By KENNEDY TOLBERT / Community Columnist

Students and their parents got a chance to see, sample, and learn about eating insects from Mrs. Carter’s students.

The entire school voted if they would eat a bug, which will be used as a math activity for graphing and percents.

A viewing station with a microscope allowed everyone to see insect fragments in grits.

Next, several common food items that we eat like pastas, tomato products, chocolate, peanut butter, cornmeal, dry legumes, fruits, popcorn, and spices to name a few were displayed to share that we already all eat bugs without knowing it.

The FDA sets food defect action levels in foods we eat and allows certain levels of insect fragments. Mrs. Carter’s expert students showed and shared their vast knowledge.

Student and parents who did not want to sample the real insects were given a chance to have “Ants on a Log” made with pretzel sticks dipped into peanut butter with a chocolate covered raisin on top.

Two students became bug chefs complete with a bug chef’s hat after viewing Time Magazine’s “How to Cook a Bug” video of bug Chef David George Gordon. They shared how to cook scorpions and make Scorpion Scaloppine from his Eat-A-Bug Cookbook.

Mrs. Carter set up a special surprise just for her class after their amazing presentation. Chef Gordon spoke to her students on the telephone to congratulate them and share more about his love of creating insect recipes and educating people about eating bugs. Students were thrilled to have this opportunity and be able to ask him questions.

Mrs. Carter also incorporated this learning activity to enhance what the fourth graders were learning in AMSTI science with the live centipedes. The second grade classes were also studying Far-Out Foods in their National Geographic lesson.

Mrs. Carter’s students became peer helpers to help the second graders with their social studies lesson.

They used the jigsaw method to learn the information and teach it in a fun and interesting way using visual aids and hands on materials. Her students also created podcasts to include on the class blog, which will be used as a listening station for the second grade to be able to hear their lesson and help bring the story to life.

The fifth graders were so excited to also be able to share and incorporate all that they had learned during their unit.

All of the students’ hard work was also recognized and celebrated on FOX 6.  Mrs. Carter is so proud of what her students were able to accomplish not only academically, but being able to broaden their horizons and experience new things that they might have never gotten to experience.

Kennedy Tolbert, the community columnist for Wilsonville, can be reached at kennedytolbert@bellsouth.net.