Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a lesson that can bug some students while others are literally eating it up.

On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Mountain Creek Middle School, where we find social studies teacher Kristina Meng bringing some creepy, crawly creatures into the classroom. It's for a lesson on how bugs are considered a culinary delight in some cultures around the world. Join us for a classroom taste test like no other and a lesson students won't soon forget.

We’re here at Mountain Creek Middle School with Ms. Meng, we're about to talk with her geography class. What are we in for today?

Kristina Meng:
So today we're talking about cultural relativism, how different cultures place different values on things. Just because different cultures all do things differently and if you're judging a culture, you have to judge it like off of what's normal for them, not what's normal for us. So sort of our case study, our example is eating bugs because here in the US, that's seen as like disgusting, gross, dirty, awful. But in a lot of the world, bugs are a viable food source.

Anthony Godfrey:
A great source of protein, as you say.

Kristina Meng:
Yeah. And it's also going to bring in cultural diffusion, spreading cultures around the world, looking at like global sustainability, how a lot of people in like sustainability efforts are trying to use more bug protein instead of like other livestock and things. So we're going to be, you know, introducing all those concepts to the students today, and then at the end, they get to try bugs.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. And have you done this with other classes previously?

Kristina Meng:
I have, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What is the general reaction when students try bugs? How does that normally go?

Kristina Meng:
Well, it starts out, I have them take a poll, like, have you…? I don't tell them that they're going to have a chance at the end yet. I just say, “Have you ever eaten bugs before? Like would you ever?” And they're like, “Oh, no, disgusting, awful.” Some of them are like, “I don't know, it doesn't sound that bad.” But then we get to the end, like, “Well, you know, would you?” And I pull them out and they're like, “Oh, I don't know.”

Anthony Godfrey:
So now they’re faced with a real choice instead of just a hypothetical one.

Kristina Meng:
Yeah. Instead of hypothetically.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Kristina Meng:
And there's some of them who just totally refuse to try. Some of them who try reluctantly and then hate it and regret everything that brought them there.

Anthony Godfrey:
They question all their life choices at this point.

Kristina Meng:
Yeah. And then there's a lot of them who are like, whoa, that's so cool. They're like, “That's way better than I thought it would be. Can I have another one?” We've got different flavors of crickets. So some of them ask to try like every flavor. So yeah. And there's ants too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is there a particular seasoning that pairs better with bugs than others?

Kristina Meng:
I think that no seasoning pairs well with crickets. In my opinion, crickets are always bad.

Anthony Godfrey:
I d