utilize that information
to repeat the process, which is where confidence comes in.
Every one of our lessons measures that confidence
at the beginning of the lesson and at the end of the lesson.
In the beginning, it may be show of hands how many of you
have ever hand-pollinated a cucumber?
There's always one kid, randomly,
that's done something like that.
And then at the end of class, we may ask "Now that you know
how to do this, how many of you feel confident enough
that you can teach mom and dad how to do it?"
And invariably, almost everybody,
if not everyone in the class, raises their hand.
Confidence plays into the choices they make
and it's gonna impact their health and wellness
as they go forward.
It also impacts them on just a daily basis.
If I'm more confident in the successes that I've built on,
here in the lab, how is that going to carry over for me
into my science class, my art class,
onto the football field, right?
Confidence isn't something that you just have
or you don't have, it's something that you build over time.
And the edible learning lab represents
those building blocks, the opportunity to build up.
You know, one task after another.
We did a little bit of polling with some of our parents,
and said what carryover have you seen in your house?
And we got some of the predictable responses like,
well now my kids are helping me in the garden.
We've had some that are a little more shocking,
like they demanded that we grow a garden,
and then we have, you know, even I think, what is more
surprising is "they're starting to help me
"at the grocery store, instead of just running
"through the store, they're now looking for things
"that they can do."
Right?
They're starting to look at their relationship
with food and realize that it's not just something
that's marked by convenience.
Right?
It's not just a Happy Meal.
(upbeat music)
Most of our life (laughs) is really about food choices.
Right?
I mean, we're eating three times a day, minimum.
We're making choices that'll impact our health and wellness.
We have, at this point, the highest obesity rates
that we've ever had.
In the last 30 years obesity has doubled for adults.
It's tripled for children.
And it's quadrupled for adolescents.
We have students that are currently in our lower
elementary school here, in Buffalo, K through two.
We have 287 kids.
68, almost 69% of them are gonna be obese by the time
they finish their sophomore year of college.
Unless we give them the confidence
to make different food choices now.
(upbeat music)
Last week we did
Ranch dressing from scratch,
in the teaching kitchen.
And so then I had parents come in the next day
and say, "I want you to know, I had to go
"and buy all the stuff, and we made it at home,
"and so then we did a chicken dish with it
"and my" this particular parent has two daughters
in our lab here,
"they made the salad.
"So they pulled greens from our garden,
"they made the dressing,
"and my husband and I simply did,
"you know, the main course."
You know, now you're bringing families into it.
So what impact does the edible learning lab have,
or edible education in general have,
on students who are now taking it home
and changing the way home life occurs?
Right?
Changing what the dinner table looks like at their house.
I mean, if that's not a major victory, I don't know what is.
I mean,
it doesn't get any better than that.