Intended End User: Teacher
Age Group: Lower Secondary
School Curriculum: Science; Social, Physical & Health Education; Social & Environment Science
Themes and Topics: Behaviour & Lifestyle; Futures Thinking; Food and Agriculture
Duration: 120 minutes.
Type of Resource: Experiment, Lesson Plans, Project
Keywords: Sustainability Issues, Complexity in Sustainability, Food Production, Environmental Impact
Languages: English, Dutch
Description
The “Cupcakes” teacher manual, developed by educators and researchers from Utrecht University, offers a hands-on module that allows students to explore sustainability through baking. Working in groups, students bake cupcakes incorporating a specific ingredient—cacao, vanilla, blueberries, or honey. Alongside the baking process, they research the sustainability of their assigned ingredient by examining its impact on ‘people’, ‘planet’, and ‘prosperity’. The module emphasizes the complexity of sustainability issues and encourages students to connect personally with these global challenges.
After gathering their findings, students create a short video using their smartphones to present their research. They summarize key sustainability aspects of their ingredient, explaining its social, environmental, and economic implications. This multimedia approach encourages creativity and digital literacy while reinforcing their understanding of the topic.
The module concludes with a reflection phase, where students discuss what they have learned about sustainable food production, the challenges of balancing economic, environmental, and social factors, and how their choices as consumers can make a difference. This final discussion encourages critical thinking and personal engagement with sustainability topics, making the lesson both interactive and impactful.
How to use this resource
Use an everyday activity to make pupils aware that even the simplest of activities have a sustainability context by baking cupcakes.
Guide students through researching the sustainability of key ingredients (cacao, vanilla, blueberries, or honey) by examining their impact on people, planet, and prosperity. After baking, students create a short video to present their findings. Conclude with a reflection discussion on sustainable food production and consumer choices.
The resources
Cupcakes Teacher Manual
Cupcakes – And what they are made of
Cupcakes – Summary worksheet
Cupcakes: Info sheets
Making cupcakes – Recipe card
Cupcakes – Script worksheet
Learning Outcomes (Teachers)
- Elicit prior knowledge and further develop knowledge and comprehension of key Sustainability Citizenship key concepts, challenging established worldviews and values.
- Apply a range of suitable tools and frameworks to promote student Sustainability Citizenship
Green Competencies
- Embodying Sustainable Values: Valuing Sustainability; Promoting Nature
- Embracing Complexity in Sustainability: Systems Thinking; Critical Thinking; Problem Framing
- Envisioning Sustainable Futures: Adaptability
Creative Commons
This workshop is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) License by Michiel van Harskamp, Marie-Christine Knippels, and Wouter van Joolingen, Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University. It may be shared and adapted for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution and must be distributed under the same license.
SDGs
