| Lesson
Overview : |
Students
will develop criteria for a healthy and environmentally friendly breakfast
and use these criteria to design a breakfast menu. They will use a decision
chart to evaluate their choices.
|
| National
Science Education Standards: |
Content Standard F:
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:
Personal Health
|
| Excellence
in EE-Guidelines for Learning |
Strand
4:
Personal and Civic Responsibility:
D. Accepting Personal Responsibility |
| Key
Concepts: |
1. Food
gives us the energy and nutrients our bodies need for growth and development.
2. Students make decisions
that affect their personal environment.
|
| Objectives: |
Students will:
 plan
and evaluate a breakfast that is both healthy and environmentally friendly.
develop
decision making skills by planning a breakfast menu.
|
|
Cross-Curricular Connections:
|
Health:
• Determine
the nutrition requirements for a healthy breakfast using the Food
Pyramid Guide and Food Nutrition Labels.
Language Arts:
• Communicate
through group discussion.
Math:
• Calculate
the cost and preparation times of different breakfast foods.
•
Weigh and measure food packaging
materials.
•
Organize and graph the data
that is collected.
Social Studies:
•
Identify how decision making influenced by culture and individual life-styles.
|
| Process
Skills: |
Problem Solving
Inferring
Predicting
Analyzing
Communicating
|
|
Materials:
Safety Note: You
may want each student to bring in a breakfast food to serve as a part
of his or her group’s menu. Determine if any students are allergic
to these foods.
Activity 1 Forms:
Student
Record Sheet
Appendix
|
Per Student
Paper and pencil
graph paper, graphing calculator, or computer graphing program
Per Group
Food
Pyramid Guide
stopwatch or kitchen timer to use if students actually prepare the breakfast
menu
|
| Suggested
Time Frame: |
Two
50 minute class periods |
|
Procedure:
|
Session 1
- Instruct the class in
how to use the Decisions Based on Science process as
described in the professional development video.
- Discuss what is meant
by an "environmentally friendly" breakfast.
- Have groups use the Food
Pyramid Guide to brainstorm ideas and plan a healthy breakfast
that is also environmentally friendly. Encourage them to consider
factors that affect the decision of what to eat for breakfast. These
factors may include health benefits, effects on school performance,
preparation time, cost, packaging, availability of food items, effect
of food production processes on the environment, effect of menu preparation
on the environment, food source, quality of taste, and ease of recycling
the packaging materials. The
Student Record Sheet may be used to record these ideas. The
minimum breakfast should include a beverage, grain, fruit, and protein
source.
- Each group should then
construct a decision
chart based on the factors they included in their decision
making.
- Ask each group to finalize
a menu that best meets the criteria they have established.
- You might assign each
group member a specific food item to bring the next day or to research
at the grocery store. An option may be to have a grocery store donate
food items.
Session 2
- Ask each group to use
importance bars to evaluate its menu. During the evaluation
students can weigh and measure the packaging, time (or estimate) how
long it takes to prepare the breakfast, determine its cost, and assess
the other factors they have listed. They should then reach a final
decision about whether the breakfast menu is both healthy for them
and for the environment.
- As a culminating activity,
have groups compare their menus during a class discussion.
|
|
Suggested Discussion
Questions:
|
Group Brainstorming:
Is
it important to eat breakfast every day?
How
do you feel when you eat breakfast?
How
do you feel when you do not eat breakfast?
What
are some reasons why you skip breakfast?
What
environmental factors could be involved in providing food for your breakfast?
What
life-style factors are involved?
|
| Further
Investigations: |
Students
may use additional graphic organizers such as charts and graphs to organize
the data.
Students survey classes in the school by grade and
1) calculate the mean number of breakfasts skipped by the students in
a week
2) determine the percent of students who eat breakfast at school
3) determine whether one grade level skips more breakfasts than another
4) determine the number of kids who fix their own breakfasts
5) survey the adults in the school and compare their responses to those
of the students.
Students record their breakfast diets for a week and reflect on their
choices through journal writing.
Have the school dietician speak to the class about how she selects what
foods to serve the students for breakfast.
Students research what kids eat for breakfast around the world and/or
prepare an international breakfast buffet.
Monitor TV and magazine food advertisements for healthy vs. junk food
that are directed towards the middle school age group. Graph the results.
(This activity is adapted from Berglund, 1999.)
|
| Career
Opportunities: |
Dietician
Chef
Grocery Store Manager
Public Relations Expert
Graphic Design Artist
Nutritionist
Research Scientist
|
|
Assessment Procedures:
|
Assessment
rubrics in Decision Making Based on Science can be used
to assess the decision making process.
During
ongoing assessment observe intercommunication among the group members
and note the quality of their questions and explanations.
|
