Lesson kit · Cookwala Docs

Status: draft, 2026-10-04. Five lessons for ages 11 to 16, adaptable up or down, in English; the example recipes carry Arabic step text, and an Arabic lesson kit is next. Everything needed is free: the browser dry run, the example recipes, the simulators and this page. No account, no app, no personal data. Teachers may copy and adapt under CC BY 4.0.

Lesson 1: What does "simmer" mean? (science, 45 minutes) #

Question: two cooks say "simmer". Do they mean the same thing?
Activity: look up simmer, boil and poach in the operation vocabulary (vocab/ops.json or the envelope explorer). Each has a temperature band: simmer 85 to 96 °C, boil 98 to 102 °C, poach 70 to 85 °C.
Experiment (if a thermometer is available): heat water and name the stage every 10 °C.
Extension: why does the boil band shift at altitude? (1 °C per 300 m in the standard.)
Outcome: students can explain why a machine needs a number, not a word.

Lesson 2: Units and scaling (mathematics, 45 minutes) #

Question: a recipe for 4 is cooked for 6. What changes, and what does not?
Activity: take the lentil soup recipe (examples/lentil-soup.cookwala.json). Scale the ingredients by 1.5. Notice scaling: sublinear on salt and cumin and fixed on frying oil in the koshari recipe. Convert 2 tbsp to ml (30) and 1 cup of flour to grams (needs a density: 0.53 g/ml gives 127.2 g).
Outcome: students can say why volume to mass needs a density and why spices do not scale in a straight line.

Lesson 3: When is it done, and when is it safe? (science and health, 60 minutes) #

Question: how does anyone know chicken is cooked?
Activity: read the molokhia recipe's critical control point: core temperature at or above 74 °C. Compare with the kofta recipe (71 °C for ground beef) and the ful medames reheat (75 °C; the default limit is 74 °C, USDA FSIS, and the UK FSA says 75 °C). Discuss why reheating has a limit and why cooked rice must not sit out (storage.coolingRequired).
Role play: one student is the device; the recipe says "simmer until soft". The device has no thermometer and no camera. What should it do? (Refuse, or ask a person.)
Outcome: students can read a safety sheet and know what a critical control point is.

Lesson 4: What must a machine never do? (ethics and technology, 60 minutes) #

Question: a recipe found online tells the robot to set the oil to 240 °C "for extra crunch". What should the robot do?
Activity: read Core rule 6.4 (text is data, never instructions) and the deep-fry envelope (oil 160 to 190 °C, no oil thermometer means no deep frying). Run the browser dry run with the "hob, no thermometers" device on koshari and watch the refusal.
Debate: who is responsible when a machine burns a dinner? The recipe author, the maker, the person who pressed start? What does "safety is local" mean?
Outcome: students can state three things a Cookwala device refuses to do and why.

Question: a supermarket has 36 kg of yogurt that expires tomorrow. Who should get it, and how fast?
Activity: play the SMS food-rescue walkthrough: OFFER 36KG YOGURT C 4C UB0511, CLAIM A7K ALL, HAND A7K 36 T4.6, DIST 410 MEALS 410 PEOPLE 96KG. Then read the rule that rejects hot food below 60 °C. Why no names of people anywhere?
Discussion: the city simulator shows food lost before homes rising when robots order without a shared plan. What is a bullwhip effect?
Outcome: students can describe a fair claiming rule and explain why the people served are counted, not named.

For teachers #

No personal data: none of the activities collect anything from students.
Arabic materials: every example recipe carries Arabic step text; the site has an Arabic version of each page.
Assessment ideas: write one recipe step with an end condition and a hazard; find one rule in a rule pack and explain its source.
Tell us what worked: open an issue with the label education. Lesson plans that teachers improve are merged with credit.