Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009

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At Garden Springs, kids learn a little about cooking in the new 'explorium' class. Math also comes in handy as they divide a recipe in half while measuring the ingredients.

The new “explorium” class at Garden Springs Elementary has children singing in Spanish one week and making West African sweet balls the next.

“It’s almost like traveling to different places, but you stay in one spot,” fourth-grader Jacob Heil said as classmates rolled small balls of dough to fry in a sizzling skillet.

Writing specialist Julie Mullins leads this class offering, which all the students rotate through on a six-day cycle that also includes art, music, physical education, computer and library classes. Mullins incorporates a variety of curriculum areas as she teaches new material and guides hands-on activities like cooking.

“It’s like all the subjects put together – like an all-purpose class,” said Abby Hendren, who really enjoys the world language segments.

Mullins started the school year with several Spanish lessons and then moved on to this unit on Ghana, partly because Garden Springs had invited an expert to demonstrate African dance this fall. Next up will be sign language and a series on folk music featuring the dulcimer, a native instrument of Kentucky.

“I thought it was something they could be proud of – learning about their heritage,” she said.

Mullins, who is in her 19^th year of teaching, studied Spanish in college and minored in music; she also is taking the sign language course offered at It’s About Kids Support Services. So she draws on her own experience in designing the explorium classes.

“I’m letting the kids lead, based on their motivation and interest. We want kids doing things, making things, performing,” she said, stressing that every child needs to be exposed to the arts and to enrichment activities.

During the first session on Ghana, Mullins talked about the way of life in West Africa, including how the people there farm – with children sometimes climbing trees to harvest the fruit. She also highlighted West African pastimes such as dancing, drumming and storytelling, and explained the meaning of the colors on Ghana’s flag.

As Mullins prepared for the cooking exercise, her students sketched the flag in their journals and recorded tidbits about the far-away country, which she had pointed out on a globe.

“We write down the stuff we learn,” said Ike Ducas, who confided about this class, “It’s more fun because you get to eat and draw.”

The students also used math skills that day, cutting the sweet-balls recipe in half as they measured and doled out flour, nutmeg and other ingredients.

This wasn’t the first kitchen foray in the explorium class.

“We also cooked tortillas, with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon,” said Caytlyn Merriam. “We’re trying to learn the alphabet in Spanish.”

Her teacher said classes will revisit Spanish throughout the year because the kids are enjoying it so much, especially Hispanic students who are already familiar with the language and culture.

“You see them light up because now they’re the leader,” Mullins said, adding, “It’s been good for cultural awareness.”

Many of the kids at Garden Springs say “explorium” is their favorite class.

“It doesn’t feel like you’re learning stuff, but it makes your brains think,” said Caytlyn.