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An Interdisciplinary Unit on Childhood Obesity
Week 1
Learning Outcomes
In Week One, students learn about nutrition concepts through writing, watching an educational video, completing a crossword puzzle, and learning a song. The ultimate learning goal for the first week is that students are able to learn concepts about nutrition so that they will be able to make healthy eating choices thoughout their lives. Students will be able to identify which foods belong to which food group, and describe why certain foods are healthier than others. Other learning outcomes include being able to take previously learned information or past experiences to answer the question, "what does health mean to you" and generally when deciding why some foods are healthier than others. As a result of Week 1's assignments, students will also be able to work on writing, critical thinking skills, vocabulary, memorization, and singing skills.
When explaining the reflective journal assignment, ask students to write what the word healthy means by including things they think are healthy, how something becomes or stays healthy, and if they think they would consider themselves healthy. I suggest giving students 15-25 minutes to write a full page. When asking the students to discuss what they wrote, don't discourage any answers if they are completely wrong. Instead ask the students to explain why they believe what they wrote.
Use the Bill Nye video to introduce major nutrition concepts. Have students take turns telling imprtant facts they learned from the video and write them on the board. Tell students to write down any important facts that they do not aready have written on their page. This way you won't have to do a lecture to teach the concepts and can add any notes to the board if any important concepts were missed.
For the next day, teach a lesson on more specific concepts like fats, carbohydrates, sugars, and proteins in foods. Relate this to the different food groups by telling which food groups have more or less of these elements. This will give students context as to why certain foods are better for them than others. After the lesson, the crossword can be used to check the students understanding of the concepts.
Finally, teach the students the food groups song as a way to engage auditory learners in the class. The catchy tune will help them remember which foods belong to different food groups. Encourage students to sing even if they think they are not good at singing. Emphasize learning the song over being a good singer.
Suggestions for Teachers
