Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn how to illustrate their feelings, reflect on their experiences with cold water, meet a Times comics reporter, listen to the pronunciation of a new word and use football vocabulary in context.
Note: To learn more about this new weekly feature, read our introductory post. Please share your thoughts in the comments section or by emailing us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
1. Illustrate a feeling.
In thisLesson of the Day, students will learn about how an artist created an illustration to represent the word “languishing.” Then, they will illustrate a pervasive feeling they experienced during the pandemic and illustrate a word or feeling they would like to carry with them into 2022.
2. Reflect on experiences with cold water.
ThisStudent Opinion question asks students to share how they feel when they encounter cold water — whether an ice-cold drink, a cold shower or a frigid swimming pool. Students can share their responses with their classmates, or in the comments section.
3. Learn about the work of a comics reporter.
Have you ever wanted to see the behind-the-scenes experience of a New York Times reporter? What about of a New York Times comics reporter? Students can read a comic by the Times reporter George Gene Gustines and the artist Bill Walko, about learn how Mr. Gustines researches and writes about comics. Looking for more teaching resources? We have a whole lesson plan based on this comic.
4. Learn — and listen to — a new word.
This week Word of the Day debuted a new feature: audio word pronunciation. Going forward students will not only be able to learn a new word from The Times and write their own sentence, but they will also be able to listen to the pronunciation of the word from Vocabulary.com.
5. Practice using football-related vocabulary terms.
This vocabulary quiz allows N.F.L. lovers to show off their knowledge as they practice sports-related reading comprehension and vocabulary skills.
5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
The short video clip is filmed from behind a store counter.
“If you get this question right,” the cameraman, a store clerk, can be heard telling a customer, “you have five seconds to pick up whatever you want.”
“All right,” says the customer, a man with a gray beard.
“Ten times 10 minus 50,” the clerk says.
“Fifty!” the man answers instantly.
“Five! Four!”the clerk shouts, counting down.
The man turns around quickly toward the small store’s shelves and bends down to reach for his prize.
The video has been viewed more than five million times on the video-sharing platform TikTok, elevating the profile of the clerk, Ahmed Alwan, and bodega culture itself.
It’s no longer necessary to live in New York to get a feel for the city’s bodegas, thanks to Mr. Alwan and others who use TikTok to post funny video clips that highlight the stores’ distinctive culture. They’re going viral in the process.
Mr. Alwan plays the math game with regular customers at Lucky Candy Deli in the Bronx. A 20-year-old borough native of Yemeni heritage, he has close to 500,000 TikTok followers and he has been featured in reports on CNN, Al Jazeera and several local television stations.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Haitian restaurants in Miami are special in so many other ways; besides the fresh food and welcoming atmosphere, they are filled with Haitian pride. The most obvious place to go for Haitian cuisine in Miami is the Little Haiti neighborhood (north of downtown) and North Miami (near West Dixie Highway). I would absolutely recommend Chef Creole, a place where Haitian music and Creole compete to welcome guests. I probably eat here twice a week, or any other chance I get! My favorite Chef Creole dish is the griot (fried pork) with rice and green peas… A lesser known Haitian spot is in Little Haiti, Piman Bouk. Walking into Pimak Bouk you instantly feel like you are in Haiti. Tables are lined with colorful printed clothes and walls are covered in Haitian history, photos, flags, posters. Just be prepared to be greeted in Creole, “Bonswa.” Although I have never had the opportunity to visit my country, Haiti, it is very dear to my heart.
Living on the coast, an essential food in our community is seafood. There are many restaurants near the beach that have amazing seafood like Blue Water, Fish House, and Bridgetender, however, nothing compares to the flounder dish at Brasserie Du Soleil located in Lumina Station on the way to Wrightsville Beach. The flounder is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside drizzled in a light, creamy butter sauce with capers sprinkled on top. It comes with buttered green beans and roasted potatoes cut into the size of a half-dollar coin on the side.
Each country, state, or city have their own unique and native dish. In my case, my essential home dish is pupusas. This dish is made up of a stuffed flour tortilla, usually the stuffing is beans & cheese or “revuelta” which is a mixture of cheese, beans, and pork. Furthermore, this essential dish is paired with a thinly-cut pickled cabbage, carrot, and jalapeños with a side of salsa which is composed of tomatoes, jalapeños, and unions. Despite the fact that pupusas are my essential hometown food others may vary depending where they come from. Of course, pupusas are a famous dish throughout Central America, but are only native to certain countries.
I think Miami is a great place to try and answer this from, considering how many different kinds of food you can bring up due to the melting pot of cultures that is Miami. There’s Cuban food, Colombian, Venezuelan, Italian, Jewish Kosher, Mexican, Dominican and American food, along with some other types I’m definitely forgetting. My personal favorite food would be a Haitian food called griot. It consists of marinated pork and plantain, meant to be eaten together. It doesn’t sound that exotic but Haitian food is seasoned incredibly and the flavor of the pork combined with the base of the plantain is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. There’s a lot of different places you can find griot in North Miami and Little Haiti and each is always a little different.
New Mexico has so many great foods to choose from but I believe our main essential food is chili. It is a part of our culture and heritage and is also what we are famous for. Chili is an important crop for farmers here and something that we value a lot. Everyone from here knows what the question “Red or green?” means. You have your opinion on whether you like red or green chili better and people here have different preferences. It´s something everyone asks and every New Mexican has their answer. We put chili on just about anything and that really shows when you go out to eat and you see that chili can be added to almost any dish you order.
When it comes to the topic of Chicago foods, most of us agree that deep dish pizza is seen as a Chicago staple. However, this agreement ends when it comes to the question of who actually eats it. On one hand, many true Chicagoans say that only tourists and suburbanites eat it, while others stress the significance of deep dish pizza as a part of Chicago culture and argue that many people enjoy a nice deep dish pizza from their favorite local spot. Personally, I am one of those suburbanites who loves deep dish pizza, and my Chicagoan brother is on my side.
When I moved to the States, four years ago, from my hometown in South Africa, Pretoria, one of the most precious things I left behind is: the food. Where I lived -approximately 2 flight hours away from the gorgeous and very famous CAPE TOWN-there blooms a mini india consolidated with hints of South African culture to create mouthwatering dishes that tickle your tastebuds even years later. Here are some of the most delicious dishes I recommend you give a try if you are lucky enough to take a trip. Barbecues in South Africa are called Braai’s from the Afrikaans language that consists of Dutch influence. Braai’s usually consist of boerewors(farmers sausage), lamb chops and kebabs. While I discuss meat, I want to make sure you know about Biltong, a form of dried, cured meat that varies in flavors similar to jerky in the States. I’m saving the best for last: Desert. First off, we have Malva pudding which consists of both an almost spongy pillow like textured cake and is served with oozing hot custard. I’m going to end off with my classic favorite melktert (milk tart), reminiscent of custard pie but more delicate, with a lighter texture and a strong milk presence that’s finished off with a dust of cinnamon.
4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, Feb. 9, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
5. By Friday morning, Feb. 11, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.
Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.
• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.
• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Along the river, people biked, walked, roller-skated, bird-watched, caught up with friends. But I found myself most intrigued by the people who were fishing. In this unexpected environment of concrete, buzzing traffic and litter, the act of fishing seemed almost defiant: a/an outdoors activity against a backdrop of highway overpasses.
The most prominent building on West 135th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem is not an elaborate church or a stately apartment building but the 90-year-old Y.M.C.A. But despite its bulk, the edifice — with its brick facade, 14-story tower and tall sign with the letters “Y.M.C.A.” blazing in red neon each night — can be easy to overlook: It’s been a mainstay of the neighborhood for so long that its residents sometimes forget to notice it.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word edifice in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how edifice can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
Coming up in the tech industry, Tony Effik was used to being “the only person in the room” — sometimes even the building. “There weren’t a lot of people like me around, and those that were were few and far in between,” Effik, who identifies as Black, recalls.
As a Managing Director at Google and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University, Effik was committed to nurturing young people of color one-on-one in his own professional life.
In 2020, the death of George Floyd compelled Effik and his wife, Perky Noah-Effik, to found the Black and Brilliant Advocacy Network, a pipeline for Black talent aimed at diversifying the workforce.
In AI, for example, minority groups are severely underrepresented, with Black people comprising only 4% (or less) of the staff at companies like Google and Microsoft, according to a report from the research institute AI Now.
“There are careers with fences around them,” Effik says. “Like, you know there’s a career called AI and it’s hot. You can see it, but you can’t get over the fence — you need people on the other side to help you out.”
In 2021, Codecademy partnered with Black and Brilliant to launch an AI Accelerator to help combat this very issue. For 10 weeks, participants studied everything from programming and data science to user experience and the ethical and business sides of AI. Established professionals coached learners on soft skills that they’d need to excel in their careers.
It’s “deeply satisfying” to hear success stories about learners who went through the accelerator program, Effik says. “The people who came through the program were probably on their way there anyway, but we just gave them a nudge and a little support.”
Here, Effik explains the work Black and Brilliant is doing to diversify AI, how mentors can give you superpowers, and what people need to know to be part of AI’s “massive revolution.”
What initially interested you about tech?
“I grew up in a low-income household. My mother was a cleaner, but she bought some very early computers for me and my siblings just for fun. But then we got a Commodore 64. It was an insane thing for her to buy for us because, if you talk to people in my age group in Silicon Valley, that’s what they had — and I was living in social housing in the projects. No one else in our neighborhood had a computer.
After that, I quickly got into writing machine code and BASIC. I didn’t get great at it, but I got interested in the ecosystem and subculture around it. Then, my school got one of the first computer rooms in the district — a DEC Vax Minicomputer system with green monitors. I started writing in C, Fortran, and Pascal, and I never got really great at it, but I got very comfortable around computing.
Then, I started working at this publishing company. One day my boss came into the office and said, ‘There’s this new thing called the Internet — we’ve got to go big on the Internet.’ And I was like, if no one’s an expert on the Internet, I can be that expert, and that was kind of what really propelled me.
I always had a thirst for knowledge and understanding of new and innovative things.”
What piqued your interest in data science and machine learning?
“I believe every few years, there is an on-ramp where the normal rules change and you can jump levels. If it weren’t for the Internet, I’d still be at the grassroots. When social media happened, I saw a bunch of people come up, and that helped me jump a few levels.
I feel data science, including AI and other disciplines, is the next on-ramp. I saw a lack of people of color in that space, they were missing this on-ramp. I couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and watch this, so I asked myself, ‘How do we bring more people in?’
AI is going to be ubiquitous and pervasive — from checkout systems and ordering online to medical diagnostics, everything is going to have some type of AI in it. I want to make sure that our people are at the table and ensure that they’re future-proofing their careers, because it’s just a massive revolution.”
Have you ever had a mentor?
“There definitely have been people that have guided and advised me and that I’ve learned from, but I’ve never really had somebody who I called on regularly or who I looked at in that way.
That’s actually something our community suffers from. But what you’ll find in more privileged communities is that they might have an uncle, a grandparent, a friend of the family who will be like, ‘Hey, you’re doing that thing? Did you realize there’s this other thing you could do?’ Or, ‘Come and talk to me next week.’ We don’t have that.
What a mentor does is essentially teach you the soft skills and ‘cheat codes’ — the things that you should know but don’t.
I think frequently with our community, you’re just making these decisions by yourself, like an island in isolation. It impacts your confidence, your decision-making, your ability to feel motivated and inspired, even your sense of belonging and inclusion. Mentors kind of give you a superpower — like a boost of confidence.”
What inspired you to form Black and Brilliant?
“After George Floyd’s death, conversations we weren’t having a year ago, we were suddenly having in the office. It was my first time talking to my boss at the time about my ethnicity and what it meant to be a Black man.
But the other conversation that came off the back of that was the fact that most of my bosses have been white men. A lot of people would say, ‘I want more Black people on the team, but I just can’t find the talent.’ And then I’d say, ‘I’ve got a lot of Black friends who said they can’t find the opportunity.’ It just sounded like a classic matchmaking problem in engineering.
So, I started the Black and Brilliant hashtag with my wife. What would happen if people could just search LinkedIn for #BlackandBrilliant? Then they’d already have the pipeline. We tagged 30 or 40 people and asked them to tag more people. I woke up one morning and there were 10,000 people tagged.
We’d do panels and networking events, and we formed different communities and subgroups. But then I realized that I was much more interested in taking a cohort of people and meaningfully impacting them. ‘Near-ready’ people — those who already had some of the technical skills or potential — and just helping them get over the fence. That’s when the AI Accelerator was born.
The most powerful thing was that I had a network of amazing people — Black, white, and Asian — who were already on the other side of the fence and could act as coaches in teaching the soft skills. I got some amazing people to do one-on-ones, hangouts, things like that. It was an amazing experience, and the Codecademy Team just took it to the next level for us.”
What advancements in (or applications of) AI are you most excited about?
“Everything we’re doing through our phones with virtual assistants and conversational processing was a really massive breakthrough. We have seen AI manifest in ways that still seem like magic, even today. I’m interested in that, but I’m also interested in operational or enterprise AI: You can make forecasts and predictions, and use it to guide decision-making.
We’ve seen it become pervasive in areas like finance and law enforcement with fraud detection, and I think enterprise AI is going to be even more far-reaching than what we see today. I’m passionate about that, because that’s more day-to-day for me in terms of the work I do, and it’s also very important in terms of representation because AI can be used in hiring to decide whether you’re going to be on the shortlist or not. It’s not the AI we think about day-to-day, but it’s the AI that we need to be plugged into and aware of.”
What advice do you have for BIPOC individuals who want to get into AI?
“Be courageous. You’re frequently going to walk into rooms where you’re the only one. You’re frequently going to be challenged that you’re not as good as everyone else. You’re going to have moments where people around you will say things that don’t sit well with you. There are going to be moments where you want to say things that are authentic to you but may not fit in that room. So you’re constantly going to be challenged, and over time that can wear you down, or it might even prevent you from stepping into the arena in the first place.
Being able to stand confidently in that room, standing confident in who you are and having a true and deep belief about your capabilities is very important. Your belief comes from you just knowing your stuff — there’s no shortcut to that. Become really good at this thing, and benchmark yourself against the very best. Aim for the mountaintops not the foothills.”
Conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
In the wake of Omicron, additional testing and breakthrough Covid infections among vaccinated people have created the perfect recipe for misinformation about the coronavirus.
In this lesson, you will think about rumors you have heard and learn about some of the ways that falsehoods have been able to grow during this stage of the pandemic. Then, you will have several choices for thinking more about misinformation, whether by reading the related “Annotated by the Author” version of this article, by fact-checking Covid information you come across, or by considering one recent issue with misinformation and deciding what should be done.
Warm-Up
On TikTok, Instagram and other social media recently, have you seen videos of at-home Covid-19 tests displaying positive results after being soaked in drinking water and juice?
If so, how did you react when you saw them? If you were suspicious of these viral posts, how could you have investigated them?
These viral videos pushed the false narrative that rapid coronavirus tests don’t work, and are just part of a spike in misinformation about Covid-19 tests that has surged because of the highly infectious Omicron variant.
1. How did people on TikTok and Instagram try to make it look as though coronavirus rapid tests don’t work? How have health experts responded to these false claims?
2. How have far-right websites created, and helped to spread, misinformation about Covid testing?
3. What role does misinformation play in efforts to keep the pandemic under control?
4. What are the primary categories of Covid misinformation ? Have you seen or heard of falsehoods in recent weeks or months?
5. Why does Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the University of Washington, say we are in an “opportune moment” for false narratives about the virus?
6. How have web companies, like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, responded to questions about misinformation on their platforms? What is your reaction to their responses? Do you think they are doing enough or do you think they should take a more active approach to dispelling falsehoods?
7. According to the Food and Drug Administration, what is the actual risk for a false positive or a false negative result? How can these inaccuracies be avoided?
8. How does John Gregory, deputy health editor at NewsGuard, describe the “misinformation industry’s pattern” during the pandemic? Have you witnessed this? Give an example.
9. The article ends with several paragraphs describing viral Facebook posts claiming that the Centers for Disease Control had withdrawn support of P.C.R. tests. How does this example demonstrate how falsehoods can grow, spread and re-emerge online?
Going Further
Option 1: Go behind the scenes with the journalist who wrote this piece.
Davey Alba, the technology reporter who wrote this article, covers online disinformation and the global harm it does or The Times. She has annotated this piece for us, describing how she does her job, and how she uses data and evidence from experts to help buttress the article with facts to debunk lies.
Now that you’ve read the article itself, read her commentary. What is one thing you learned — whether about Covid, about disinformation, or about the job of a reporter? What is one question you’d like to ask someone who covers online disinformation for a living?
Option 2: Spot Covid misinformation on the platforms where you spend time
Using what you learned in this lesson and tips like these from the News Literacy Project and these from Snopes, the internet fact-checking organization, practice pausing, looking for sources and generally fact-checking any information you come across. If everyone in your class is doing this, you might even create a kind of gallery walk of debunked Covid rumors that like this article, explains what the false information was, where and how it spread and how it has been proven false.
If you take this on, the News Literacy Project even has advice on “how to speak up without starting a showdown” if you need to discuss with friends or family false information they have posted.
Option 3: Consider one recent issue with misinformation and decide what should be done.
The most popular podcast on Spotify, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” drew criticism from hundreds of medical experts for spreading “societally harmful” misinformation about Covid-19. What, if anything, do you think the streaming service should do about it?
Do you think that Spotify can claim, as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have, that it should not be responsible for moderating content posted to its platform? Or do you think this case is different,because unlike most social media platforms, Spotify paid Mr. Rogan for his podcast?
Bollettieri thought for a moment, then he motioned for me to come closer. “Find Arthur,” he instructed, “and ask if he will help.” Bollettieri meant Arthur Ashe, whose Wimbledon win had sparked my tennis ambition. The two had teamed up to help other minority players attend the academy.
If Arthur would fund part of it, Bollettieri said he would also help.
I ended up asking my father to find Ashe and broach Bollettieri’s idea. It seemed too daunting a task for me to pull off. But dad always pushed me, always looked for ways to help me stand on my own two feet. He had taught himself tennis after his college basketball career ended, and pretty much insisted I learn tennis too. Now he told me it was my job, and mine alone, to make the pitch.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word broach in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how broach can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
Feb. 1 marks one of the most important holidays in Vietnam, South Korea, China and other Asian countries: Lunar New Year. Do you celebrate this holiday? Are you looking forward to the Year of the Tiger?
The festivities begin with a feast the night before, and can last for two weeks. The foods — longevity noodles, dumplings, lumpia, steamed fish, tang yuan — often symbolize promises for a better year ahead.
Do you have any special cultural or holiday traditions that involve food?
For about two decades, Shila Das has brought her chicken curry and nasi biryani to her best friend, Wendy Chua, for their Lunar New Year celebrations together in their native Singapore. They start the day with those dishes, then have hot pot.
The women, both 51, began spending the holiday together as teenagers, watching lion dance troupes perform in the wide atrium of Ms. Chua’s grandfather’s house. Nearly three decades ago,the ethnically Chinese Chua family tasked Ms. Das, who is Indian and Vietnamese, with presiding over its household’sNew Year lo hei ceremony, a Singaporean tradition centered on yu sheng, one of the country’s most popular New Year dishes. Ms. Das led the family in tossing the ingredients, flinging raw fish, crackers, slivered carrots and pickled ginger into the air while shouting auspicious phrases in Chinese. (Lo hei means “tossing up good fortune” in Cantonese.)
“Just imagine. In this Chinese house, there’s this Indian girl that stands on the stool and leads the lo hei every year,” Ms. Das said.
Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 1 this year, is celebrated in Singapore primarily by members of the Chinese diaspora, who make up three-quarters of the population. They include those who are Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew from southeastern China; Hainanese from the island province of Hainan; Hakka, a migrant group spread out all over China; and Peranakan, who have been in the region for over 400 years and also have mixed Malay and European ancestry. Each ethnic group has its own set of traditions, but years of living among one another, and among other peoples like Malays and Indians, have created the island’s colorful and distinctive culinary fabric.
In the days leading up to the Lunar New Year, Daphne Wu would wait for a pomelo to ripen.
Her family would buy at least one every year and set it on the counter. It got sweeter and sweeter as the New Year approached.
Pomelos, which are similar to grapefruits, are said to bring prosperity to whoever eats them, but they are notoriously difficult — and time-consuming — to crack open.
The practice of peeling the fruit together brought Ms. Wu’s family closer, and the taste of the pomelo was just a bonus. “It’s amazingly sweet,” said Ms. Wu, 33, a web designer and a co-founder of the Cut Fruit Collective, an organization in the San Francisco Bay Area that supports Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Eating, and giving, fruit are among the customs that many Asian families, like Ms. Wu’s, practice for the Lunar New Year. This year, the holiday will fall on Tuesday, as the moon enters a new phase and ushers in the Year of the Tiger. Celebrations often last two weeks.
Lunar New Year traditions vary among Asian cultures, but their goal remains the same: to bring luck and prosperity. There are other traditions, too, such as exchanging red envelopes containing money and eating long noodles for a long life.
Students, read one or both of the articles, and then tell us:
If you celebrate Lunar New Year, do you participate in any of the food-related traditions you read about, such as sharing a big meal with family and friends or eating and giving fruit? If not, what did you learn about this holiday? Do the traditions remind you of any that you practice in your own culture?
If you don’t celebrate Lunar New Year, choose another special food-focused holiday your family or community celebrates. What kinds of foods do you eat? Who does the cooking? What does the preparation look like? Are there any special rituals, like the lo hei?
Certain Lunar New Year foods hold special meaning: Long noodles symbolize a long life; whole poultry signals abundance; dumplings represent family unity and togetherness for the year ahead; and apples are said to bring peace. Think about the holiday you’ve chosen to write about. Do any of the foods you eat have special meaning or symbolism?
Why do you think food is such an important part of so many cultural traditions? How essential is eating, preparing and sharing food in your culture? What does it mean to you?
Are there recipes that have been passed down through your family that honor or celebrate your culture? Describe one that is special to you and tell us why.
