Our Planet on Your Fork

Lesson Plan

MATERIALS

1) Class copies of Our Food, Our Planet.

2) Class copies of Eating Impact Survey.

3) Class copies of Eating Impact Scoring Guide.

3) Class copies of What Will I Eat?

3) Class copies of What Did I Eat? (optional).

PROCEDURES

INTRODUCTION: Tell students that today they will explore food, environment, culture and economy.

STEP 1: Hand out the Eating Impact Survey for students to complete quickly.

STEP 2: Hand out and have students read Our Food, Our Planet and answer questions individually or in small groups.

STEP 3: Hand out Eating Impact Scoring Guide for students to complete quickly.

STEP 4: If time allows, ask students to work individually or in groups to develop a one day economically and environmentally sound meal plan based on the information provided in Our Food, Our Planet (use the What Will I Eat? handout).

STEP 5: You may wish to use the What Did I Eat? handout to follow up in additional class sessions.

CLOSURE: Review student solutions as a whole class.

EXTENSION/ALTERNATIVE LESSON: To cover the topic in greater depth, you may wish to create "Research and Development" teams. Assign the groups individual tasks which require application of the material. Suggested group tasks:

4Develop a plan of how to encourage better eating habits in American teens.

4Develop a plan to teach portions of the information to elementary children.

4Develop a plan to improve the diet habits of a family similar to one's own.

CHOICE (Consumers for Healthy Options in Children's Education) promotes plant-based meals and nutrition
education in schools. This lesson is adapted from "HeartFest At School" by the American Heart Association.