Lesson Plan

Introduction

Welcome to our culinary exploration where we will dive into the world of Sichuan cuisine, focusing on the iconic dish, Mapo Tofu. This lesson is designed to guide you through the rich flavors that make Mapo Tofu a beloved classic, combining tender tofu with a spicy, aromatic sauce.

Through interactive lessons, including a hands-on cooking activity, assessments to gauge your learning, and an H5P activity for an engaging review, you will gain not just a recipe, but a deep appreciation for the art of Sichuan cooking. We will conclude with a moment of self-reflection, allowing you to savor your culinary journey and the skills you’ve developed.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Students will be able to identify the key ingredients and spices necessary for preparing traditional Mapo Tofu.
  2. Students will demonstrate proper knife skills for preparing the tofu and other components of the dish.
  3. Students will learn how to balance the complex flavors characteristic of Mapo Tofu, including spicy, numbing, savory, and umami.
  4. Students will apply knowledge of cooking techniques such as pan-tossing, simmering, and seasoning adjustments.
  5. Students will engage in critical thinking about how variations in ingredients and technique can alter the final dish.
  6. Students will reflect on their learning experience and identify areas for further culinary exploration or improvement.

Assessment

  1. Ingredient Identification Quiz: A short quiz using the H5P activity to assess students’ ability to identify and understand the function of each ingredient in Mapo Tofu.
  2. Culinary Technique Demonstration: Students will be asked to demonstrate key culinary techniques used in the recipe, such as proper tofu dicing and the method for sautéing garlic and chili without burning.
  3. Flavor Balance Assessment: Students will adjust the seasoning of their Mapo Tofu to achieve a harmonious balance of spicy, numbing, savory, and umami flavors, and they will explain their choices.
  4. Final Dish Presentation: Students will present their completed dish, which will be assessed on presentation, texture, and adherence to the traditional aspects of Mapo Tofu.
  5. Reflective Essay: A brief self-reflective essay where students discuss what they learned, challenges faced, and how they overcame them, as well as any additional insights they gained about Sichuan cuisine.
  6. Cooking Process Video Submission: Students will submit a video of themselves cooking Mapo Tofu, demonstrating their understanding of the cooking process and technique.

H5P Activity

Unfortunately, due to the buggy H5P system, we failed to embed the vvt file(captions) into the interactive video. But we have attached vvt files along with the assignment for review.

Self-reflection

  1. A discussion of how each member has contributed to the project

In the successful creation of our lesson plan on making Mapo Tofu, each team member played an important role, contributing their unique skills and expertise.

Enbai took charge of the filming process, capturing the detailed steps of cooking Mapo Tofu with precision and clarity, providing a visual foundation for the entire lesson.

Tim’s role was crucial in the post-production phase, where his editing skills came to the forefront, transforming the raw footage into a coherent and engaging instructional video.

Yifan’s designed the overall lesson structure, also developed the interactive video component using H5P, enhancing the lesson with an interactive element that supported active learning.

Xiaotong composed a thoughtful reflection post that encapsulated the learning experience, motivated students to think about and share their cooking experiences.

  1. A lesson plan using the template introduced in Module 4
  • Big Ideas/Introduction

Our lesson includes hands-on cooking, interactive assessments, and a chance to reflect on the skills you’ve picked up.

  • Learning Outcomes

Students will learn to select Mapo Tofu ingredients, practice knife skills, and master flavor balance and cooking techniques. They will also think critically about ingredient choices and reflect on their cooking progress.

  • Evidence of Learning

 To achieve this result, our videos are very easy to understand and we walk you through each step.

  • Assessment

In the lesson, students will take a quiz to recognize Mapo Tofu ingredients and their uses, show how to cut tofu and cook garlic and chili, season their dish for the right flavor, and present the final Mapo Tofu. They’ll write about their cooking experience and make a video of themselves making the dish.

  • Learning Activities

They can learn how to prepare a common Chinese dish that can be used in their daily lives.

  1. Identify which media you created and with which tools

We used iMovie’s editing tool and posted it on YouTube. Secondly, we also added H5P interactive video for this instructional video.

  1. Identify which media you included from other sources and why you chose it

We chose to use the H5P software to fulfill a role in helping to understand and solidify the knowledge points. We see H5P as a tool that combines active and passive learning. Therefore its acceptability is high. And it is very effective.

  1. Identify the principles, theories and techniques that we studied this term that you have followed in your lesson

Our original intention in making this video was to bring Chinese specialties to a wider audience to learn how to make them. We chose to use a direct shooting method instead of using other virtual or screencast text. We didn’t choose AI tools because we didn’t think our subject matter was AI’s forte. Our videos are more about hands-on instruction rather than textual knowledge delivery. Because we think this is the most effective way to transfer knowledge. And we used Allan Paivio’s theory of combining images and words. This allows us to explain what is going on in the moment and also allows the students to receive the knowledge more quickly. Secondly, following Mayer’s principles of reducing the intrinsic load, we divided the production process into boards. From preparing the ingredients to cooking to decorating, the process is clear. Reduce the learning load of students.

We used twine to create the script for the video. Twine gives us a bird’s eye view of each step we want to shoot in our video. It makes our production logical and organized.

The entire video is centered around Mayer’s Coherence Principle. From the beginning to the end, we have a consistent theme. Our videos are primarily self-directed learning, but interactive questions have been added to ensure student understanding and reinforce memorization.

What’s more, we created a recipe for this using Canvas to make it easier to memorize. The recipe is described in simple words and phrases to meet the needs of a wider range of viewers. We paid attention to the design of some visual elements, including similar alignment, a lot of white space and so on. And there are eye-catching images. These can help the viewer to further memorize and use them in the future.