Interdisciplinary Approaches to Consumer Culture

Lesson Plans

The ultimate goal of this unit is for students to read food packages and have a better understanding of what the words mean. Students need to think critically about food and their body. They need to decide for themselves not only what they will put in their body but also how much they will put in it. They also need to know that they there is bias when it comes to issues surrounding food. Michael Pollen promotes a diet of organic fruits and vegetables, hormone free meats, and minimal additives. Food producers have different opionions on the value of organic and hormone free products. These lessons are designed to have students be aware of bias in writing. They will read a variety of informational articles which have a bias toward food production. They will have to identify the bias.

This middle school unit is taught from both Language Arts and Health standards. It will be taught over a two-week intensive period. Anna Yates middle school students take a two week break from regular classes to attend an intensive elective course. This unit is written for the intensive session. That means lessons on this topic are taught throughout the entire school day.

By completing the unit students will think critically about food choices and what they put in their body. The intention is to present information in an inquiry based way so students can determine what they want to put in their body.

PBJ (Problem Based Journals)

Each lesson includes an essential question, discussion and informational reading. This is followed by a written journal response composed in blog format. Students then record any new questions they though of during the lesson. At the conclusion of all of the lessons, students will take a question from their journal entries and develop an inquiry project around it. My class calls this PBJ (Problem Based Journals)

Lesson 1: Cognitive Maps

Cognitive maps are also known as mental maps. Students discover a particular aspect of the world around them by manifesting it through a drawing.

The unit begins with student awareness of the food choices that surround them. Using our school as the focal point, students will draw all of the places they recall around them that offer food. Although many fast food chain restaurants and mini marts surround our school, there are grocery stores and locally owned restaurants as well.

Essential Question: What do we know about the food choices surrounding our school?

Create: Students will draw a map of the food choices in our school's neighborhood. They will discuss their work in small groups.

Discussion: What do you notice about the places you have identified? What can you learn about what consumers in our area demand for food? Do you notice an overabundance or under abundance of any particular food in our area?

Respond: Students will create their first blog entry in response to the essential question. They are required to list further wonderings around this topic.

Lesson 2: What's in a chip?

Essential Question: Is that a plant or animal that I'm eating?

Discussion: Partners will examine a Cheeto. They will discuss whether a Cheeto comes from a plant or animal. Is it food? How do they know it is food? Next, students will read the label on a Cheeto bag. They will examine the ingredients and see what they learn about nutrition and what they are ingesting based on the label.

Read: Students read an article from the Wall Street Journal titled: "Can This Chip Be Saved? Frito-Lay Retools Snack Recipes to Include More Natural Ingredients"

Discussion: What did you learn about the ingredients in chips? How do you feel about unnatural ingredients in your food?

Homework: Students will bring in some type of food from home.

Lesson 3: Is that food whole or processed?

Essential Question: Why did you choose that food item?

Discussion: Some students may have brought it in because it was in an easy to carry container, wouldn't spoil, melt, smell bad, didn't need to be reheated or kept cold.

They will then answer the question: Is what I brought in a whole or processed food? Recalling what they learned about natural verses artificial ingredients from the Frito Lay article, they can determine what foods they eat that are whole (all natural) and which are not.

Create: Students will create a two-column list of the foods they recently ate and separate them into whole foods verses processed foods. They will then write down what they believe are the ingredients in their food and separate them into the two columns. For example, if a student said they ate a piece of pepperoni pizza, they will have to divide tomato sauce, cheese, bread and pepperoni into the two categories.

Watch: Students will watch the documentary Food Inc. that discusses whole foods verses processed foods.

Research: The class will investigate a turkey sandwich. I will bring in the ingredients. Partners will have to research the ingredients in specific brands of bread, turkey, mayonnaise, and mustard. They will investigate where the produce came from and determine how far it traveled and project how long ago it was growing.

Respond: Students will respond to the activity in a blog entry, write down what they learned and what they were surprised by.

Lesson 4: Four Ingredient Fix

Essential Question: Most brand name breads have a long list of ingredients. They have a lot of additives listed. Can I make bread with less than four ingredients?

Create: Students will bake bread with flour, water and yeast

Observe: Students will observe our freshly made four-ingredient bread compared to manufactured bread with more ingredients. They will monitor it for mold. The lesson is about preservatives and students questioning if the bread doesn't go bad with the preservatives, what is it doing in our bodies? The breads will be on display throughout the school year. Depending on time during the two weeks, we will also make pasta and ice-cream with less than four ingredients. Students will always compare what we do to the ingredients listed on popular manufactured items.

Lesson 5: What's that stuff in my drink?

Essential Question: What is in drinks? Do they have fat and calories? Is it possible for drinks to have more ingredients than food?

Discussion: Students will discuss the essential question in partners or small groups.

Lecture: I will present them with the facts on sugar. They will look at pictures of sugar cane and learn about sugar as a carbohydrate.

Read: Students will read the article, "The Truth About Vitamin Water" which discusses the abundance of unhealthy sugar in this drink that is marketed as very healthy. They will also read: "Soft Drinks 102: Schools and Unhealthy Beverages." This is chapter 7 from Kelly Bronwell's book, "Food Fight." The list of readings can be found in the bibliography.

Research: They will research the sugar content of their favorite canned or bottled drinks as well as juice, milk, coffee and other drinks students consume.

Respond: They will record their findings and blog about what they learned. They are required to include further wonderings at the end of their blog.

Lesson 6: Can food be made in a laboratory?

Essential Question: What is an artificial sweetener? Which foods do I enjoy that have artificial sweeteners?

Discussion: Students will discuss the essential question in partners or small groups. They will be given packs of Splenda, NutraSweet, an Equal. They will look at the ingredients listed on the back and discuss what they think these food products are. They can open them and test them in any safe way they want.

Watch: Students will watch a video on Channel One News titled: "The truth about the stuff that makes our food taste sweet."

Labels: Artificial Sweetener

Read: Students will read parts of Joseph Mercola's book: "Sweet deception: Why Splenda, Nutrasweet, and the FDA may be hazardous to your health"

Do: Students will reexamine the Sweetener packets and soda cans. They will take notes on the words on the packaging and note the marketing used to hook the consumer. They will see phrases like: "No calories" and "Sweeter than Sugar." They should think critically about the packaging. Do the words mislead the consumer? How would you package drinks that contain artificial sweeteners?

Discussion: Students will revisit what they first thought about artificial sweeteners and recognize where their new learning has taken them after the reading and the video.

Respond: Students will blog about this topic and create further questions on artificial sweeteners.

Lesson 7:

Essential Question: What can you say about food that is labeled low-fat, nonfat or low carb? What other words or phrases do you hear people talking about in the context of food?

Discussion: Small group or partners will discuss the essential question. Students who want to share in the larger group after will have that chance.

Read: Students will read the article from Time Magazine titled, "The Low-Carb Diet Craze."

Respond: Students will respond to the article. They will also respond to their classmates blog entries by leaving at least three comments.

Lesson 8: Food Packaging

Essential Questions: Is food packaging misleading consumers? Should the government put restrictions on it or should manufacturers be allowed to market their product any way they want?

Discussion: Small group or partners will discuss the essential question.

Read: Student's will read Chapter 1 of Michael Pollan's book, "In Defense of Food" where he discusses the changes in food laws since the 1930's. It discusses the FDA's push to remove the label "imitation" from food packaging. Additionally they will read parts of Joseph Mercola's and Kendra Pearsall'sbook where they explore the FDA's relationship with food corporations like Searle and Monsanto.

Create: Students will select a food product of their choice and redesign the label to reflect a more truthful product. They idea is that the product probably won't sound as appetizing and that's why food marketers describe products with alternative descriptors. The end result will be displayed for the school to see popular food products relabeled to better reflect nutritional qualities.

Respond: Students will blog answers to the essential questions and develop more questions.

What is our responsibility in soda consumption? Should laws prevent us from drinking what we want?

Lesson 9: PBJ (Problem Based Journal)

Essential Question: The students will come up with their own question based on the information they have been presented with.

Prior Knowledge: The students will have already had experience with and direction on "investigable" questions verses questions that cannot realistically be answered with our limited time and access restrictions. The questions should be something they can answer with a little more research.

Do: Students will share their questions by writing them on sentence strips. The class will discuss common themes in the questions and will group them according to theme. Students with similar questions will work together to investigate answers to their questions. They can use the internet, conduct interviews, use the library and for students who need to visit a local restaurant or store I will have chaperones that can escort them there for a "fact finding" excursion. However, that will only be offered to the groups after they already have their questions and we find that some students really do need to make a visit to gain more information. The inquiry project will begin on day six of the unit and be completed by day 10.

Presentation: Students will present the answer to their question or if an answer cannot be found they will discuss the process they went through trying to obtain the answer.

The main goal of the unit is for students to become aware of what is inside of their food and to think about why they choose to eat something. Is it because of the label, peer pressure, doctor's orders or because they just like it? Any answer is fine as long as the student is aware of why they made the food choice that they did. Therefore, assessment is based on the quality of student blog responses and the questions they ask. If the questions are thoughtful and demonstrate that the student is engaged in the content and wanting to know more, they will have met the standard.