1. Comparing Lunches

    In this collaborative global project, students will select their favorite lunch food and input their choice into the Global Lab database.

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    Comparing Lunches

    Big Idea

    Across the globe, children in school eat very different foods for breakfast and lunch. In the K-1 Food unit for STEM Connect, students investigated the foods they ate by tracing their food back to where the initial ingredients came from as well as how it was grown. Now, students in classrooms can take a deeper look at their own lunches and compare them to lunches around the world.

    Some students may not have a choice in which lunch foods they received during the week. If this is the case, you can either ask them to pick their favorite from the foods they did eat or allow them to pick a food that they have had for lunch in the past.

    In this collaborative global project, classrooms select their favorite lunch food and input their choice into the Global Lab database. This database provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about different cultures through a common medium - food. Students can explore how their food choice is similar and different to students in other parts of the world. Finally, students can compare and contrast healthy and unhealthy food choices.

    Build Background Knowledge

    Use the strategies and resources below to prepare for your discussions and data collection.

    • Have students become aware of the types of food they eat at lunch.
      • One way to do this is for students to keep a written or pictorial log of the food that is in their lunch over the course of one school week.
      • You may want to add a rating system of stars or emoticons so students can remember how much they liked each food item.
    • At the end of the week, have students review their log and select one lunchtime food item as their favorite.
    • Collect this selection from each student.
    • Display the selections from entire class for the students to see. This is a good opportunity to use a graph such as a pictograph to display the data.
    • Explain the basic categories of food to the students (carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables, fruits, dairy, sweets, fats, etc.). Categorize some or all of the students’ choices into these categories.
    • Provide students with background information on what is a healthy vs. unhealthy food. The following videos may be helpful to show to the students:
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