Health in the Classroom
INQUIRY PROJECT W200
Michaela Barber and Madeline Daily
Unit: Health and Wellness in Food
Persistent Issue: Health and choice for students in the lunchroom.
Central Question: What kind of lunch menu is best for students?
Lesson 1: Grabber and Introduction
One hour in class
Standards Covered:
2.1.1 Identify that healthy behaviors affect personal health. Example: Describe that exercising, healthy eating, and being tobacco free
can help keep the body strong and healthy.
2.1.2 Recognize that there are multiple dimensions of health.
Example: Identify the dimensions of health as physical, mental and
social.
Introductory Grabber: Instructor begins by giving students the opportunity to pick 3 snacks that they would like to have brought into class. The catch is that once the students have all decided, the class as a whole will vote what TWO would be the best. This is to get students thinking about their own preferences, decision making, and definition of best. Students are then instructed to identify and argue why their preferred snack is the best snack. (Is it healthy? Does it taste good? Does it look nice? Is it filling? etc). The class then comes together and proposes some of their arguments. After this, the instructor asks the class what if they could do this for the entire lunch menu at school?
Introduce the Central Question: Expand on what students would do if they could design a lunch menu for their school. Reintroduce different ways a food could be “better” than another.
Culminating Activity
Design a Lunch Menu Activity
The structure for this activity is a group project that allows students to think critically about what they are eating. Three-five hour long portions of class.
Introduction: When students enter the classroom after specials the desks have been set up in groups, and students' names are placed on the desks in which they are to sit. The instructor explains that students will work together to make the best lunch menu. Students talk about favorite food and WHY they are their favorite. What do they like about their favorite food, what makes it special or unique.
Field Trip to the Lunch Room/Lecture: After setting up a time with the cafeteria workers, students will take a tour of the lunch room and where they serve the food. Students will have the opportunity to talk about and ask questions with a few of the cafeteria workers about what food is served on which day and ask which the workers think are “the best”. After this, the class will come back to the classroom and watch a presentation/listen to a lecture on different meals and what makes a full meal. Students will participate in a discussion after the lecture/presentation giving ideas or opinions about the current lunch program.
Children will watch one of the following videos and discuss what they mean. Teacher will ask:
Explain these videos.
What is happening?
Which video did you like the most and why?
What is one thing you learned from a video?
Activity Overview: Cohesively, students will work together to form one solution that contains 3 new sides, and 2 new entrees. Students should examine all parts of the food including healthiness and price. These new foods should help the students be healthier while satisfying their taste buds. If necessary students may conduct surveys or research on classroom computers.
Below are some websites that students may use to conduct research:
https://www.choosemyplate.gov/
http://www.livestrong.com/myplate/
https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/MyPlate
Presentation: Students will illustrate their new and improved menus on a poster sized paper and be prepared to present their poster and argue their menu decisions to the class. The presentation should be five minutes maximum, each student in the group must help with the explanation of their new menu. Students must include Venn Diagrams to show the current and new lunch menu and what they would keep/change in the school lunch menu.
Debriefing/Final Discussion/Wrap-up: Following the presentations, students take time to think about each presentation and vote on their top 3 lunch menus. The winning group informs the rest of the class and gets them on board. Discuss the costs and all of the details about each food. Talk about which food we would decide to eliminate from the current lunch menu to replace with this new food. As a class we have teams that research, poll the school, create the presentation, a group of presenters. We invite the principal, cafeteria workers, school nutritionist and other school officials who might have an impact on this potential change.
Rubric:
Does not have information | Has the information | Has information well | Scale of 1-3 | Teacher Notes | |
Explanation | Has little to no information on the lunch menu. | Has facts and details to support their lunch menu, but some parts are confusing and irrelevant. | Has appropriate facts and descriptive details to support their lunch menu. | 1 2 3 | |
Organization | Students need to work on the order in which they present the information. | Students need to work on organization and make sure they review the information before in order for it to make sense. | Students are well organized and every aspect of the project is organized. | 1 2 3 | |
Presentation | Students do not have the Venn Diagram or the poster completed. | Students have the Venn Diagram and poster but it is not completed or cluttered. | Students have Venn Diagram and poster and it is coherent. | 1 2 3 | |
Discussion | Does not answer audiences’ questions | Is able to answer some but not all questions about the lunch menu well. | Students answer all questions thoroughly and thoughtfully | 1 2 3 | |
Participation | All team members do not participate | Student participates some but not equally. | All team members participate equally and for about the same amount of time. | 1 2 3 |