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Judy Peng

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

 

  1. Students will be able to make the connections between health and food choices
  2. Students will be able to distinguish between “good/healthy” foods and “bad/unhealthy” foods and make sound food choices.
  3. Students will learn about the guidelines Food Guide Pyramid and how to use it in their daily eating habits.
  4. Students will learn the six classes of nutrients found in food and the roles they play in nutrition.
  5. 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content

Group Participation

Visual

Creativity

 

Level 3

·   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

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Level 0

·   No menu

·   No report

 

 

0 pts                                                       

·   No contribution from any member

·   No cooperation among group members

 

0 pts

·    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

 

 

 

Text Box: 1.	Introduction to Healthy Food Choices

2.	Food Diary

3.	Food Guide Pyramid

4.	Nutrients

5.	Nutrient Puzzle

6.	Menu Design Project
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


Lesson Plan #1 (Unit: Nutrition)

 

Introduction to Healthy Food Choices

 

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:

 

 

 

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:

 

  1. 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

 

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:

 

 

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:

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

Food Item,Nutrients,FGP 


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Lesson Plan #3 (Unit: Nutrition)

 

Food Guide Pyramid

 

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:

 

 

Preparation: