Several years ago, I had extra money in my budget to purchase some air fryers for my classroom.  While I incorporated labs using the air fryers as a method of food preparation, I never actually created a lesson around the small appliance.  Fast forward or rewind to…a few months ago, I had an inquiry for an Air Fryer Lesson and that was all the incentive I needed to put my ideas into play.  So, if you are in need of a little more information on the air fryer before letting your students prepare food in them, please read on!

Set

• Poll your students about air fryers using the mentimeter website.  Here is a link to an example. Students use the menti website to enter the code created in order to view and respond to the questions. View the results as a class. If you are not a one to one school, you can survey students using the following questions.
  • Do you or your family own an air fryer?
  • Have you ever prepared foods in an air fryer?
  • Have you ever eaten food(s) prepared in an air fryer?
• Ask students if they know the difference between an air fryer and a deep fryer?  Discuss their responses.

Materials

• iPad or Laptop
• Projector & Screen
• Air Fryers (affiliate link)

Activities

• To give students more information about air fryers, assign students the questions and linked resources to complete prior to cooking with an air fryer. You can go over the answers in class or collect and grade–your call!
• For the last part of the assignment, students are given an air fryer template and directed to find different air fryer recipes that fit the following categories: appetizer, breakfast food, main dish, side, and dessert.  For each they have to insert a “sticker” (an image) of the food, linked to a recipe and titled by category it represents.  I liken it to adding stickers to their laptop covers or drink/beverage containers.
• After they’ve finished finding their food ideas, I ask them to select one they would like to make in a food lab, noting that it has to be doable in the class time/period we have (43 minutes).
• Before heading to the lab, be sure to take a few minutes to demonstrate how your classroom air fryers work as all models are not created equal!
• In the past, we have made air fried French fries which were always a big hit (recipe under the attachments). Some personal favorites that we’ve prepared at home include air fried pickles, air fried French toast sticks, air fried chicken tenders, air fried zucchini spirals and air fried banana split desserts.

Attachments

• All About Air Fryers Questions (please make a copy, especially if you wish to edit)
• Air Fryer Article (Google Doc version)
• Air Fried Foods Template  (please make a copy)
• Air Fryer French Fries Lab Recipe (please make a copy)