The MasterChef Challenge

Over the summer I watched a lot of MasterChef. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, Chef Gordon Ramsay takes a group of home cooks and they compete for the title of Master Chef and a cookbook deal. Over the challenge he makes them cook various dishes, cater different events and survive mystery box challenges. 

Mystery Box challenges are my favourite. Here the contestants are required to create a dish using the ingredients in a their mystery box, which are far from ordinary, like a pigs head. I love the shock when the contestant open the box to see what they are going to have to cook with and then the creativity they come up with in order to make something into an amazing dish. 

So inspired by my many late nights sitting in front of the television I came up with the best art project ever. 

Today when my grade 12 IB students entered the class they were confronted with a cardboard box each (which came from my newly arrived shipment order, yay!). They were told that they had to create a work of art using the entire contents of the box. They were also permitted to use anything from inside the classroom to help complete their art work. So what was in the box you ask?

• 1 dried out paint brush 
• 1/2 m of rough canvas
• 1 white candle
• 2 m or rope
• 1 piece of wood 5x6 inches in size.  

The students were so excited. And terrified at the same time.  Already they've started to create a variety of art works. Half of them have chosen to create sculptures using their material, the other half are creating paintings or wall hangings with their materials. And I've very excited to see how these turn out.