Cooking In Class with Cowing

Imagine it’s the end of 2nd period, the bell rings and you’re off to you’re next class walking through a traffic jam of people just trying to get to the second floor of the building! And as you put your foot on the step you remember that you get to cook some delicious food in class.

Well, this was the case for some students at New Ulm High school recently. The activity is for transition skills, which involves kids learning about budgets, the stock market, and cooking dishes in class. The class was split into two groups, girls and boys; and the two could choose what dishes they wanted to make.

The girls made Mac and Cheese and spaghetti carbonara with the dessert being chocolate brownies.

The boys made spaghetti with homemade sauce and Gulash, with the dessert being cookie brownies or “Brookies.”

The origin of this activity was a kid who had no experience with cooking and he was about to graduate and the plan that he had was to eat fast food every day. Mrs. Cowing, the teacher for the class, was not having it and went to Mr. Bergmann, the Principal. He said to make a lesson plan for transition skills and include the cooking activity in with the class.

In previous years, Cowing would have the kids watch a video she made showing how to make a dish and have them come in the next day and know how to make the dish in class with some help from the teacher of course!