Service learning: Cultural Kitchen Cleanup and Repairs by Ngoc Nguyen

A few quarters before, I participated in activities to protect the environment (i.e, Tuesday Trashy) held by Edmonds Community College. In this quarter, I chose Cultural Kitchen Cleanup and Repairs that is located behind Meadowdale building. In this activity, I learned how to build things that help us to cook outside that is very helpful when we go on a picnic. There were three ways people use to cook outside. The first way is using a fire pit. There is a large hole used to fire woods inside to cook fishes that are held by wooden thick sticks around the hole. These wooden sticks were cleaned, polished or sanded and oiled. The second way is very interesting, a pizza oven. I loved this most. I called this pizza oven because it looked like an oven to bake pizza that I can see in every pizza restaurants or bakeries. In this project, we used materials that are recyclable, such as earthenware stuffs to make the oven. The last way was really attractive to me that was using rocks heated by fire to cook shellfishes. I have never seen this way so I was really surprised by the use of the rocks to cook food. After we finished, other fellows and I helped to clean the place. Unfortunately, I was too focused on doing voluntary work, I forgot to take pictures of what was happening there.

During the activity, we also did the garden. I was really scared of chubby worms that appeared inside the soils. They lived in an environment that was full of good stuffs so they grew incredibly big. More than that, I could find other little animals such as insects, spiders, and ants. I was wondering that how many phyla and how many branches I could draw from these animals in this garden. If I could draw the tree, how could I identify each taxa based on its appearance? Overall, this was a good place for them to grow and reproduce. Three hours spending on this service learning worth what I learned.

This service learning was managed by Juliene Wall. If you’re interested, you can contact her by (425) 640-1882 or email julienne.wall@edmail.edcc.edu

Questions:

1. As I mentioned, if I could draw the tree of animals from the place, how could I identify each taxa based on its appearance?

2. Is it possible to cook outside by these ways when it is raining?

3. How would the animals grow in a worse environment?

4. Can pizza oven be used to cook shellfishes?