Almost every child I know is addicted to the alluring taste of pizza, a tempting delicacy that works as a meal, snack and all-around food group. So, what if the mesmerizing power of that thin, cheesy pie could be harnessed to educate?
Professor Bruce A. Watkins of Purdue University has found a way. He has created an interactive cyber-haven for junior and senior high school students to learn about food science, chemistry and nutrition as they explore the origins and composition of this impressive culinary accomplishment.
The Pizza Explorer
Site address: www.efph.purdue.edu/pizza/
Creator: The developers of the Pizza Explorer are Mr. Watkins, who is faculty coordinator, with Natalie Carroll, Kellen Maicher and Kevin Hamstra leading a team of students at the Lipid Chemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
Creator quotable: “The focus of my program is to revolutionize science education in the United States by a process called ’science visualization,’” Mr. Watkins says. “Science visualization is a method that applies multimedia tools employing the Internet and CD-ROM platforms to teach science.”
Word from the Webwise: The Pizza Explorer uses on-screen activities that integrate current concepts in biology and chemistry to give students a self-paced experience that will, unfortunately, make them lose their appetite. Discussions of duodenal secretions, saturated fatty acids and swine slaughter did not make me think about ordering a pizza.
After a musical introduction in which tour guide Peter Oliver Pizzaro flies by, the site asks visitors to decide whether they are left-brain or right-brain thinkers. A series of 15 questions defined as the Configurator are used to determine whether a student is more prone to learning via a structured and linear design (the left-brain thinker) or requires a more visually oriented approach (right-brain thinker).
Once they have chosen, pizza lovers get an interactive pie in the middle of a wavy blue screen. Extra section icons help visitors explore the history of pizza and ingredients in respect to food safety, food processing and chemical composition, hot topics of health interest, and nutritional values.
Highlighting mozzarella cheese, onions, olives, meat, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and crust, the site uses information that appears in a box in the corner of the screen. A pop-up box makes appearances to define some of the multisyllabic terms presented.
For example, when I click on an ingredient on the pizza, a section icon allows me to access information on the history of sausage production (click pepperoni and factory symbol), to learn that the red pigment in tomato sauce is loaded with the unsaturated hydrocarbon carotenoid lycopene (click tomato and food pyramid symbol) and to discover that bovine milk contains nine amino acids (click anywhere on the cheese and molecule symbol).
Quizzes can be taken on each of the ingredients at any time to reinforce the concepts explored within the icons.
Ease of use: This site requires Macromedia’s Flash Player 5.0 and a 640 by 480 screen resolution.
Don’t miss: Visitors can enjoy the Pizza Explorer Game, in which players identify the ingredients at the bottom of a page from questions posed by Peter Pizzaro. Those who know what food component Christopher Columbus discovered in 1492, what ingredient is grown in a compost of sterilized cereal grains and manure and what ingredient grows on trees in subtropical climates eventually get a virtual pizza. After two wrong answers, archvillain Azzip P. Sauce steals the unfinished pie with a sinister cackle.
Family activity: Under the Help section, visitors not only find detailed PDF copies of nutritional value tables and a study guide, but also a 63-page downloadable Food Chemistry Experiment Book featuring hands-on projects. These range from using pectin with an acid and sugar to form jelly (teaching a bit about carbohydrates) to examining fat from chocolate, potato chips and sunflower seeds (to learn about lipids in the food industry).
Cyber-sitter synopsis: This exhaustive deconstruction of one of America’s favorite foods can overwhelm students with an abundance of information, but it still provides an engaging learning environment — as long as the annoying and repetitive theme song is shut off.
Overall grade: A
Remember: The information on the Internet is constantly changing. Please verify the advice on the sites before you act to be sure it’s accurate and updated. Health sites, for example, should be discussed with your own physician.
Have a cool site for the family? Write to Joseph Szadkowski at Webwise, The Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002; call 202/636-3016; or send an e-mail message (jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com).
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