Gever Tulley started tinkering school and it is exactly what it sounds like. Kids come to his school for 6 days and build whatever they want and learn through doing. There is no curriculum and no tests. There is just a bunch of stuff, dangerous tools and time, something Tulley says is in short supply in their over scheduled lives. He says that building is at the heart of the experience. After watching his TED talk, I was astounded at the things these kids were able to build! 

This video is a great reminder that kids learn best when they are engaged, they do themselves, and when they are given the choice as to how they will learn. I think it would be an extremely enriching experience for kids across the nation to go to a school like this every year for a week in order to cultivate their creativity and encourage them to learn through trying and failing. I think skills like building things is something that is missing from our education system and a program like this would, offered to all students, would be a great way to bring skill in math, science and art together in a way that is relevant to student's lives. I wonder what it would take to get a school like this in every district...

Here we are! Kicking off my 20% project with my first post on fermentation. The goal of this post is to lay out all the ground work and write about some basics of fermentation to get me going. After some research, it looks like Sandor Katz, the author of "The Art of Fermentation", is the man when it comes to fermentation. Here is a short intro video that I will follow to make my first jar of fermented food for next time: sauerkraut. 

What is lacto-fermentation? This is the process of sugars and starches in vegetables turning into lactic acid by friendly lactic producing bacteria. 

Why ferment? Eating fermented foods is a great way to get probiotics into your gut. This good bacteria aids in healthy digestion which promotes optimum overall health! Also, there are more vitamins in fermented vegetables and the fermentation process makes it easier to digest them. 

What materials do I need and what is Whey? From my research, it looks like the materials I need to start my first fermentation is a big mason jar, an airlock, pink himalayan salt, cabbage, carrots, garlic, a knife and cutting board. Whey, pronounced "way", is the watery part of milk that remains after the formation of curds. Whey helps start fermentation in a variety of products. It is important to research and experiment with different types of whey because it can affect the taste of your fermented food. Fortunately, when fermenting vegetables, you do not have to add whey because the organisms you need are already present on the vegetables. 

What can go wrong? Sometimes, if your vegetables aren't submerged in liquid the whole time, then mold can grow on top of your veggies. If this happens, you can just scrape the mold off and add a little water and continue fermenting. 


Also, it's important to use clean and uncontaminated raw vegetables and to sterilize the vessel you will use to ferment. 

Here is some good guidelines I found that will help with my first sauerkraut attempt and storage:

"Proper temperature is important. According to USDA, at temperatures between 70-75 degrees F, kraut will be fully fermented in about three to four weeks; at 60-65 degrees F, fermentation may take five to six weeks. At temperatures lower than 60 degrees F, kraut may not ferment, and, above 75 degrees F, kraut may become soft." -taken from Foodsaftynews.com

Also from Foodsaftynews.com,  "Fermented food needs to reach a pH level of 4.6 or lower (which indicates it is acidic enough to be safe). Fermentation, if done properly, will bring food to the “safe” acid level.

Here is a tentative schedule for my 20% project:

Post 1: Research and project plan

Post 2: Make Sauerkraut and airlocks!

Post 3: Pickled Eggs, Green Beans, Radishes, Moroccan Lemons, Cucumbers
Interview with Mike

Post 4: Kombucha and Kefir!

Post 5: Hot Sauce and Kimchi!

Below, you can find my Scoop.it! website that curates all the web browsing I have been doing to gather information on fermentation:

Fermentation Information on Scoop.it!

After reading about Tony Wagner's 7 essential survival skill for the 21st Century classroom, I have adapted his and threw in a couple of my own to create my 7 essential survival skills below: 

1. Problem Solving and Perseverance - Over stimulation and short attention spans make it hard for our teenagers to persevere through rigorous math problems. But perseverance is critical to problem solving and critical thinking! It is important to support yet push students through difficult tasks in order to promote authentic learning and to banish learned helplessness. Perseverance and problem solving skills are essential to innovation and these are the skills our current marketplace demands.  

2.  Accessing and Analyzing information - There is no doubt that we live in the information age! It's accessible, sometimes reliable, but definitely abundant. Students need to develop the skill of throughly researching a topic by effectively discerning sources, and then analyzing and synthesizing what they find into something useful. An example of how I would like to do more of this in my math class is by requiring students to use their phones, computers or ipads to collect their own data to use in math projects. 

3.  Developing Character- I feel this was the missing part of Wagner's seven survival skills. As kids develop into adults in high school, it is important to foster an environment that encourages respect and good citizenship. The thing that isn't changing in the workplace is that we all are still living and working together. The classroom is a place that should be modeled like a workplace and students should be expected to act appropriately and have respect for others in that environment. As teachers, we need to model and enforce this behavior as kids are transitioning into adult members of society. A good way to incorporate this into the classroom is to spend a day  developing a social contract for the class by discussing what appropriate, responsible and  respectful behavior looks like, and then holding students accountable for this behavior throughout the year. 

4.  Collaboration- Two heads are better than one, so the old adage goes. When we speak about rigor and problem solving, a great support for students is teaching them to effectively collaborate. Collaboration does not look like 4 students sitting together, filling out a worksheet while one person does the work and the others copy. It takes a lot of work to create a classroom environment where students feel safe to share their ideas and collaborate with other students. It is important, as an educator, to support collaboration by creating meaningful tasks, by modeling collaborations skills and by creating clear expectations for students. 

5. Fostering Creativity and the imagination- Apple's epic success and innovation came from the late Steve Job's tremendous ability to marry art with technology. He had a keen eye for aesthetics but geeked out with computers.  Encouraging children to expressive themselves artistically and imaginatively leads to that great American innovation that we pride ourselves on. Let's not lose sight of how important it is keep the imagination alive and encourage students to transfer their creativity into everything they do, just as Jobs did. 

6.  Effective Oral and Written Communication-  I want to make sure my students are prepared to enter a world and marketplace of hyper-communication through emails, chats, tweets, blogs, articles, etc. It is essential for students to be able to express themselves and their ideas with others in person or written via the hundreds of ways we communicate. 

7.  Creating identity and a Voice - This skill is a combination of being able to form and support opinions and the ability to effectively express them. As our students move into adulthood, it is important to help them develop their own identity, opinions and their voice. Media is no longer a one way street and anyone can have a significant impact by reaching thousands, even millions, of people through the Internet. Fostering students growth into adulthood by helping them find there place in this world is an essential survival skill.