Nutrition Around the World
Most recently taught: October 2021 (Online)
Key Concept: Change
Related Concepts: Choice, Perspective
Statement of Inquiry: Food resources available and personal choice change an individual’s perspective on healthy eating.
Global Context: Globalization and Sustainability (Natural Resources)
Learner Profile: Principled
Unit Outline
This unit will explore the eating habits of countries and cultures around the world. With the goal of building international mindedness, students will look at food guides, eating habits, and local cuisine from their home country and other areas of the world of interest to them. For the summative assessment, students will compare and contrast different food guides, research the origin of food dishes and make conclusions about their healthy eating habits.
This unit was taught over 6 weeks (12 hours) of online learning but is easily adaptable to in-person learning with the same formative learning experiences.
Learning Experiences
Lesson 1: Analyzing our local country (Barbados) food guidelines
Lesson 2: Comparing their last day’s meals to the food guidelines recommendations
Lesson 3: Should we eat bugs? Video Discussion and comparing countries types of food consumption
Lesson 4: Fast food around the world, and personal reflection on fast food experiences
Lesson 5: Researching and creating a presentation of a famous food dish from around the world
Lesson 6: Presenting their food dish, and looking at breakfasts from different countries
Lesson 7: Group task researching and sharing information about a different countries food guidelines
Lesson 8: Jeopardy Review Game
Lesson 9 - 12: Summative Project
Formative Assessments
Whole class discussion on provocation videos and Jeopardy review game
Individual tasks including brainstorming and analyzing their dietary habits, reflecting on their families fast food habits, and researching/creating a famous food dish.
Frequent use of breakout rooms to encourage small group discussions and allow for more targeted teacher questioning.
Group project of students researching and presenting interesting country food guidelines.
Summative Assessment
Criterion A: Knowledge and understanding
Students will outline their understanding of two different food guidelines from countries of their choosing. They will describe the messages each guide is conveying, and state their opinions on if they believe their diet follows the guide. Finally, students will design a day's worth of meals using food found in each country’s guide, justifying how and why each meal fits.
Students will be able to present their information in a format of their choosing.
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Example: Brochure, Poster, Booklet
ATL’s focused on in this unit
Research - Compare, contrast, and draw connections among media resources
In order for students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding (Criteria A): of nutrition differences and norms around the world, they will need to compare, contrast, and draw connections among media resources.
The strategy that will be explicitly taught is:
-compare and contrast: analyzing and sharing similarities/differences between two countries' food guidelines, and reflecting on their habits vs the habits food guidelines are asking them to follow.
-draw connections among media resources: through videos on eating bugs, fast food and breakfast habits around the world, as well as their own research online, students will be asked to reflect on their own interests and perspectives towards what they see.
Social - Students will choose their own social skills that can help them succeed during online learning.
Students will reflect and discuss strategies on how they can create a better online learning experience when working in groups, and how they can improve their collaboration in breakout rooms.
Teacher Reflection
Having to teach online through the first unit of the year, it was not ideal moving straight to a health unit, but this unit provided an opportunity to learn about the diverse backgrounds and countries that our students identify with.
Including videos on topics like the history of eating bugs, and one’s that looked at school lunches or breakfasts around the world were great conversation starters and got students thinking about how their understanding of healthy eating is not the only correct way.
I can not wait to teach this unit to MYP 1 and 2 again, hopefully being in-person and adapting the learning experiences to be taught alongside a physical unit.
Thoughts, questions, concerns? Let me know on twitter @tannernickel or send me an email. I am always looking for ideas and ways to improve my inquiry teaching