Each student will be assigned a country of the Spanish speaking world. He/she will research foods typical of that country. The student will also learn the currency of that country. The student will create a menu cover using the drawing or paint tool, and then will make a menu highlighting the foods researched with prices in the currency of the country. Students will post their menus on the GA web page. As a culminating activity, students will prepare a dish from a recipe that they obtained in their research and share it with the class and faculty.

This project has five basic components:

• researching a country and typical foods of that country
• designing a menu cover
• writing the text including prices for a menu
• linking the work to the GA website
• choosing and preparing for class a recipe from the assigned country

1. Students will be able to work in the MSCALC for five class periods.
2. Each student will be assigned a Spanish-speaking country in class. The countries include Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Spain.
3. Using the internet resources provided, the student will read a general encyclopedia article about the country and research typical dishes of the assigned country.
4. The student will prepare a bibliography page and submit it to the teacher.
5. Using Fireworks the students will design a menu cover incorporating specific knowledge of the country gained from the encyclopedia reading and the traditional recipes. After a brief introduction to Fireworks, students following the step by step instructions, will create their menu covers using the "Text" tool and the "drawing" tools available in Fireworks. They are to enhance their text using the stroke, fill end effects options and can incorporate illustrations or clip art acquire on line or from 525,000 graphics available from the"Art Explosion" CDs.
6. Next the student will review the available recipes and decide which dishes he or she will include in the menu. Each menu will contain a minimum of four categories from among the following:

Aperetivos o Entremeses
Sopas
Platos principales o Carnes, o Pollos, o Pescados o Puerco,
Especialidades de la Casa
Ensaladas, Legumbres o Acompañantes
Postres
Bebidas y Cafés

1. Once students have written the text of their menus, they will access the currency conversion website in order to calculate and post the prices on their menus. Multitasking between their word processed document and Adobe Page Mill the students will copy and paste their menu on to a web page.
2. They will link their completed work to the GA website.
3. The final step is to select a recipe and to prepare a dish to share with classmates and faculty.

By completing this project, students will have learned some important facts about a Spanish-speaking country and the traditional foods and recipes of that country. They will have designed a menu using the Fireworks application. They will have shared their knowledge of traditional foods by posting their menus on the GA website. They will have prepared and shared a dish with the class and the faculty. They will also know the currency of that country, and they will have had some practice with currency conversion. Students will have prepared a resource bibliography. In addition they will have practiced accessing and saving to their server accounts, multi-tasking, and scanning.

This project designed and implemented by Deborah Mersky, for Germantown Academy Middle School. Page design and technical assistance furnished by Carol Siwinski, Curricular Technology Specialist.