Mai Lesson

Double the Turkey, Double the Time?

Math · 30 min · Any age · You and your child together

This Spark challenges families to think like chefs and scientists, exploring how recipes change when scaled up or down for a Thanksgiving feast. Children will discover that not everything doubles just because the main ingredient does, learning about proportional and non-proportional relationships in a fun, hands-on way.

What your child gets out of it

• Analyze how ingredient quantities change when a recipe is scaled.
• Predict which aspects of cooking (ingredients, time, pan size) scale proportionally and which do not.
• Apply mathematical reasoning to real-world cooking scenarios using a turkey roasting chart.

What you need

• Simple family recipe — Choose a recipe with clear ingredient quantities, like mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce or a simple dessert. A turkey roasting recipe is ideal if you have one! (or cookbook, online recipe site)
• Pen or pencil
• Worksheet or plain paper — If you don't have the printable 'Does it double?' worksheet, you can easily draw a simple chart with columns for 'Original', 'x2' and '1/2' and rows for ingredients, cooking time and pan size. (or notebook paper, scrap paper)
• Turkey roasting chart — A chart that shows cooking times for different turkey weights, like the USDA chart linked under Sources. (or A cookbook's turkey chart)

How it runs

1. Introduction: The Turkey Mystery · 5 min
2. Explore & Plan: Our Recipe Challenge · 8 min
3. Discussion: Proportional or Not? · 6 min
4. Activity: The 'Does It Double?' Chart · 9 min
5. Summary: Kitchen Discoveries · 2 min