Learn By Doing
Woman in the Middle | January 11, 2015Youngest Daughter is attending Cal Poly Pomona, whose mottos is “Learn By Doing.” This motto figured into a recent “only in college” moment.
Youngest has had good luck with her roommates this year. We were a little concerned at first because, while she knew two of her roommates, the third one was a “random” as they like to call it. Well, it turns out the random roommate is a great girl and they have all been getting along fine, knock on wood.
One of Youngest’s roommates this year is a vegan. She received a wok for Christmas and decided to season the wok last week, as recommended by the manufacturer. As you probably know, that is when you rub a pan with oil and put it in the oven for a bit to help the pan become somewhat nonstick. She used the oil she just bought, which happened to be coconut oil.
Soon the smoke alarm went off and the roommate called Youngest and the other roommate who was home out of their bedrooms. They discovered an oven billowing smoke. Youngest said she now knows she is calm in a crisis as she was the one who calmly went over and turned off the oven. They staggered outside to get away from the smoke and the screeching alarm and waited for authorities to arrive.
After a bit they realized the smoke alarm wasn’t attached to any system that alerted authorities so they called the RA on duty. He arrived and happened to be someone they knew. “What did you ladies do NOW?” he said. They explained the wok and the over and the smoke. He advise them to open all the windows and use fans to clear out the smoke, which would get the smoke alarms to stop screeching. They did that and retreated outside again. Just then their fourth roommate drove up. Given what she could see, they expected her to make a quick u-turn and leave, but she didn’t. After a bit the smoke cleared and they all decided to get over the incident by getting frozen yogurt.
When they got back and were discussing the smoky wok, one of the roommates (not the one with the wok) decided to look at the jar of coconut oil. It said its smoking temperature was 350 degrees. The wok was in a 450 degree oven. It was all so very clear then to the four girls exactly what had happened.
Youngest texted the RA and told him about the coconut oil. She ended the message with, “Cal Poly – Learn by Doing!” Yep, I would say all four girls learned a great lesson ”by doing.”
Sometimes those are the lessons that you remember best!
Youngest assured me that none of the girls in that apartment will EVER heat coconut oil over 350 degrees again!
They probably will check ALL of their oils now to know the smoking point of each. Making the smoke alarm go off must have been pretty scary!!