Megan FortgangPage 110/04/2018

Social Studies: Microfarming

Unit Essential Question:

How did we get to a place where we are today, eating food from around the world?

PA Standards:

Science, Technology, and Engineering Education

  • 3.1.3.A2. Describe the basic needs of living things and their dependence on light, food, air, water, and shelter.
  • 3.1.3.B5. Identify characteristics that appear in both parents and offspring.
  • 3.4.3.A1. Identify how the natural made world and the human made world are different.
  • 3.4.3.A3. Identify how the study of technology uses many of the same ideas and skills as many other subjects.
  • 3.4.3.B1. Describe how using technology can be good or bad.
  • 3.4.3.B2. Explain how materials are re-used or recycled.
  • 3.4.3.B3. Identify and define products made to meet individual needs versus wants.
  • 3.4.3.B4. Illustrate how people have made tools to provide food, clothing, and shelter.
  • 3.4.3.D1. Identify people’s needs and wants and define some problems that can be solved through the design process.
  • 3.4.3.D3. Collect information about everyday products and systems by asking questions.
  • 3.4.3.E1. Identify the technologies that support and improve quality of life.
  • 3.4.3.E2. Identify some processes used in agriculture that require different procedures, products, or systems.
  • 3.4.3.E3. Recognize that tools, machines, products, and systems use energy in order to do work.
  • 3.4.3.E5. Understand that transportation has many parts that work together to help people travel. (3.4.4.E5. Recognize that a transportation system has many parts that work together to help people travel and to move goods from place to place).

Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening

  • 1.4.3.B. Write informational pieces using illustrations when relevant (e.g., descriptions, letters, reports, instructions).
  • 1.5.3.B. Develop content appropriate for the topic: Gather and organize information, incorporating details relevant to the topic. Write a series of related sentences or paragraphs with one central idea.
  • 1.8.3.A. Follow inquiry based process in seeking knowledge.
  • 1.8.3.B. Conduct inquiry and research on self-selected or assigned topics using specified sources and strategies.
  • 1.8.3.C. Present the results of research, using appropriate visual aids, and citing sources.
  • 1.9.3.A. Use media and technology resources for directed and independent learning activities.

History

  • 8.1.3.A. Identify the difference between past, present, and future using timelines and/or other graphic representations.
  • 8.1.3.C. Conduct teacher guided inquiry on assigned topics using specified historical sources.
  • 8.2.3.A. Identify the social, political, cultural, and economic contributions of individuals and groups from Pennsylvania.
  • 8.2.3.C./8.3.3.C. Identify and describe how continuity and change have impacted Pennsylvania and U.S. history:
  • Commerce and technology
  • Physical and human geography
  • 8.3.3.A. Identify and describe the social, political, cultural, and economic contributions of individuals and groups in United States history.
  • 8.4.3.D. Identify conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations from around the world.

Geography

  • 7.1.3.B. Identify and locate places and regions as defined by physical and human features.
  • 7.2.3.A. Identify the physical characteristics of places and regions.
  • 7.2.3.B. Identify the basic physical processes that affect the physical characteristics of places and regions.
  • Settlement
  • Economic activities
  • 7.4.3.B. Identify the effect of people on the physical systems within a community.

Megan FortgangPage 110/04/2018

Unit Layout:

History of Farming (4 lessons; Week 1 & Week 2)

  • Hunters and gatherers
  • Beginning of planting
  • Beginning of marketplaces
  • Age of Exploration
  • Industrial Revolution
  • Modern Farming
  • Local Farming
  • Worldwide Farming
  • Factory Farming

Health & Nutrition (4 lessons; Week 2 & 3)

  • Processed Foods
  • Reading labels (ingredients, calories, etc.)
  • Food Pyramid
  • Health relationship to food
  • Ways to stay healthy

Local food & innovations (2 lessons; Week 3)

  • Factory farming
  • Food transportation and shipping
  • Local farming

Megan FortgangPage 110/04/2018

Cumulative Assessment:

Oral recording of information on a specific farming innovation with a slideshow of pictures of the evolution of that innovation.

WEEK 1: History of Farming Lessons

Lesson 1: Hunters and gatherers, beginning of planting, beginning of marketplaces

Introduction:

  • Minilecture

Activity:

  • Video clips
  • Lascoux Caves/Altamira Caves
  • Three Sisters  Native Americans
  • Mesopotamia
  • Ancient Greek and Egyptian markets

Conclusion:

  • Discussion questions from game board

Lesson 2: Age of exploration, industrial revolution, & modern farming

Introduction:

  • Minilecture

Activity:

  • Video clips
  • Vikings
  • Columbus
  • History of Industrial Revolution
  • Demonstration of modern farming equipment

Conclusion:

  • Discussion questions from game board

Lesson 3: History of Farming Review

Introduction:

  • Explain activity and goal  set up partners

Activity:

  • History of Farming Cloze Reading Activity
  • Find: what were the innovations of each period, how many years ago was each period, how did the innovations change the way people in that period lived.
  • Use history of farming poster timeline

Conclusion:

  • Students share answers with the group to ensure that students all have the correct answers.

Lesson 4 (Tues.): History of Farming Game

Goals:

  • Students will reinforce their understandings of the differences between the 6 different periods of farming.

Materials:

  • History of Farming game boards (2)
  • Level tokens
  • Kid portfolio token holder
  • Dice
  • History of Farming posters
  • History of Farming Cloze Reading worksheets

Introduction:

  • Return cloze reading worksheets  to be used as a resource during game.
  • Show students were History of Farming posters are located  to be used as a resource during the game.
  • Go over rules of the game
  • Roll the die
  • Go that number of places
  • Another player reads a question aloud for that person to answer
  • Continue rotating rolling and answering questions until landing on a place with a ladder.
  • Go up the ladder and receive a token for the completed level.
  • Place token in kid portfolio token holder
  • Repeat
  • Demonstrate how to play

Activity:

  • Students play game in groups of 6 or 7; teacher with each group for assistance.

Conclusion:

  • Ask if students learned anything new from the game.
  • Do students have any questions about the information from the game.

Homework:

  • “Food Diary” (pg. 43 in What’s On Your Plate? curriculum guide)
  • To record each day this week

______

WEEK 2: Health & Nutrition

Essential Questions:

What are the factors in our current food system that could be contributing to the increasing health problems of children and teens, like diabetes and obesity?

How do child health problems relate to things like high fructose corn syrup?

What is one way kids like you could get more exercise?

What are some things you can do to prevent health problems in the future for yourself?

How would you help prevent health problems in family members and friends?

How does access to fresh or fast food affect you?

What changes would you make to the food availability in your area?

How do you think the access or lack of healthy food nearby affects the community members and the food choices the make?

What are some healthy changes you could make to your diet?

Goals:SWBAT…

Understand the connections between their health and the foods that they eat.

Think critically about the foods they eat in school, at home and on the go, and their nutritional content.

Understand processed foods, how they are made, and their impacts on health and diet.

Develop ways to improve their health by changing their diet and eating habits.

Lesson 5 (Wed.): Introduction to Health & Access Segment

Materials:

  • Blank paper (for KWL)
  • What’s On Your Plate? DVD
  • What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide
  • Interview questions worksheet

Introduction:

  • Introduce students to topic of health and nutrition in relation to farming unit.
  • KWL
  • What do you already know about health?
  • What do you already know about nutrition?
  • What do you already know about making food choices?
  • What do you already do to keep yourself healthy? Why do you do those things?
  • What do you want to know about health?
  • What do you want to know about nutrition?
  • What do you want to know about the food you eat?

Activity:

  • Watch “Health & Access” Segment on the What’s On Your Plate? DVD
  • Discuss  what is processed food?
  • Have students brainstorm
  • Provide working definition
  • List ways that food is processed  pg. 29 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum guide: color, bleach, texturize, soften, preservatives, sweeten, hide odors, flavor, and nutrients.
  • If time: “What are the ingredients?” spaghetti Bolognese activity
  • In two groups or as a whole class; raise hands to suggest how I should move the pieces

Conclusion:

  • What types of processing do we see happening in that one meal?
  • What do you think about that?

Homework:

  • Interview an adult to find out how their lives as children differed from yours in terms of food and health.

Lesson 6 (Fri.): Looking at Ingredients; Processed Foods

Materials:

  • Selection of kid snack wrappers
  • White paper
  • Graph paper

Introduction:

  • Name that Ingredient (p. 32 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide)
  • Read descriptions aloud and have students write down their hypothesis on a slip of paper.
  • Discussion
  • What did they notice about the labels?
  • Was this tricky?
  • What surprised them?
  • Introduce next activity  pg. 33 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide
  • Will be looking at different labels from snack foods
  • They can take one of the examples I have or grab something from their lunch.
  • They will have a list of hard words  pronounce for them
  • Circle the words that are in their food
  • Answer questions 1 & 2

Activity:

  • Looking at Labels Activity
  • What do you think these ingredients have in common?
  • How many of these ingredients appeared on your snack label?

Conclusion:

  • Poll the class  make a graph
  • How many people had none of these ingredients on their labels?
  • How many people had only one of these ingredients? (etc.)
  • Think, Pair, Share  question #4: Are you surprised by the results? Why or why not?

WEEK 3: Health & Nutrition

Lesson 7 (Tues.): Food Pyramid

Materials:

  • Graph from yesterday
  • Notes from pg. 35-36 in What’s On Your Plate?
  • Food pyramid
  • Variety of food labels

Introduction:

  • “Guess the graph” (pg. 43 in What’s On Your Plate? Book)  via document camera
  • Discuss health issues related to food choices and processed foods
  • Facts from p. 35 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum guide
  • Issues of poor health but now the question is how can we be healthy in what we eat?

Activity:

  • Whole class: Food pyramid (blank)
  • Fill in important words to help them remember what goes in each category of the food pyramid
  • Read them description summaries from pg. 36 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide
  • Independently or in partners: Look at their homework and place those food items on the food pyramid
  • See if maybe they mis-categorized red, yellow, and green foods

Conclusion:

  • Fill in class food pyramid with examples they came up with of each food.

Homework:

  • “Energy In… Energy OUT!” from What’s On Your Plate? Book

Lesson 8 (Wed.): Calories & Portion Control

Materials:

  • Food pyramids
  • Visual estimation print outs
  • Visual estimation worksheets
  • Supermarket Snoops worksheet
  • KWL charts

Introduction:

  • We’ve looked at labels for ingredients but now lets look at nutritional value.
  • Define calories and why we need them

Activity:

  • Portion matching  solve puzzle together on board and transfer to their worksheets; show portion control plate
  • Reference their food pyramids
  • 1 slice of bread = CD case
  • 10 French fries = deck of cards
  • ½ cup cooked rice or pasta = Computer mouse
  • 1 cup raw leafy vegetables = baseball
  • ½ cup vegetables = computer mouse
  • 1 medium fruit = tennis ball or fist
  • ½ cup chopped or canned fruit = computer mouse
  • 1 oz. cheese = pair of dice or thumb
  • 8 oz. yogurt = baseball
  • 3 oz. meat, fish, or poultry = deck of cards
  • 2 tbs. of peanut butter = ping pong ball
  • ½ cup cooked beans = baseball
  • “Supermarket Snoops” (pg. 39 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide)
  • Work alone or in partners to fill out the table
  • Use their food pyramid as a resource
  • Share observations from their tables
  • Take our snack labels and put them onto our food pyramid

Conclusion:

  • What are some ideas we can come up with to get healthy and stay healthy?
  • Examples: pg. 40 from What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide
  • Finish “K” part of KWL chart  use their different homework assignments to reflect on what they have no learned about how they should eat.
  • Suggestions of ways they could use what they learned to change their diet.

Homework:

  • “What’s in your neighborhood” (p. 20-21 in What’s On Your Plate? Book)
  • Lead into talking about local v. factory produced/shipped foods

WEEK 3: Local Foods & Innovations

Essential Questions:

Where does our food come from?

Why do you think it travels such great distances when the same food is often grown nearby, or at least in the same country?

What are the effects of food traveling long distances? Can you think of some ways this impacts you?

In your area, is it possible for a family to grow its own food? Why or why not?

What are some issues in the greater Philadelphia area that affect how we get food?

What are some other ways to get good (and local) food?

What kinds of foods are grown near us?

What kinds of foods are grown in the U.S.?

What kinds of foods do we get from international farmers? Why?

Unit Goals:

Students will understand the connections between location, food consumption, and production.

Students will gain a better understanding of the environmental and social impacts of conventional farming techniques.

Students will better understand the historical context and emergence of farming.

Students will think critically about potential solutions and applications to address environmental and social issues related to local food in their community.

Lesson 9 (Possibly 10; Thurs.): Food Stories

Goals: SWBAT…

  • Trace the origins of their food using a world map and U.S. map.
  • Discuss and construct food systems.
  • Calculate distance between locations on a map.
  • Discuss the repercussions and benefits of worldwide food shipping and transit.

Materials:

  • What’s On Your Plate? Film
  • Food stories cards (Soil Association)
  • Long distance mapping activity sheet
  • Ruler
  • World maps
  • U.S. maps

Introduction:

  • Watch “Chapter 1: What’s the story?” section of What’s On Your Plate? Film
  • Introduce concept of food stories (go over food systems process on pg. 57 of What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum guide) farm, transport, factory, production, packaging, distributor, to store.
  • Groups of two each put a set of food story cards in order.
  • Now we are going to look specifically at shipping and transportation of foods.

Activity:

  • “Long Distance Mapping” Activity (pg. 50 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum Guide)
  • Divide class into small groups of ¾. Each group gets a world map, a U.S. map, a ruler, and one set of food cards, and one score sheet per student.
  • Students take turns drawing cards.
  • Using a ruler and the map, they must locate the food’s origin and calculate the mileage the food on their card traveled to reach Philadelphia. Students record the result on their score sheet.
  • Take turns 5/6 rounds.
  • Each student will add up the mileage to receive a final score.
  • Bonus points: find the origins and distances of the food labels we collected.

Conclusion:

  • Who in your group had the highest number of miles? Who had the lowest?
  • What are some ways you could change your meal to lower the miles you traveled?
  • What does it mean when food has traveled long distances? What effects could this have on the environment?

Homework:

  • Chart of types of industrial agriculture
  • Practice  why and effects

Name: ______Date: ______

Food Stories: Industrial Agriculture

Instructions: We’ve been talking a lot about different methods of farming. In the first column of this table, there are different kinds of modern farming practices. You should think about why do modern farmers do these things? And what are the effects (results or what happens because of) these farming practices?

Practice / Why? / Effects
Large scale farms
(fewer farms in our country but much bigger farms, lots of machines)
Use of man-made fertilizer (help crops grow) and chemical pesticides (bug killer) and herbicides (weed killer) on crops.
CAFOs / Factory Farming
(Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations)
Genetic manipulation of plants and animals to produce desirable traits (making plants that are hardier, making animals that are stronger or produce more meat, etc.)
Monocultures
(growing one crop over a large area)
Processing and packaging of many foods

Lesson 10 (Possibly 11; Fri.): Local Foods

Goals: SWBAT…

  • Write about and discuss the benefits of local food.
  • Explain the concept of a “food footprint.”
  • Recognize clues to where our foods come from.
  • Consider their decisions regarding the origin of their food.
  • Consider ways to decrease their “food footprint.”

Materials:

  • Agriculture charts
  • Markers
  • Poster paper
  • What’s On Your Plate? video
  • “What’s Your Food Footprint?” pg. 60 worksheet

Introduction:

  • Share industrial agriculture charts
  • Pair up and make posters with the why and effects of different modern farming techniques.
  • Give groups related paragraphs from the What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum guide p. 54-55
  • Each group presents their poster for the class.
  • One of the ways to avoid the bad parts of farming, is eating local foods  foods that don’t need such shipping, organic, small farms, large farm crop rotation

Activity:

  • “Chapter 3: Let’s Re-Think” segment of the What’s On Your Plate? video.
  • “What’s Your Food Footprint?” p. 60 in What’s On Your Plate? Curriculum guide.

Conclusion:

  • Discussion
  • How can we decrease our food footprint?
  • We are already doing so with our microfarm and composting!
  • What questions do we still have about farming in general?