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:
·
The
teacher should construct an empty Food Guide Pyramid (without the food groups)
on a large cardboard (60” x 45”) with several Velcro to attach things to.
·
The
teacher should construct the different food items on separate cardboards with
Velcro on the back so they may be attached to the empty pyramid.
·
Teacher
should also construct strips that read different “serving sizes” i.e. “2 – 4
servings” with Velcro to attach to the pyramid.
Anticipatory
set:
The teacher will go back to the food
list from lesson #1 and pose the question “why some food are
good and why some are not”. The teacher
would address the fact that some foods fall into certain “groups” of food that
we should always have in our daily food intake.
For this lesson, students will learn about these food groups so that
they can come back to the list to judge whether the foods they thought were
good are really good or vice versa.
Activity:
At the
beginning of the demonstration, teacher should have all the pieces placed on
the pyramid, as it would be in a Food Guide Pyramid. The teacher should explain each food groups
and the servings we should eat everyday (one serving = size of the fist). Direct the students’ attention to the pyramid
shape. Discuss with student why they
think it’s in a pyramid – because the larger servings are on the bottom (Grain
group: 6 – 11 servings) and it shrinks as you go up on the pyramid. Have students to name some examples in each
food group.
Provide
students with a handout (see attached Handout #2) of the Food Guide
Pyramid. Have them be familiarize
with it for the Food Guide Pyramid Relay.
The classroom should be adjusted so that the tables and chairs are
pushed to the sides leaving the room clear.
The students are then divided into teams (2 – 3) and each team will
select 6 representatives as “runners”.
They will take one picture of either a food group or serving size and
run up to the empty pyramid and place it in the right spot. Only one student can run up at any given time
with only one picture in their hands.
Students who are not running are encourage to
shout out the answers to help the runner but they cannot touch the runner or
the pyramid items. Only one team will go
at one time. The team that gets the
correct answers in the shortest amount of time wins.
At
the end of the relay, the teacher should address the students’ attention back
to the food list they’ve made from lesson #1.
Here, the students will discuss what food group are the food they’ve listed a part of. They will evaluate whether they: 1) are
missing any food groups on their list, 2) can they add any more food items, and
3) need to switch some food items from one list to the other. If a Food Diary is kept, the teacher should
prompt the students to fill out the second section of the Food Diary following
this activity. The student will record
what food group do the foods they’ve had so far belong to and how many servings
they’ve had (1serving = size of fist).
Assessment:
- Informal assessment will be
made during the relay according to students’ speed in placing each food
group in their proper spot on the Food Guide Pyramid to assess the
students’ comprehension of the Food Guide Pyramid properties.
- Informal assessment will be
made from students’ discussion as to what food groups are represented on
their food list to assess students’ ability to use the Food Guide Pyramid
to actual food items.
- Formal assessment will be made
from the quiz that will be given in conjunction with the lesson on
nutrient where students will complete the Food Guide Pyramid by correctly
filling in the blanks.
Lesson Plan #4 (Unit: Nutrition)
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Nutrients
·
Grade
level: 4th to 5th
Goal:
The student
will know the six classes of nutrients found in food and breakdowns of
nutrients in certain food items.
Objectives:
The students will:
·
List
the six classes of nutrients after a brief lecture on nutrients.
·
Match
each type of nutrients with their proper definitions.
·
Evaluate
their food list (from lesson #1 – good food choices) by providing nutrient
information for each food item they’ve listed.
Materials:
- Nutrient breakdown handout (see
attached)
Anticipatory
set:
Student will be given a chance to review the
items they listed on the healthy/good food chart and be asked “why they think
the food they’ve listed are healthy other than the fact that they belong to a
certain food group of the Food Guide Pyramid. Teachers should inform that there
are certain elements called nutrients found in food makes them healthy / good
whereas food that lacks these nutrients have no nutritional values and are
therefore not healthy. It is also
important to let the students know that we need some nutrients more than others
while some should be used sparingly.
Activity:
The lesson will then begin with a short lecture on
nutrients and that some foods are “good” or “healthy” because they contain
certain “nutrients”. The teacher could
make the analogy that we need nutrients for energy just like cars need
gasoline. However, we get our nutrients from food rather than gasoline. So, in the same analogy, supermarkets are
like “our gasoline stations”. The
teacher will discuss the six classes of nutrients (the definitions should be
posted somewhere where students can readily access):
- Carbohydrates – it provides the
major source of fuels for the human body and found in foods like
vegetable, bread, and pastas. It converts
sugar (glucose) into energy for our bodies.
- Lipid/Fat Although
we need it for energy we don’t need as much. Analogy can be made that carbohydrates
is like gasoline to a car whereas lipid/fat is like engine oil that a car
needs. Students should know that
too much fat of lipid consumption could be unhealthy. Just the right amount will also help
boost our immune system.
- Protein – is what we need in
our body to build tissues, to maintain fluid balance, and source of
energy if carbohydrate or fat is not available. It’s found in meat and dairy products.
- Vitamins – unlike
carbohydrates, lipid, and protein, vitamin is not a source for energy but
rather is what we need to release the energy from the previous three – just
like a “key” to unlock a treasure chest.
Vitamins help us grown, fight diseases, and maintain proper
functions of our bodies. We can get
vitamins from food we eat – Vitamin C from oranges and K from carrots.
- Minerals – it helps your
muscles to work correctly and for proper growth. We can get minerals like calcium from
milk that can help us build strong teeth and bones.
- Water – just like planet Earth,
our bodies are made up mostly of water (60%), so we need to replenish it
as we lose it from sweats and urine.
We need water to “soak” up the nutrients that we get from
carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.
It helps our bodies to stay cool so it doesn’t “overheat” (another
analogy to car). We should drink at
least 8 glasses of water each day to stay hydrated.
Teacher can
then pass out the handout with the breakdown of the nutrients in certain food
items (see attach). At this point,
students’ attention will again be addressed back to their food list. With the assistance of the teacher and the
handout, students will evaluate their list by listing the nutrient components
of the food they listed and judge their initial thoughts on food versus bad
foods.
The following day, students will be
given a quiz where they will write the six classes of nutrients and match each
with the correct definitions provided on the quiz (this quiz will be given in
conjunction with the Food Guide Pyramid quiz)
Assessment:
- Informal assessment will be
made during the students’ discussion on the nutrient content of the food
they’ve listed to assess whether students can breakdown the nutrient
content for each food item according to what is provided by the handout.
- Formal assessment will be made
to determine whether students can list the six classes of nutrient and be
able to match them to their definitions provided on the quiz.
Egg
Cheese
Potato
Lettuce
Fish
Orange
Meat
Milk
Bread
Cookie
Carbohydrate
Fat / Lipid
Protein
Water
Lesson Plan #5 (Unit: Nutrition)
Nutrient Puzzle
·
Grade
level: 4th – 5th
Goal:
The student
will know the six classes of nutrients and the breakdowns of nutrients in
certain food items.
Objectives:
The Students
will:
·
Reconstruct
the nutrient breakdown of given food item provided on a nutrient breakdown
handout.
·
Evaluate
the food item they’ve recreated by its nutrient contents (too much, to little,
or just right amount of a given nutrient) based on what they’ve learned so far.
·
Judge
which food item on the list will provide them with the most amount of energy.
Materials:
·
Blocks
(4 colors; preferably cubes as well as small rectangular shapes) – if no blocks
are available, use construction paper cut into squares and strips.
·
“Keys
made from cardboard.
Anticipatory
set:
After the quiz on nutrients
(following lesson #4 – Nutrients), teacher should briefly go over again the six
classes of nutrients and then have students review the nutrient breakdown
handout provided in the previous lesson.
Activity:
As the students are reviewing the handout, the teacher will
set up 4 “energy stations” or “Supermarket” that are labeled Carbohydrates,
Proteins, Lipids/Fats, and Water.
Each station will have a designated color blocks (cubes and small
rectangles) or paper squares and strips.
Scattered around the room are 5 keys made from cardboards with different
ends. Students will be divided into 5
groups and each group will pick out an Index card from a box with a food item
written on it and a place where a certain key will match (see attached). Students will consult the handouts they have
on the breakdown of the food items and recreate the bar graph of the
nutrient breakdown/percentage using the blocks.
Students will be given the following instruction:
- The final number of cubes
for any of the food item should be 20 (5 rectangular block = 1 cube and 5
paper strips = 1 square – teacher should make them proportional when
looking for materials).
- Each cube block or square paper
represents 5%.
- Each rectangular block or paper
strips represents 1%
- Use the cubes or rectangular
blocks to recreate the bar graph accordingly.
When the
bar graph is done, students then need to look for the “KEY” representing vitamins that matches the shape on their index card.
When all the groups have finished
the puzzle, each group should tell the rest of the class what food item they
have and what are the nutrients found in their food. Students will also tell the rest of the class
is the food they have is good or bad base on the nutrient content of the food,
i.e. too much fat or too little water can make it bad, or just right balance of
carbohydrate, fat, and water makes it a good food, etc. Finally, based on what they know about
nutrient and the amount of energy you can get from each type of nutrient, which
food item recreated by any group should provide the most energy (hint: which
one has the most “gasoline”?). If a Food
Diary is kept, this would be a good time for the teacher to prompt the students
to start recording the nutrient contents of the items they have had already.
Assessment:
- The completion of the puzzle
will be used as an informal assessment of students’ ability to reconstruct
the nutrient breakdown of the food item in question.
- The informal question and
answer about which food item contains or provides the most energy will
give teacher an idea of students’ understanding of nutrients and
energy.
- Students’ evaluation of their
food item quality base on nutrient content will also be used as an
informal assessment for their understanding of nutrients’ role in food.
Example of Food Card and “Key”
Lesson Plan #6 (Unit: Nutrition)
Menu
Design Project
- Grade level: 4th to
5th
Goal:
The student
will demonstrate their understanding of nutrition, good food choices, and the
Food Guide Pyramid through a Menu design.
Objectives:
The student will:
·
Design
three meals plus a snack that will satisfy the Food Guide Pyramid guideline and
hand in a “Menu”.
o
One
meal has to be of a given culture (culture of their choice).
·
Break
down the nutrient components in their meals.
·
Design
the three meals according to their understanding of good food choice and
explain the reasons (referencing the Food Guide Pyramid guidelines and nutrient
contents) verbally and in written reports.
Activity:
Students should get in a group of 4 – 5 and
are now “Chefs”. Their job is to create
meals for a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner) that is healthy using
their understanding of the Food Guide Pyramid and the nutrients that we
need. The “dishes” they create should be
able to satisfy the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid to get full
credit. Students are encourage to be
very creative such as giving your dish an interesting name, using a variety of
ingredients in the dishes, create dishes that have never been made, incorporate
any ethnic food items that they know.
One, but not limited to, of the three meals has to be of a culture of
their choice. Students are encourage to
bring in demos and props for their presentation i.e. drawings, photos, and
actual food items.
Students should be given classroom
time (2 – 3 days) to work in groups so that the teacher can evaluate their
cooperative learning skills. On the day
of the presentation, the classroom should be arranged in the fashion that each
group can set up a station or “restaurant” where they can present their
menu. The teacher will walk around the
room talking to each group about their menu while they set up (about the
dishes, the nutrient content and food groups represented in their menu). After the teacher has had a chance to
informally talk to each group, students should be allowed to go to other
“restaurants” and ask each other questions of “sample” the various menus. Each group will also turn in a report that
will include the following:
a. A “Menu” (name of each dish and its
nutrient content– using the nutrient breakdown handout as guideline).
b. Name of each dish and ingredients.
c. What food group does each ingredients belong to.
d. Is the dish for breakfast, lunch,
dinner, or snacks.
e. How does the menu satisfy the Food
Guide Pyramid’s recommendations.
f.
What
are the nutrients that we can find in each dish.
The project will assess the
students’ complete understanding of the Food Guide Pyramid as well as ability
to make good food choices and planning for a balanced meal.
Assessment:
- Students’ menu and report will
be evaluated base on:
- Completeness – 3 meals + 1
snack
- IF the meals satisfy the Food
Guide Pyramid
- Have the nutrients for each of
the dish listed on the menu
- Team work, member
participation
- Creativity
- Visuals (easy to read,
appropriate picture/image depicting the dishes).
Extra
resources:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl
(a site where you can search the nutrient content from a list of food items)
Reference:
USDA
National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
·
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/
Kids’
Health
USDA Food
Guide Pyramid
·
http://www.usda.gov/news/usdakids/food_pyr.html
Health
Framework for California Public Schools Kindergarten Through
Grade Twelve
·
http://www.cde.ca.gov/cdepress/health-framework/2003-health-framework.pdf