Rationale
One important aspect of my students’ lived experiences is access to healthy and affordable food. Many of the neighborhoods my students come from, including areas of Church Hill in Richmond, VA, can be considered food deserts, where access to fresh produce and affordable grocery options are limited. To help address this, I maintain two hydroponic garden systems at school where students grow lettuce, herbs, and other vegetables throughout the year. At the end of each harvest cycle, we hold a “Salad Celebration” where students harvest, wash, prepare, and eat the produce they have grown themselves. Although students are offered a variety of salad dressing choices, the overwhelming favorite is always ranch dressing. This observation inspired the idea for this unit: using students’ interest in food and cooking as an entry point into Virginia’s 5th grade science standards on matter, mixtures, and solutions. Because students are often more open to trying unfamiliar foods when they create them independently, this unit will encourage students to experiment with new salad dressing combinations while exploring scientific concepts such as mixtures, solutions, emulsions, ratios, and the physical properties of matter through meaningful, hands-on experiences.
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