A Pizza Family Reunion

A WebQuest for 7th/8th Grade (Math)

Designed by

Ms. Michelle Theriault
theriaultm@clementon.k12.nj.us

 

&

 

Mrs. Mary Ellen Haldeman

haldemanm@clementon.k12.nj.us

 Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits


Introduction

Your family is having a reunion, and, since last time you and your cousins complained about Aunt Anne's meatball surprise, you have been put in charge of the food. After much consideration, you have decided to make homemade pizza. You decide to ask your Mom for help, and she says that, aside from doing the shopping, you are on your own. She does, however, let you know that there will be 60 people at the reunion, and each of them will need 4 slices, (1/2 of a pizza). She also said that, in order to have a diverse menu, that you should make 3 different types of pizza, with 1/3 being one type, 1/2 being another type, and the rest being a third type. 


The Task

 

Your first hurdle is that you have never made homemade pizza before, and, there are no recipe books in the house. Luckily, a friend is giving you the URL of a great online recipe site, and he has promised you that you will be able to find recipes for the dough, for the sauce, and for making pizzas there. Your second hurdle is that Mom needs to know how much of which ingredients to buy. Fortunately, you have a great spreadsheet program where you will be able to figure it all out. And finally, since it was the three of you that got you into this, Mom wants each of you to rate the others in your group on how much they participated and contributed.


The Process

This is a team project, and you will be assigned into groups of three. Each group will do the following:

  1. You will go online and choose and print a recipe for pizza dough, a recipe for pizza sauce, and three recipes (example: pepperoni, sausage) for putting together and making pizzas. (Please note, some pizza recipes include dough and/or sauce recipes. If you choose one of these, then this will effect how much of the dough and/or sauce recipes that you will need.)
  2. You will need to write a paragraph explaining how many of each type of pizza you are going to make, depending upon which pizza should serve ½ of the people, 1/3 of the people, or the rest of the people.
  3. Once you have your recipes, it is time to figure out how much of which ingredients you will need. I recommend that you make 4 spreadsheets to do that.
  4. The first spreadsheet should show how much of which ingredients are needed for the pizza dough recipe that you are using. (Be sure and note how many pizzas your dough recipe is for.)
  5. The second spreadsheet should show how much of which ingredients are needed for the pizza sauce recipe that you are using. (Again, be sure to note how many pizzas your sauce recipe is for.)
  6. The third spreadsheet should show how much of which ingredients are needed to put your pizzas together. (This spreadsheet should exclude the ingredients in the first and second spreadsheets. This includes your cheese and toppings.)
  7. The fourth spreadsheet should be a summary, (that your Mom could have used), of the ingredients for a shopping list.
  8. After your spreadsheets are finished, each team member will write a short note on how much their two partners contributed and participated.


Evaluation

Your project will be graded on the following criteria:

  1. Did you include five different recipes (dough, sauce, three toppings)? (10 points – 2 points each)
  2. Did you explain how many pizzas you would make of each different kind of pizza? (25 points)
  3. How well did your ingredient spreadsheets reflect the needs of your recipes? (45 points – 15 points each)
  4. How easy would your final spreadsheet be for Mom to use while shopping? (15 points)
  5. Did you include a note discussing your partners’ participation? (5 points)
  6. Extra credit: A note from home saying that you tried to cook a pizza from your recipe(s). (10 points)


Conclusion

The skills that you learn in math class do have applications in the real world, and the Internet is a great resource for finding things that you need, even when you didn't know that you needed them. How would you answer the following questions?

  1. Did you have any idea that there were so many different types of pizza?
  2. Would it have been easier to have done your calculations by hand, as opposed to in a spreadsheet?
  3. How about if, after giving Mom your grocery list, she informed you that there were going to be 20 more people coming?
  4. How difficult would it have been to keep track of your entire ingredient needs if you had not used a spreadsheet?


Credits & Resources

  1. http://www.allrecipes.com/ This is a great site of recipes, and it has an obvious search box when the first page opens. Just type in what you are looking for and click go.
  2. http://www.cooking.com/ This is another great site for recipes. Once at the site, go to the recipes and more page. Then, under "browse departments", choose advanced search for recipes, and you are on your way.
  3. http://verybestmeals.com/ This is also another great site for recipes, and there is a search box of the first page when it comes up.
  4. http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC012005461033  This is a site where you can find a tutorial for Excel.
  5. The pizza picture in the opening section came from http://www.freefoto.com/

Adapted from a WebQuest by Chas Spencer