Introduction
Olives are the fruit of the olive tree, the most popular food of the populations of the Mediterranean.
With a deep mythological history, they were—so the story goes—a gift to humankind from the Greek goddess Athena.
Now, there are hundreds of varieties growing throughout the world, and they all have a unique appearance, taste, and texture. After harvesting, they are cleaned and placed in bins for desiccation and then maintained with salt, brine, vinegar or oil. They are used as appetizers and accompanied by salads and many appetizing dishes. They are the foundation of the Mediterranean diet.
However, if you’re like most people, you probably only know two types of olives; “green” and “black.”
Let’s change that!!
Task
Your task for today is to learn:
- the types of olives,
- the nutrition value of olives,
- the process of olives,
- the preservation of olives,
- the benefits of their consumption to your health and
- how to use them in your nutrition
Process
Step one - The types of olives
Due to the immense range of olive tree varieties, where it grew, ripeness, and processing method, listing every cultivar is impossible so we'll discuss the main types of olives and then students will use Thinglink in teams of 3 persons to make a map listing the most popular olive types in each country, giving some extra info (WORKSHEET1). They will take their info from the URLs:
https://www.nutritionadvance.com/types-of-olives/
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/guide-to-olive-varieties.html
http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food/article/types-olives-and-olive-oil
In the end, each team will present their work.
Step two - Olives processing & preservation
An olive is categorized according to its processing method, too. Because all fresh olives are very sharp and bitter in flavor, they need to be processed to make them edible. The processing removes an acrid, bitter-tasting compound called oleuropein, present in olive skin. There are several different methods, each of which leaches out the oleuropein. We'll discuss the different processing techniques:
- Oil-curing: soaking in oil for several months
- Water-curing: rinsing and pre-soaking in water for many months
- Brine-curing: soaking in brine for one to six months
- Dry-curing: storing in salt for one or more months
and then students will attend the following videos. After that, they will preserve a popular variety of their area(WORKSHEET2).
Step three - Nutrition value of olives & Benefits of their consumption to health
We'll ask students if they know any benefits of olives. Then we'll ask them to use the Internet and find some info in order to make some brochures on the Nutrition value of olives and the benefits of their consumption to our health. They can include some ways to include more olives in our daily nutrition.
They have to use the following link or any else they want. (WORKSHEET3).
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/olives#section5
https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/7338/2
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=46
https://www.health24.com/Diet-and-nutrition/Healthy-foods/20-health-benefits-of-olives-20131218
https://www.olivemypickle.com/blogs/news/10-benefits-of-eating-healthy-olives
In the end, each team will present their work. All the brochures will be shared with students of other classes. Maybe some will be kept to the library of the school.
Evaluation
This is how your work will be evaluated.
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Beginning 1 |
Developing 2 |
Qualified 3 |
Exemplary 5 |
Score /20
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Teamwork |
There is one person doing all the work, and the team is NOT working together. |
The team is working individually on their own role, and using limited talked with others in a group |
The team is working together, but not using the inflammation to connect with one another. |
The whole team is working together, helping each other out, and connecting information with one another. |
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Research / Understanding
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Don't use sources given & information is not factual. Student lacked knowledge |
Use sources were given. Students understood information but couldn't apply it to their projects |
Use sources are given, and students understood information but lacked creativity and informational facts |
Use sources, get all information asked and goes beyond to get and applied extra information to give to their classmates a better idea on the subject |
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Presentations, Thinglink |
No creativity to their presentation, such a little information that classmates aren't able to understand |
Students created a presentation with only text and nothing else. |
Students were able to create a good presentation. |
Great creativity, students are able to understand |
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Final project (Brochure) |
No final project |
The final project is lacking key components. |
Final project contains all key components |
Final project contains all key components and some extra information so it is complete and more useful to anyone interested in its theme. |
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Conclusion
The web quest is designed using investigation learning method in order to develop the critical thinking skills in children.
I hope you all had fun and you have made the best homemade olives !!!
Credits
This WebQuest was created by a team of teachers, within the co-funded Erasmus plus KA2 partnership “English for hospitality” (EN4HOSTS), project number: 2017-1-RO01-KA201-037159, KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices, KA201 - Strategic Partnerships for school education
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.