World Zone Café
STUDENT MATERIALSSTUDENT MATERIALSS-1WORLD ZONE CAFÉWORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200 / LESSON 3.1 ACTIVITYPreparation• Download “The Columbian Exchange”PurposeIn this activity, you have an opportunity to be creative while considering the biological impact of the Columbian Exchange. By creating menus related to what was available on each side of the world and how this availability grew once the world zones connected, you will have a more concrete sense of how an everyday activity like eating was so drastically changed by globalization. ProcessIn this activity, you will create a café menu that represents different world zones and uses what was available in each zone, both before and after the Columbian Exchange. In the article “Crops that Grew the World,” you learned about the biological impact of the Columbian Exchange. In the article “The Columbian Exchange,” you learned more about the details of what came from each world zone, the massive impact of the spread of disease, and a bit about how the movement of plants and animals impacted communities, networks, and production and distribution. In this activity, you’re going to zoom in and think more about the everyday lives of people—in particular, what those people ate. Imagine that you are restaurant owners getting ready to open The World Zone Café. This café, will not only serve delicious food, but will teach people about the origins of flora and fauna (plants and animals), and how the movement of these plants and animals changed people’s lives. To do this, you are going to create a small café menu with two appetizers, two entrées (main dishes), and two desserts. Two of the menu items must be made from ONLY plants and animals available in the Americas; two items must be made from ONLY plants and animals available in Afro-Eurasia; and two items must include ingredients from BOTH world zones. You can use the infographic from the article “The Columbian Exchange” to remind yourself of which plants and animals originated from which area. Once you’ve created your menu, be prepared to share your meal ideas with the class. Do the things you enjoy eating most originate in the Americas or Afro-Eurasia, or do they mostly come from both places? How might your meals (and traditions associated with them) be different today if the world zones had not connected in this way? Also, do you think connecting the world zones was worth it, keeping in mind the legacy of destruction in the wake of Columbus’s explorations? Finally, if you could have a meal from any of the menus in class, which one would you choose and why? Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0.