Recipes Around the World

Project URL: www.teachersnetwork.org/teachnetusa/sbeloff/recipes.htm 

How it works:
This hands-on program introduces students to web page design techniques. Students learn how to create and publish web pages on the Internet. Basic hypertext elements such as headings, titles, document body, paragraphs, links, and graphic design are introduced. Students also learn about the important concept of interactivity in website creation. Pupils go online to research a country and find pertinent facts including representative foods. Internet research techniques such as criteria and Boolean searches are employed. Through this exercise, students learn how to do online research and how to create effective web pages--all while having fun!

Standards addressed:  
Pupils create a multimedia presentations using text, images, and sound (e.g., web pages, Internet, computer-media-generated images). They edit and monitor for quality; and organize, write, and design media messages for specific purposes.

Materials used:
A computer with Internet connection is needed, along with Microsoft Word 2000 software and a video projector.

The students:
Recipes Around The World is designed for students in grades 9-12 who have had some exposure to the Internet and Microsoft applications.

Overall value:
This program reinforces Internet search techniques while educating students about creating a website using a common software application. Pupils will learn about other cultures and share this information with the class using a multimedia presentation. Upon conclusion of this project, the students will actually have a multicultural theme party with food that they have prepared using the recipes they incorporated into their websites for interactivity purposes.
 
Tips: 
If you have the opportunity and the appropriate software, download some useful Web pages and have them ready for your students. I have found students at all ability levels, so I spend less time on concepts pupils already have mastered and more time on concepts with which they have difficulty.

About the teacher:
Stephanie Beloff is a computer teacher for the North Rockland High
School, computer instructor for Rockland Teachers' Center, and adjunct computer trainer for Berkeley and Rockland Community College. She holds Master Microsoft Certification in Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook and is skilled in numerous computer software applications. Ms. Beloff also holds a Master's Degree in Counseling from Long Island University and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Administration from SUNY New Paltz.

E-mail: 
beloffs@hotmail.com

Subject Areas:   
Social Studies
Technology                      

Grade Levels: 
9-12