2024 FFT Fellow - PBL

On Friday, June 28, John and I participated in a cooking class at the Silverado Cooking School in Napa, California. This three-hour class had us working with eight other participants, Chef Sarah, her sous chef, and the dishwasher. During the hands-on class, we worked with partners to create a fabulous farm-to-table meal. The class was called Harvest Bounty Dinner . Each week a new menu is created based on what is fresh on the farm. If an item is not available on the farm, it is resourced from within a 50-mile radius. I selected this adventure on my grant for several reasons. First, I wanted to make real-world connections to STEAM in activities students could someday potentially use as a career or hobby right here in the Las Vegas Valley. Connections to the fabulous culinary industry as a chef or through farming are strong. The Mojave Desert probably isn't your first thought when you think about farming or farm-to-table meals, but there are locals who are successful at raising

The Jelly Belly Factory was only three miles from our hotel, so we decided to make an impromptu visit on our last free day in Napa. Boy, was it ever a sweet treat and well worth our time! This factory definitely fell within all of the STEAM fields. The fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and math were all obviously relevant from the start to the finish of this wonderful tour. John and I donned on our cute little Jelly Belly caps and began our self-guided tour. First, we learned about Jelly Belly slurry. Slurry is the liquid base which makes up the inside of every jelly bean. The ingredients include sugar, water, corn syrup, and corn starch. One kettle of slurry makes the centers of 200,000 jelly beans. Jelly Belly was the first company to put flavoring into the slurry and not just the outside shell to give them that intense flavor. Once the main slurry is made, colors and flavors are added to make 50 official flavors . They also have non-traditional and seasonal flavors

Joy is . . . beauty, aesthetics, creativity, art, music, wellness, healing, peace, happiness, self-determination, collaboration, wonder, laughter, imagination, care, advocacy, and love in the self and humanity. Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, keynote speaker Igniting Joy Through PBL was the theme of this year's project-based learning conference. I certainly found the joy of learning on this trip - both in the conference and in exploring many activities and sights in Napa Valley. The conference was held at American Canyon High School . This campus was amazing! The library, cafeteria, and classrooms were located in buildings set around a large open space with multiple tables, benches, and seating options. The school has beautiful baseball, soccer, and football fields, as well as an outdoor swimming pool. As a former swimmer and diver, I would have loved that pool. Although it definitely would have been a bit too cold during the winters in Boise, Idaho. I participated in a new science P