Lessons
Lesson 1
How much sugar do we need?
Materials needed: linking cubes or Unifix cubes, graph paper
Working in pairs students will use linking cubes to make a tower that represents the total amount of teaspoons of sugar that the USDA says that a person should have in a day. One linking cube will represent one teaspoon of sugar. They will then compare the daily amount of sugar that a person should have to how much sugar is in one can of a typical soft drink. We will then increase the number of cans until we reach three cans. The students will have to look at the graphical representations for how much sugar the average person should have in a day as opposed to someone who has consumed three cans of a soft drink. The USDA says that a person should have no more than ten to twelve teaspoons of sugar a day. An average can of soda has anywhere between ten and thirteen teaspoons of sugar. This lesson has room for a lot of variations. The teaspoons can be equal or one can have more teaspoons of sugar than the other. No matter how you manipulate the numbers, the students should see that just by drinking one can of soda, they are at the maximum daily amount. They should see the affect of drinking two or three cans of soda in a day also. They will have had a previous lesson about the affect of excess sugar on the body. They should make the connection that with the excess sugar in their body, that sugar will more than likely be turned into fat. The students can also make bar graphs of the various amounts of sugar. Other variations of this lesson can use twenty ounce bottles of soda which has about eighteen teaspoons of sugar, a container of yogurt which has about ten teaspoons of sugar, and an individual container of applesauce which has about five teaspoons of sugar.
Lesson 2
The Importance of Fruit
Materials needed: Variety of fresh fruits and dried fruits for sampling, canned fruits in water and in syrup
In this lesson we will analyze the differences and similarities between fresh fruit, canned fruit, and dried fruit. We will use a three circle Venn diagram to show how fruits are similar and how they are different. The students will decide which category of the three is the healthiest. We will talk about their choices and then figure out together which of the three is the healthiest. We will look at Walter C. Willett's M.D. (chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health) food pyramid to determine how much fruit should be eaten. We will also look at the labels of the canned fruit and determine which is healthier, the fruit in juice or the fruit in syrup. The students will understand what a fruit is and how it is different from a vegetable. The students will understand that fruits contain vitamins and nutrients. The students will also understand that one way to preserve a fruit is to dehydrate it or remove much of the water stored in fruit. Also, the students will understand that water can be removed (dehydration) or added (hydration) to change the texture of foods. The students will understand that it is better for them to eat fruit than to drink a sugary soft drink and that the sugar they get from fruit is processed by the body differently than the HFCS found in soft drinks.
Lesson 3
How many calories is that?
Materials needed: computers with access to the internet
In this lesson students will have written down two of their favorite meals. One meal will be their favorite fast food restaurant meal from McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. The second meal will be their favorite big meal at home such as Thanksgiving , or Christmas, or Easter. The students will then access the websites to find out how many calories each meal contains. The website http://www.calorie-count.com/ has an extensive list of foods and displays their nutritional content very similarly to what my students will see on any package of food they buy. It also has very easy to read graphical displays of the nutritional content as well as grades from A to F on how healthy a food is for eating. They will also look at the website http://www.calorieking.com/ which also has an extensive database of foods but has a unique feature that is different from calorie-count.com. Calorieking.com will display different exercises and the amount of time a person would have to do those exercises to burn off the calories they just consumed. The average person needs about 2,000 calories a day. Based on the meals that the student has input, they will find the difference between calories consumed in each meal and the daily amount of calories a person needs. The students will understand metabolism and how it is different from person to person. However, metabolism can be influenced by activity or inactivity as well as the type of food you eat. The students will understand what will happen if you consume more calories than you are burning. After this lesson, the students will be more aware of the calories that they are consuming and how portions are also important.
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