Cooking and science are deeply intertwined. Whereas science can inspire culinary creativity and innovation, cooking can communicate scientific concepts and methods. This interdisciplinary nature of cooking makes it an ideal approach for promoting scientific and culinary literacy among youth. By integrating cooking into science education, we can address disparities in science education and nutritional health and more broadly empower students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the kitchen, laboratory, and beyond. SteamEd is a new venture, a novel outreach program that enables teachers to bring food and cooking experiments into their classrooms. The name is a play on cooking, but also an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math Education. The program features exercises adapted from the outreach program Young Chefs and Harvard’s Science and Cooking program that have been customized to fit Next Generation Science Standards. In this talk, we discuss the design, development, and early outcomes of a set of pilot workshops conducted with K12 teachers, community instructors, and after school program leaders at Harvard University in Fall 2017. Surveys and focus groups show early evidence of the positive impact of the program in a wide range if educational settings.

SteamEd: Training educators in science and cooking

256th National Meeting (2018)

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