I’ve always prided myself on my crack basic math skills. You’ll never see me whipping out the calculator to figure out how to tip. Or to see how much I’m saving at my favorite discount clothing store.
When it came time to add postage to all the packages I’m shipping out to Kickstarter contributors, out came a huge pile of stamps my mom had bought years ago when the post office was pushing “collections.”
Yes, having the post office meter the packages would have been MUCH more efficient. But there’s no way I’d use all of this postage in “real life.” So I set out to make consuming the stamps a fun project — which would have been even more fun for kids to tackle.
So here I present an epic math problem and call upon elementary schoolers to school me!
ASSIGNMENT: What stamp combinations minimize the number of stamps on a package? How many combinations can you make?
Postage required: $2.32
Note to Kickstarters: The packages cost so much even though they were lightweight, as adding a bulky item re-classifies a package as a “parcel” instead of a “letter.” That can really take a bite out of your Kickstarter total!
You have an unlimited number of the above denominations.
You want to avoid giving the USPS extra money. Try to hit those exact amounts.
Please post your answers in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter!
KICKSTARTER LESSON LEARNED: When you put lots of odd sized goodies in a package (like these Lafaza Vanilla Beans), it can become a “parcel” which is why even though the packages weigh just a couple of ounces, they cost $2.32 to ship.
$12,000 – donation of 100 books to children’s hospitals, libraries or schools AND the backer party. Contributors >$100 can choose a donation location; >$500 can choose 5 locations.
$15,000 – a sophisticated “early critical thinkers” picture book filled with quirky and humorous illustrations and “reluctant truffle pig” character you see hunting down cookies. This level will *not* pay for book printing but will fund illustrations, book design, editing. The book will not be cookie-sweet but will educate kids on *really* how the cookie came to be. Think “Eloise” for chocolate chip cookies.
Before the campaign…
My original stretch goals seem partly delusional, partly audacious. Partly charming, that I had such faith. Still, what a great way to be forced to create a company or project roadmap!
If we raise >$25,000: We’ll do a much bigger print run and create printables for the start to a lesson plan.
If we raise >$50,000: We’ll be able to do an efficient book print run, and create downloadable lesson plans and an after-school (or home school) cookie school curriculum developed by awesome U.S.-based educators.
If we raise >$100,000: We’ll create interactive iPad exercises and experiences incorporating video.
If we raise >$150,000: Create and produce the 2nd and 3rd books in the series (for 8-10 year olds) PLUS a multi-week after school program that can also work for home schooling.
If we raise >$250,000: as well as “Cookie Business Kits” for 100 schools, for kids to break into teams and involve local bakers for a truly empowering and community-oriented experience.
If we raise >$500,000: Can you say COOKIE CAMPS!? We’ll have a solid team of educators and experts, along with YOU, a community of awesome Kickstarter contributors, to pull a program together. Our community of supporters will have a big say in what happens at this point. Board games? Cookie business contests? An online show?
A delightful surprise appeared in my inbox: One of the teachers whose classes I popped into last week wrote all about the Chocolate Chip Cookie School experience. If you’re wondering how the Kickstarter campaign can translate into school, take a look!
3 Most Memorable Cookie School Debates
When you’re first learning, what you hear tends to stick.
Evolution sequence: The chicken or egg debate continues to be my favorite part of the lessons. You really see kids’ different worldviews (e.g., evolution vs. creationism) through this topic.
Cookie invention: The majority (I mean like 80%) of kids thought it more likely the chocolate chip cookie came to be after chocolate jiggled into the bowl of dough and broke into “chips” rather than that Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a chocolate bar. Yet as the kids spoke, a vision of a “myth busters” swam in my head.
How do you choose which cookie to buy? This real world question of quantity versus size / quality versus price translates soooo well to every day consumer decisions. From my own experience, I just know kids will translate this life long. Or I hope so anyway!
Got a school, community center or home school group who wants to get cookie schooled? Please get in touch!
This image will be a new Kickstarter reward, in homage to the great discussion these book illustrations provoke.
Through the Chocolate Chip Cookie School, a group of 4th graders learned how labor-intensive vanilla is to grow and produce. The teacher was thrilled to learn this too!
Unless you’re a marathoner, you probably won’t be making chocolate chip cookies every day. So when Nielsen-Massey (America’s oldest family-owned vanilla company) sent me a bottle of vanilla paste, I immediately got to thinking about how I could enjoy the intense vanilla experience. I have the answer, and it’s become a daily habit:
Mix vanilla bean paste into plain organic yogurt
Mix in shaved chocolate (Williams Sonoma hot chocolate is incredible, pure Guittard chocolate (California’s oldest family-owned chocolate company!) Or get chocolate to shave or chop in yourself.
ENJOY.
Add a few drops of pure peppermint oil for an incredible mint chip experience.
You can even freeze this and use it as a chocolate chip cookie frozen yogurt sandwich filling.
May 15 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day 2014! The cookie has seen many twists, turns, brands and evolutions since it came into our lives, in the 1930s. (And that’s the kind of things kids will be studying with the books and programs we’ll be creating here at the Chocolate Chip Cookie School.)
Here are 12 recipes some great food bloggers contributed as their favorites.
Which will you make…or hack into yet another version of the chocolate chip cookie?
Etienne Guittard, father of some great chocolate chips
Milk Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies – I can hardly type at the thought of these incredibly rich and buttery versions of the chocolate chip cookie. If you can’t get your hands on TCHO, both Guittard Chocolate and Ghirardelli make wonderful milk chocolate chips (both in the San Francisco Bay Area). Report back to me!
Orange-Infused Chocolate Chip Cookies – Orange and chocolate go hand in hand. These orange zested cookies from Namely Marley very well might have enough of a sophisticated bent to slow down my consumption. Maybe.
Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies – Here’s a cookie recipe the Gilligan’s Island castaways would have loved. The Peanut Butter & Peppers blog focuses on healthy (or healthier) eating. So in this recipe coconut oil substitutes for butter.
Chocolate Chip Cookies Gone Italian – This Ginger, Chocolate Oatmeal & Pinenut Cookies recipe includes some of my favorite mix-ins and has a singularly Italian theme.
Italian Cookies With Chocolate Chips – Another nod to the country who brought us Ghirardelli (brought him to San Francisco, where he made chocolate!)
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies – If you need an excuse to drink milk, try this chocolate chip cookie recipe House of Annie describes in lovely photos. It’s packed with 3 cups of flour (versus the usual 2 1/4 cups), resulting in a highly absorbent cookie. Just the ticket to dipping goodness.
Salted Chocolate Chunk No Bake Cookies (dairy free) – At first glance, I thought “but are they good?” Then I saw that they’re like eating cookie dough. Fascinating!
Rum-soaked Chocolate Chip Cookies – This contribution from Cooking in Stilettos may come in handy to forget what your stomach feels like after a marathon cookie making and eating session.
A late breaking, pine-nut filled 13th recipe from Diane Padoven of Napa Farmhouse 1885: New Year’s Resolutions Chocolate Chip Cookies – What could those possibly be? Made of air? You’ll just have to see.
For further chocolate chip cookie-philia check out:
Call me a food science / history geek but I kind of went wild hearing Master Food Preserver and culinary historian Ernest Miller talk about his Children’s Workshop: Food Science class where kids will make cookies using devices based on Archimedean principles.
Enjoy Ernie’s unbounded enthusiasm and creativity as he describes what you’ll learn in this class (with guest / sneaker appearance by Sean Timberlake):
Very excited to hear about a new kids’ baking competition series for the Food Network called The Kids Baking Challenge. The Food Network is for the most talented young bakers in the country between the ages of 8-13.
YOU are the ingredients in our recipe for smart cookies. We need you to make this happen.
Please visit our Kickstarter campaign! Your support will be amply rewarded with some awesome cookie adventures and other rewards. Please help spread the word to parents, educators, cookie lovers…anyone who wants to help our next generation thrive.
The smart cookies recipe:
Let kids deconstruct something they love — the Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Then re-construct it into project-based learning that integrates academic subjects from math to literacy to science and social science.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Lip Balm reward – We’ve partnered with Eco Lips to develop and bring you this exclusive natural lip balm, which is super yummy and rich with all natural ingredients. If you’d like to get a bunch of these for gifts instead of pledging to the campaign, please get in touch.
Accident Vs. Invention illustration: I conceived of the Chocolate Chip Cookie “Accident or Invention” illustration while sketching out ideas to get kids thinking critically about urban legends, stories, and probability. Did chocolate fall into the mixer? Or did Ruth Graves Wakefield plot out the recipe? Kids love debating the answers to: Which is more likely to be true? What had to happen for either scenario to have happened? Does the truth matter? All fun queries for growing cookie detectives.
