Unit/ISP page EDCI 402 Teaching and Assessment main page
Nutrition
Winter 2004
Unit Overview
This unit is designed to last approximately two weeks. The unit will focus on issues dealing with
nutrition. Nutrition is a very important
subject that all students should be familiar with. With increasing health problems in our world
today, young students need to understand the importance of applying proper
nutritional values to their daily life.
Although this unit is designed for fourth to fifth graders, it can be
implemented into earlier elementary curriculum.
It should also be implemented throughout the school year and in later
grades as nutritional recommendations changes year to year. This learning experience will fit into the
curriculum of Health Science and possibly Science as well. Although the unit is designed around Health
Science, it incorporates language art, physical activities, as well as
mathematic skills.
Helping students get an early start
in a healthy lifestyle can help the prevention of future health risks. Students will learn the importance of a
healthy diet, what makes up a healthy diet and why. The topic of nutrition may not seem exciting
and “fun” but with the right type of activities, students will be able to learn
through games and play. This unit
incorporates some self-discovery, as students will be given a chance to
evaluate their own daily food choices.
This unit is also designed to involve a good deal of student-directed
discussions about food items and their nutritional values. Through the discussions and activities
involved in this unit, students will be ale to get started on a life long
practice of healthy eating habit.
Learning Goals of This Unit
- Students will be able to make
the connections between health and food choices
- Students will be able to
distinguish between “good/healthy” foods and “bad/unhealthy” foods and
make sound food choices.
- Students will learn about the
guidelines Food Guide Pyramid and how to use it in their daily eating
habits.
- Students will learn the six
classes of nutrients found in food and the roles they play in nutrition.
- Students will be able to
evaluate their own eating habits and/or food choices and make adjustments
needed.
Instructional Overview
The unit is designed to help students to get an earlier
start on a good food choices and healthy eating habits. As more and more households becoming
two-income families, many families often over look the importance of a
nutritionally balanced diet/meal and rely heavily on pre-packaged foods. This unit will hopefully help the students to
start looking at how what they eat can impact their lives. Hopefully it will at least help them make
better selections with the snacks they eat (a meal they have more control of)
and appreciate the meals (including the broccolis and brussels sprouts) their parents and schools prepare
for them.
The design of the unit starts with a
concept about food choices and then students will be allowed to come back to
their initial thoughts after several lessons on nutrition and nutritional
concepts. Many lessons / activities are
designed for students to start with a discussion followed by an
evaluation. The format of the
discussions and evaluations are self-directed and/or student-directed. The discussions usually will follow a lesson
or two on the food choices, Food Guide Pyramid, and nutrients. The lessons are tools which will help
students to be actively involved in their discussions to fully comprehend the
topics. Other than the student
discussions, the unit involves a record keeping of the students’ food intake, a
relay activity, a puzzle/math activity, and a creative group project. All of the above activities will help the
concepts come to life and hopefully make this “not-so-fun” subject about nutrition
more playful and engaging.
Much of the activities involve
cooperative learning. Students will be
working in groups not only in their culminating group project to design a
healthy menu but also in the nutrient puzzle/math activity and the Food Guide
Pyramid Relay. Cooperative learning will
help students form a teamwork environment as well as appreciation for each
other. As discussed earlier, the unit
involves several student-directed discussions.
These discussions will give students the chance to provide their inputs
rather than just listening to the teacher lecturing. The students will have to opportunity to
learn from each other rather than just the teacher. It will also help foster good listening and
communication skills as well as critical thinking skills.
Since the unit is designed around a
lot of student-directed discussions and group activities, the role of the
teacher is mostly a facilitator – of new information and support. The teacher will introduce some basic
information but the students will actively be involved in the process of
understanding / learning of these concepts by their discussions and hands-on
activities. There will be one or two
lessons that start out as teacher-centered but the follow-up activities that
are normally more engaging on the students’ part. In their final presentation to make a
“healthy menu”, the role of the teacher is entirely a supporter and
facilitator. Students will be given the
opportunity to use their creativity, cooperative learning skills, and full
understanding of nutrition to create the menu and be able to explain their
choices.
Each lesson in this unit is
connected with each other and builds on top of each other. The first lesson begins with an introduction
to the reason behind good food choices followed by a lesson on the Food Guide
Pyramid. Following the Food Guide
Pyramid lesson and the physical activity, the value of nutrients will be
introduced which involves a puzzle/math activity to reinforce the concept. These lessons are the unit’s knowledge and
comprehension learning models (Bloom taxonomy).
After the two lessons on the Food Guide Pyramid and nutrients, students
will be given a chance to evaluate themselves and their food choices first
through the list they had made on what they thought were “good” foods versus
“bad” food. Here, students will apply
what they’ve learned about Food Guide Pyramid and nutrients to help them
evaluate their initial choices of good versus bad foods. This lesson is designed around application
and analysis learning model according to the Bloom taxonomy. After being able to evaluate their food list,
they will evaluate their own food choices through a record keeping of a Food
Diary. This application / analysis lesson
(Bloom taxonomy) deals with a little of self-discovery where students can analyze
something about themselves and make sound critiques based on their knowledge
about nutrition.
Finally the culminating activity of
the lesson is a group project (an analysis and synthesis learning model), where
students will work together to create a “healthy menu” consisting of three
meals (at least one must be a cultural/ethnic food nature) and a snack. They will have a chance to be creative with
the “dishes” they create or compile.
Students will set up “restaurants” presenting their menu for the class
and teacher to view. A report will
accommodate the menu explaining their choices and how does the Food Guide
Pyramid and nutrient values come in play in their menus.
Initial lessons involve much of
hands-on activity and/or lively discussions in class with teacher as the
facilitator. However, for the
culminating project, students will be given time in class to work in groups to
prepare for their menus. At this time,
the teacher will not give formal instruction but only to assist in anyway the
students need. Time allowed for
preparation of the menu will depend on the “elaborateness” the teacher would
like to see the project constructed.
However, two to three days should be more than sufficient.
The lessons of this unit build on
top of each other and are often referred to for all the consequent / proceeding
lessons. This unit is designed to
followed indirect instructional methods involving much of deductive reasoning
skills (i.e. students being able to use concepts of nutrients and Food Guide
Pyramid to make sound evaluation of their food choices which hopefully will be
their guideless for long term food choices) and some inductive reasoning (i.e.
being able to relate bad eating habit to health problems prompting them to
engage in healthier eating habits). This
form of instruction is appropriate for students to learn about a concept that
they can to apply in their daily life.
The unit not only will teach students about nutrition but also community
building, cooperative learning, self-discovery, and build communication and
critical thinking skills.
Assessment Overview
This unit involves various ways of assessment. Student learning will be informally and
formally assessed. Assessment methods
that will be utilized include observations of students’ involvement in the
discussions about food choices, observation of the relay and puzzle activities,
a graded handout/quiz, a graded food diary and report, and a graded menu
project. Informal assessments include
the observations of discussions about food choices (did they use concepts we
learned about Food Guide Pyramid and/or nutrients to assess the quality of
food). Student involvement in the
discussion will also be observed and assessed as well as their response to
other students’ reasoning. This includes
students’ active participation, excitement about the topic, and ability to
reason their responses using knowledge learned through the unit. Teacher will do very little talking except to
prompt students to provide inputs and guide the students to actively discuss,
to agree (and why) and to disagree (and why).
Personal communication with the students after lunchtime about what they
had for lunch and whether they feel the lunch was nutritious will also be part
of the informal assessment of student learning.
All of the above will help teacher to assess students’ basic
understanding of food choices relating to nutrients and Food Guide Pyramid and
their reasoning skills. Informal
assessment of the relay and puzzle/math activities involves the teacher
double-checking whether the puzzle was completed correctly as laid out in the
guidelines and/or handouts. This will
help the teacher to assess whether the students can recreate the information
given to them. No grades will be given
for the completeness of the puzzle and relay.
These lessons are designed to help students to engage in an activity
that will help reinforce the concepts though games and play.
Formal assessments (by means of grades) will be utilize on the quiz and/or handouts for the Food Guide
Pyramid and nutrients to help the teacher to assess whether the students have
retain the information as well as the effectiveness of the activities. This assessment will also help the teacher to
assess, if any, what concepts need to be clarified before moving on to the food
diary and the culminating group project.
The food diary will also be formally
assessed based on: 1) completeness (including all three meals in a day), 2)
applications of the Food Guide Pyramid, and 3) applications of the nutrient
content to the food items they ate. The
report due for the diary will be assessed based on 1) students’ self-evaluation
utilizing concepts learned about nutrients, 2) students’ self-evaluation
utilizing concepts learned about Food Guide Pyramid, and 3) students’
“improvement plan” utilizing concepts learned about Food Guide Pyramid and
nutrients. The assessment for this
assignment will help the teacher to see if students can apply what they know
about nutrition into their daily life.
More points will be given to the self-evaluation portion followed by the
application of the Food Guide Pyramid and nutrient concepts to the food items
in the diary, and finally the completeness of the diary.
The purpose of the self-evaluation
report is not to make students to be self-conscious about their eating habit
but to help student realize that they have the power/ability to control what
they eat by knowing good choices from bad choices. The report will help students realize the
importance of a healthy diet. It will
also provide them a chance to make an improvement plan. The ideas behind the improvement are: 1)
students being able to synthesize new behaviors through newly gained knowledge
and 2) students realizing that they possess the power to change something that
might not have been the ideal to something that is better for them through the
power of knowledge. This assignment will
hopefully help prevent problems such as anorexia and bulimic that
are emerging in increasing numbers in young children.
Finally, formal and final assessment
will be made for the culminating menu project.
This project should be inclusive of all the information / concepts
learned in this unit. The assessment
will follow a rubric provided to the students at the start of the project. Students will be instructed that they will
assessed on: 1) group member contribution to the project (did everyone do their
part for the project, did everyone contributed equally), 2) content (complete 3
meals and snack with at least one meal being of ethnic / cultural nature, did
each meal have nutrient contents labeled properly, does the menu satisfy the
guidelines of the Food Guide Pyramid), 3) visual (are the menu easy to read –
large text font, are the pictures/images depicting the meal accurately), and
finally 4) creativity (anything goes: basically, every student will receive
full credit for this but they won’t know in advance).
Only the formal assessments
(quiz/handout, food diary, and menu project) will translate into grades. The quiz/handout will receive a grade
weighing 1/6th of the final grade, the food diary will receive a
grade weighing 1/3rd of the final grade, and the menu will receive a
grade weighing ½ of the final grade.
Whereas the quiz/handout and the food diary and its report are individual
grades, the menu report will be a group grade.
In the case that some students were not able to clearly reason/evaluate
their food diary, they will have the opportunity to sit in a smaller group
(rather than the classroom discussions) and discuss with other students in
their group what makes a good food, what is its nutrient content, and where
does it fit on the Food Guide Pyramid.
This will help reinforce the concepts and since the group project weighs
more than the quiz and the food diary, it can help bring up a lower grade for
any student.
The purpose of the graded Food Diary
and report and the culminating project is not to place judgment on the
students’ eating habit or artistic ability but whether they can put the
knowledge they learned into daily practices.
What is good about this unit is that students can see that things that
they learn in school actually are relevant to their lives.
Assessment Instrument
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Content |
Group Participation |
Visual |
Creativity |
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Level 3
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·
3 meals & snack in menu w/ >1cultural/ethnic dish · Nutrient contents listed for all
dishes (in menu & report) · Satisfied the food guide pyramid
100% (explained in report) 20 pts |
·
All members of group consistently contributed in the physical
construction of the menu and report and provided ideas and input ·
All members of the group consistently work cooperatively and listen to
each other's input 10 pts |
· Text is X, 20 < X <
16pt for menu and 12pt for report · Have images/pictures for all
dishes 5 pts |
· Creative names for dishes · Creative menu layout 5 pts |
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Level 2 |
· < 3 meals & snack in menu
w/ >1cultural/ethnic dish · Nutrient contents listed for <
3 meals (in menu & report) · Satisfied the food guide pyramid
80% (explained in report) 16 pts |
· All members contributed in the
physical construction of the menu and report with most of the members
providing inputs and ideas · All members usually work
cooperatively and listen to each other's input 8 pts |
·
Text is not X, 20 < X < 16pt for menu and 12pt for report ·
Have images/pictures for 80% of dishes 3 pts |
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Level 1 |
· < 2meals & snack in menu or
no cultural/ethnic dish · Nutrient content for < 2 meals
(in menu & report) · Satisfied the food guide pyramid
60% (explained in report) 14 pts |
· Most members contribute in the
physical construction of the menu and report with only some members providing
ideas and input · Members sometimes work
cooperatively and listen to each other's input 7 pts |
·
Text is not X, 20 < X < 16pt for menu and 12pt for report ·
Have images/pictures for 50% of dishes 2 pts |
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Level 0 |
· No menu · No report 0 pts
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· No contribution from any member · No cooperation among group members 0 pts |
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Text is not X, 20 < X < 16pt for menu and 12pt for report ·
No images 0 pts |
· No name for dishes · No specific layout 0 pts |
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Lesson Plan #1 (Unit: Nutrition)
Introduction to Healthy
Food Choices
- Grade level: 4th to
5th
Goal:
The student
will understand the importance of good food choices in relations to health.
Objectives:
The student will
·
Distinguish
bad eating habits following a video clip of “The Simpsons”.
·
Outline
a list of food which they believe are healthy and explain why.
·
Evaluate
their choices of food as either healthy/good or unhealthy / bad based pm
nutrient content and / or guidelines of the Food Guide Pyramid.
Materials:
- “The Simpsons”
episode #411 from season 4
- Large butcher paper or poster
paper
- Colorful markers
Anticipatory
set:
The student will watch a short clip from the familiar
cartoon, “The Simpsons” where Homer Simpson is rushed
to the hospital due for surgery (triple bypass) because of his diet. The clip shows an x-ray of Homer’s heart
where it is dangerously clogged with plaque and DONUT residues. After the clip, the teacher and students will
discuss Homer’s health conditions: being out of his ideal weight range, the
lack of exercise, and specifically lack of a healthy diet and / or eating
habit. Direct the students’ discussion
to especially include the idea that Homer’s state of health is primarily due to
his eating habit – he eats too much donuts and junk food and he doesn’t eat
proper meals that Marge cooks for him.
Since Homer has all these healthy complications, he can’t do all the
interesting things like play ball or jump rope without losing his breath. His conditions are so bad that he had to have
his heart cut open!
Activity:
After the anticipatory set, students should see how poor
food selection could be detrimental.
Following the discussion, the teacher will have students make a list of
“healthy/good” foods and a separate list of “unhealthy/bad” foods on the large
butcher papers: using bright colors for “good foods” and dark colors for “bad
foods”. For each item, have students
briefly explain why they think the food is good or bad. Hang the posters up somewhere so the students
can see them throughout the course of the unit and let students know that they
can contribute to it whenever they think of something else.
After the lessons on the Food Guide Pyramid and nutrients
(lessons #3 – 5), go back to the posters and have students evaluate their
choices and see if any of them need to be moved to the other posters or if
anything else can be added. The
evaluation process should include the nutrient contents in the food items as
well as where they belong on the Food Guide Pyramid. This process can be done
either after both lessons or after each lesson.
Assessment:
- Through an informal assessment
of class discussion, students will be assessed on their understanding of
good/healthy food choices and their benefits by their selections of good
and bad goods as well as their own evaluation of the food items using
nutrient contents and / or guidelines of Food Guide Pyramid.
Lesson Plan #2 (Unit: Nutrition)
Food Diary
- Grade level: 4th to
5th
Goal:
The student
will know what makes up good food choices.
Objectives:
The student will:
·
Evaluate
/ judge the food on the food list from lesson #1 based on nutrient contents and
guidelines of Food Guide Pyramid to see if their original judgment of food
choices was correct.
·
Distinguish
“good food choices” and “bad food choices” from their food list evaluation.
·
Record
their food intake in a food diary and evaluate their food choices based on
nutrient contents and guidelines of Food Guide Pyramid to see if their original
judgment was correct.
Materials:
- Food diary sheet (see attach).
- Food lists from lesson #1
Anticipatory
set:
Teacher should address the students’
attention of the list of good and bad food they’ve made in lesson #1 – good
food choices.
Activity:
Following the lesson on good food
choices, students will be instructed to keep a “Food Diary” for the next two –
three days (while lessons #3 - #5 are being taught). The Food Diary will consist of three columns,
column one: “FOOD”, column two: “Food Guide Pyramid”, and column three:
“NUTRIENTS”. The student can then begin
to fill out the first column with what they had for breakfast. To get started, students should begin filling
out the first column with what they had for breakfast that day during this
lessons and right after lunch period to get the students use to jotting things
down in their Food Diary.
After two - three days of diary
keeping (after the lessons on Food Guide Pyramid and nutrients) students should
be given time to fill out the Food Guide Pyramid and nutrient section if they
haven’t already (after the lessons on Food Guide Pyramid and nutrient, the
teacher should have asked the students to add in their diary for each column
discussed). One final discussion about
the food list will help them begin evaluating what is “good food” and what is
“bad food” (using nutrient content and guidelines of Food Guide Pyramid) for
the report. The report will be an evaluation of their own
food choices for the past two – three days.
The report will include (but not limited to) the following:
·
Would
they say that their eating habit or food choice is good / healthy or bad?
o
If
yes, why? What nutrients were in the
food they ate? Do all the meals combined
satisfy the guidelines of the Food Guide Pyramid each day?
o
If
not, why? Were there too little
nutrients in the food they ate? Was the
Food Guide Pyramid guidelines not fulfilled at least by 80%?
o
Were the food they received from school and parents better than the snacks
they picked themselves (optional)?
·
Would
they improve their food choices or would they keep it the same?
o
If
improvements needed, why and how – what food items would they add and what
would they eliminate? How would that
make it “good food choices” from bad food choices?
o
If
no improvements needed, why?
Teacher
should also remind the students to use the “good” and “bad” food list they made
to help with their evaluation.
Assessment:
- Informal assessment will be
made according to the students’ discussion and evaluation of the food
lists to assess whether students can gather information they have learned
about the Food Guide Pyramid and nutrients to derive their evaluation and
/ or conclusion.
- Formal assessment will be made
from the food diary and their evaluation report as to their understanding
of what makes up a “healthy food choice” – looking specifically in their
improvement plan for proper amount of nutrient and following the
guidelines of the Food Guide Pyramid.
Lesson Plan #3 (Unit: Nutrition)
Food Guide Pyramid
- Grade level: 4th to
5th
Goal:
The student
will learn about the guidelines of the Food Guide Pyramid.
Objectives:
The student will
·
Place
food groups in their proper position on the Food Guide Pyramid during a relay
activity.
·
Correctly
select the suggested serving number of each food group on a Food Guide Pyramid
during a relay activity.
·
Evaluate
their food list from lesson #1 using the Food Guide Pyramid.
Materials:
- Cardboards
- Velcro tapes
- Markers
Preparation: