Dr. Melissa Mowry, a university professor and president of the Abington School District Board of School Directors, was recently joined by fellow school director, Mrs. Shameeka Browne, a Glenside resident and local math teacher, to highlight ways students can learn with family or other loved ones over the winter break.

Examples include cooking and measuring ingredients for a recipe or learning how to tell stories to pass time.

Dr. Mowry produces a “Kitchen Conversations” online video series regularly. The series began as a weekly informational video about local impacts of the recent state budget impasse.

“One of the things I tell my own students is that the kitchen tables we grow up around are often the first place we learn to ask questions and have discussions,” Dr. Mowry said. “It’s a point that highlights how important families and friends are to helping us learn and engage with the world, driving the curiosity that forms the foundation of all learning.”

She said food preparation can be a great place to integrate and deepen math, reading, and cultural curiosity and conversation. Families can read recipes together, wonder about what culture the recipes come from, where the ingredients are grown and harvested, and how they make it to our kitchens.  

“Families and friends can also help students deepen their narrative skills, which, in turn, helps them develop more sound and rigorous senses of causality. Tell stories, ask about what students are seeing that makes that narrative make sense to them. You can make it a group activity where each family member adds an element: historical, scientific, cultural, or mathematical,” she said. “These are great ways to have fun, really get a feel for how other people experience the world, and keep students engaged with learning while they’re away from the classroom during winter break.”

You can watch the “Kitchen Conversations” clip below:

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