I work at a private school, and they have a summer camp program. I brought a cake to work for the first time and everyone was so impressed that they now want me to teach one of the summer camp classes! However, the class is not on cake decorating...it's called "Edible Architecture" and this is the course description:

[i]"You wont need a permit or a hammer or even the knowledge to build, but you will need a vivid imaginationand a sweet tooth! Well use edible materials and when were finished, you can display your design as you wishthat is, if you can keep from eating it. (Students are responsible for taking away their architecture.) "

Sooo...I'm really excited, but I NEED HELP! It's a week long class for an hour and a half a day. Any ideas on what I could do with a group of kids ages 11-15?

Christmas in July: Gingerbread houses....

of course it doesn't have to be Christmas themed --

could be:
hansel & gretel's witch's house.
a replica of their homes
or the school
or the church
or any building they desire.

and also do royal icing pieces for accents (like trellis, etc.)

could do carved cakes.

or rice krispies

---
if you've seen them -- FoodTV had challenges on both gingerbread mansions and on rice krispie sculptures (duff won that one!) -- maybe you could get a copy of the shows by then and use them to inspire/challenge the campers

all depends upon how messy and crazy you want to get

I used to teach and always incorporated cooking, the kids loved it. For that topic you could (using non-sharp butter knives, or plastic knives) do some fruit carvings - watermelon baskets (easy to do w/out handles, making a large zigzag edge or a wavy edge) and then do a melon fruit salad to add (honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon ). With kids that old I would bring in an electric frying pan and a toaster oven and do some real cooking and baking. Does everything have to fit into the "structural" category? If not, I would cook tacos, bake cupcakes, all the stuff kids would love. Good luck! I bet you'll love it!

Thanks! Anyone else think of anything?

Pretzels kind of look like logs. You could do log cabins with those large hard pretzels?

Simple castle cakes with ice cream cone towers could be a project on one day.

Do you have to do one long project, or a separate project every day? What is your budget?

I was googling around, and although these aren't practical, these pictures are just so cool! And you might get some ideas.

http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=8633

How about Create Your Own Theme Park

This would span a couple days.
They could use their own imaginations to develop either a zoo or amusement park (or incorporate both) or botanical garden, etc.
One day work on gumpaste characters
One day work on royal icing structures
One day work on either cake or rice krispie structures

Actually, this may end up taking up the whole week, depending on how much detail could be involved.