Food from the Farm to Your Table Unit

This lesson will span two days.  Ideally day one would take place on a Friday so students have the opportunity to continue their research over the weekend if necessary.

MMSD Standards Addressed:
Social Studies

• Geography: Describe uses of maps and globes.

Health

• Culture, Media, and Technology: Explain the relationship between where people live and the foods they eat.
  

NCSS Standards Addressed:

• Global Connections
• Production, Distribution, and Consumption
  

Goals of Lesson:

• Students will research an ingredient to determine its location of origin, the distance in miles from its location of origin to school, and other interesting information about the ingredient or company.

• Students will work cooperatively in groups to do their research.

Essential Question:

• Where does food come from?
  

Materials Needed:

• variety of food products with ingredient labels

• computers with access to internet (at least one for each group)
• letter to parents/guardians
  
• poster paper (one for each group of approximately three students)
  
• markers
• world map
• United States country map
  

Procedures:
Day one

1. Students will form groups (approximately three in a group) and pick a food or food dish and a single ingredient from that dish.  Students may choose from the food products the teacher supplies or their own ingredient from a specific recipe.  Students may need help determining what is an ingredient.  In their groups, students will research where their ingredient comes from, the distance in miles its origin of location is from the school, anything interesting about the ingredient or company, and where they got their information.  If possible, groups should locate the specific company, city, state, country, and continent that their food comes from.  Students can find the distance by using maps.google.com or mapquest.com.  Groups should take notes as they research.  If information is unattainable, groups should not this as well.  If groups finish early they can research another ingredient.
   
2. Send home the letter to parents/guardians, explaining the activity and noting that students may have to continue their research at home if possible.

Day two

1. Students will get back into their groups from the previous day.  Together they will create a poster that outlines their essential information and pinpoint the origin of location of their food ingredient on the map.
2. Groups will show the location of their ingredient on the world and/or United States country map and present their posters to the class and the teacher will calculate the total miles of all the ingredients.
3. Reveal the total miles to the class and ask students if they have any comments or questions based on the activity and the information they found.
4. Ask students where many of the ingredients or foods originally come from (farm).  Were you able to pinpoint you ingredient all the way back to the farm where it was grown?  Explain that tomorrow we will learn more about the food industry process, beginning with the farmers.

Assessment:

• I will observe each group's presentation on day two and make sure that they talk about and include on their posters where the ingredient comes from, the distance in miles its origin of location is from the school, at least one interesting fact about the ingredient or company, and where they found their information.  If certain information was unattainable, groups should note that as well.
• I will observe students working in groups to make sure that they all take part and work respectfully together.