überkochen e.V.
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
überkochen e.V. brings cooking into the classroom: it broaches the issue of sustainabale and healthy nutrition to schools, promotes social capabilities of students and creates space for new types of learning. Cooking can become part of math, German, English, geography and more. The idea of überkochen e.V. is to provide a holistic product service concept for better food and nutrition at schools combined with an approach to integrate new ways of learning.
Let’s cook!
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Cooking together breaks down language and communication barriers and teaches skills in geography, mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics. We learn to care for ourselves and others. All of this takes place in situations where we have rarely come into contact with cooking before. Cooking takes place in the classroom, in class or as part of a presentation or cultural activity.
The idea of überkochen e.V. is to provide a holistic product service concept for better food and nutrition at schools combined with an approach to integrate new ways of learning. The combination of practical teaching tools of the mobile kitchen and theoretical learning content opens up diverse, creative possibilities for use in school. Cooking together strengthens the class community and offers exchange and understanding between different cultures. In addition to promoting self-efficacy, learning contents from different subjects is taught in a way that is relevant to everyday life and related to the students' environment. Cooking appeals to all the senses.überkochen e.V. is based on design research and follows a social design centered approach. We effect a positive impact within various fields of societal challenges with a focus on youth education and professional education. From the production of the cooking cart to its usage in the classroom, überkochen e.V. represents high values for social cohabitation.
Key objectives for sustainability
Food waste, regional and seasonal food as well as vegetarian nutrition are not addressed as single topics or special projects. They are integrated in a learning concept and environment which is connected to the daily routines of students and teachers. It draws links to a variety of subjects we all know from school. Those topics like percentage calculation in maths or enzymes in biology are usually taught theoretically. Überkochen e.V. took the chance to link them with practice based teaching in the form of cooking and integrate sustainable ways of living and taking care of our planet and its local resources and conditions. Students learn how to combine knowledge and practice and getting trained in own knowledge creation by creative experiments with their environment.
The production of the mobile cooking cart itself considers different aspects of current ecological and social challenges. überkochen e.V. carefully selected all certified materials that are used for building the cooking cart. All of the used materials are easy to clean, safe to use with food, cost-effective and easy to rebuy or to repair. They fulfill the legal requirements for air pollution control and enable the producer to recycle all single parts. With its modular parts it can adapt easily to various use cases and can be co-designed by its users. The production takes place in Germany and we use parts from local suppliers like wood or the induction cooking top. All educational material and information is provided digital and can be downloaded from our e-platform. In addition to the chart as tool itself, we provide the school with learning cards as well as information on hygiene in the classroom and recipes.We guarantee that the learning cards are up to date and can be adapted by each teacher individually. The city of Munich established an annual rotating system of ten cooking carts for schools who are interested in a one-year free testing phase before implementing the project.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
überkochen e.V. offers all students an environment of active participation and learning about nutrition during regular classes regardless the level and form of schooling. With the developed mobile cooking cart, überkochen brings cooking into the classroom and offers a new way of learning and teaching. Usually additional educational steps, such as healthy nutrition, ecological footprint, cultural diversity, etc. are the basis and an integrative part of this learning concept. Teachers will be enabled to include nutrition as an integral part of education and actively implement it in class. überkochen can also be used as tool to teach essential topics of self-development and social competences in the school’s setting. Form and design of the cooking cart and all learning material are highly professional and communicate an easy and joyful way of learning. We can focus on the content, the ingredients and food itself which tells the stories. All design elements provide orientation and guiding between learning information and practical steps. The cooking cart transforms the classroom into a stage for action and self-efficacy. The shape and parts are constructed and design regarded to highest safety standards for classrooms and child safety. Also the electrical components are safe and as easy as possible to use. A manual and a virtual product introduction is provided to all users. The use and establishment in various contexts and over 30 schools as well as all the positive stories and feedback from teachers of all age groups and subjects reflects the positive experiences we provide.
Key objectives for inclusion
Inclusion is one of the main aspects that überkochen e.V. is addressing. The idea of a commonly prepared meal is an invitation to all for coming together, for taking care for each other and for celebrating diversity. The learning material provides a sensitive overview and impression of cultural variety and connections in the context of food. With all of its ingredients and recipes from various cultural backgrounds we create an atmosphere of being curious and explorative rather than exclusivity.
Further, the cooking cart is produced within the correctional facility for young men (18 – 24 years old) in Niederschönenfeld, Bavaria. Within this program the young criminals are integrated in the social rehabilitation program, in order to get the chance to work and if possible the chance to complete an apprenticeship. Therefor they are enabled to integrate into society after their release. The correctional facility is equipped with various workshops – the carpentry and electrical workshop build the base construction of the cooking cart and enable the young prisoners to fully work it out. As well as the aprons, which are a basic equipment in the cooking cart are sewn and embroidered in another correctional facility for young people within Bavaria.
überkochen is a unique example for social design. überkochen effects a positive impact within various fields of societal challenges with a focus on youth education and professional education. From the production of the cooking cart to the usage in school, überkochen represents high values in the social cohabitation.
Results in relation to category
Those who understand their own environment as something that can be shaped can achieve a sustainable kind of satisfaction in it and contribute to progress that is personally perceptible. An education system that makes it possible for students to experience their own effectiveness in relation to living together creates democratic incentives and new perspectives. Independent thinking, discovering and doing opens up new opportunities to develop one's own interests, which perhaps lasts into old age.
überkochen’s goal is to reach as many students as possible to offer them a chance of a commonly prepared meal. Cooking offers an excellent interactive method of practicing skills and enabling students to prepare a meal for themselves and others. So far more than 30 schools in Germany are equipped with the mobile cooking cart and learning material with a strong focus on the metropolitan region of Munich. The introduction workshop reached about 400 teachers of different subjects and various types of schools. Up to 10,000 students per year have the opportunity to experience classes with our unique learning concept. About 70 percent of the classes who combined überkochen within their subject teaching, did integrate the topic of healthy food and nutrition in their every day school life. The remaining 30 percent used the mobile cooking cart for optional study groups or events at school. In 2018 überkochen e.V. was honored with the title ‚Kultur- und Kreativpiloten‘ by the German Ministry of Economics and Energy. We are part of the certified initiative ‚IN FORM‘ by the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Together with a leading German health insurance we started a pilot project to make schools more resilient when it comes to food and nutrition and achieving better results in their sustainability ratings.
How Citizens benefit
Global challenges such as promoting cultural diversity, access to food, the impact of climate change and advocacy for a democratic society call for new approaches to prepare schools for a sustainable future. The Fridays for Future movement shows that students are standing up. They are no longer watching what is done to the planet by older generations. Sustainable development is solely possible with self-thinking people who recognize and understand connections and skills. Amongst other goals required for a future on planet earth (see Sustainable Development Goals), the UN urges action for zero hunger (SDG 2) as well as responsible consumption and production (Goal 12). überkochen e.V. addresses this specific goals, and further creates a link in between all the sustainable development goals in general and the living worlds of students and all other inhabitants of our planet. By cooking collaboratively in the classroom, we want to promote this goal. To give young people a chance to think outside the box and learn skills for everyday life.
We integrated this approach of co-production and co-design in the whole project itself. From the research question of what design might offer at schools to the production and implementation at various educational institutions, we work together in a highly participatory manner. We understand the educational community as a driver for equality and are constantly learning from each other. We asked children, parents, teachers and invited them to join the design thinking and making processes. And we did not stop yet to understand our product service system as a permanent beta, constantly shaping by a growing community and the daily life.
Innovative character
The project follows a design research approach from the very beginning and also in its organizational structures focused on co-design and permanent beta. We always try to involve all stakeholders in decision making and adapt various method from humanities to constantly proof the concept and use of all components. überkochen e.V. developed the mobile cooking cart for the classroom within a multilevel, iterative co-design process. This learning device and material was developed especially for the usage in schools and was embedded in a systemic concept of educational materials, workshops at schools and practical scenarios of application. The project überkochen itself is an educational format and tool for societal transformation addressing working on a system oder organizational level. Our aim is to contribute to the shift in education to learning skills more than only theoretical informations. We focus on action and chances to take part in real life environments. Creating social and ecological impact is in the center of überkochen e.V.’s activities rather than making profit. We think working for the common good is the future of education.
