The Food Pyramid: Three Projects That Teach Kids About Nutrition

While students load up on soft drinks, sweets, and high-fat foods, their teachers long for ways to help them understand what that kind of diet does to growing bodies. Three educators shared with Education World their latest attempts to halt the spread of junk food -- online projects! Students share information, compare data, and learn about foods from around the world.

"We are what we eat and the habits we establish at an early age will tend to stay with us," said Don Bourdon, technology coordinator at St. Bernard's School in Saranac Lake, New York. Keeping this premise in mind, he created Fit For Life. The project is designed to increase students' awareness of the food they eat, the nutrition it provides, and the regional costs of the food.

"Hopefully, through educational awareness presented in a fun-filled way for students, the benefits of a sound, nutritious diet will be imparted to [students]," Bourdon told Education World. "French fries and potato chips are not vegetable servings, although most kids will count them as such. Increased nutritional awareness is warranted."

TIME FOR NUTRITION

Bourdon started the project in 1994. Since then, 12 to 18 schools have participated schools. He explained that Fit For Life originated from a combination of circumstances. His students had recently participated in the Global Grocery List project. They had just received a Dole 5-A-Day CD, and the school dumpster was relocated so that students could see it through the computer lab windows. Bourdon thought the time was right for a project that would put students in touch with the production-distribution-consumption-recycling cycle.

"The fourth graders did a lesson on local farming, and I got the idea to expand that to include the [concepts of] production, distribution to market, cost, consumption, and recycling of food wastes," Bourdon stated. The production and consumption study focused on the Dole 5-A-Day program, the cost study was provided by the Global Grocery List project, and the recycling portion of the investigation was evident in the heaping mound of garbage.

ENTER THE FRUITABLE!

As is often necessary with long-term projects, Bourdon has modified his original idea to accommodate his educational objectives. "The goals were to increase student awareness of production, distribution, costs, nutritional habits, and recycling efforts for a chosen food," he said of the original project. "Participating schools provided [data about] their local food cost, nutritional intake, and local recycling efforts.

"Last year we shifted our focus to strictly fruits and vegetables," Bourdon continued. "On average, students eat 2.5 servings of fruits and vegetables. Our unscientific data showed that our students and those participating in the project averaged less than two servings per day. We deleted the recycling part and changed the culminating activity, a multimedia report, to an art project. Students created a new food called a fruitable -- a fruit and vegetable combination that would satisfy the five-a-day requirement and still be appealing."

What started out as a simple e-mail project went global with a Web page that displayed the project data and the students' fruitables. Bourdon reported that the project motivates his students to learn about food, costs, nutrition, and recycling. Communicating with other students through e-mail makes learning more fun too!

Bourdon feels that the outcome of the project makes it well worth the time it requires. "Students learn to work in cooperative teams to do the project," he said. "They learn data analysis. They do the cost averaging, the week-long nutritional survey, and the recycling survey with the help of spreadsheets."

Although this year's project is about to end, teachers are welcome to download the materials and conduct their own projects.

MUNCH A LUNCH

While Bourdon has been teaching fourth graders about nutrition with the Internet, Susanne Ricchio, a special education teacher for the trainable mentally handicapped, has found a way to incorporate those same themes into her own classroom curriculum. Her junior high students from Enger School in Franklin Park, Illinois, used e-mail to collect recipes from students in other parts of the world. They are compiling a global cookbook.

"We strive for our students to be as independent as possible," Ricchio said. "They need to know nutritional guidelines for their future good health."

During a summer computer course, Ricchio developed a teaching project online. With the help of technology coordinator Debbie Motycka, she designed an activity that focused on a single daily meal. "I chose Munch a Lunch because we teach a functional, community-based curriculum," she explained. "My students plan, budget, shop for, cook, and clean up one lunch a week. This year I will also be teaching a nutrition unit. I thought it would be useful for my students to use technology with something they are already working on."

Even some regular education students joined in the project, and Ricchio's students found that their favorite healthful lunch, not surprisingly, was homemade pizza -- along with salad, milk, and fruit! The students especially enjoyed receiving recipes and menus from students in Singapore. Although some foods were very different, the students found some foods very familiar. The Singapore cuisine was also very nutritious.

Ricchio has been pleased with the additional benefits her students have realized through online learning. "Although it was not an original goal, my students have made contacts with people from different parts of the world," she said. "They are beginning to understand how global the Internet can be."

CULINARY TRAVELERS

"American students' eating patterns are based on over-booked schedules and advertisements for fast food and fatty snack foods," commented Kathy Lincoln, a middle school educator who is also trying to instill good nutritional habits in her students. "Students, especially at the middle and high school levels, are offered more poor nutritional choices than they are healthy ones. [Soft drinks] in lieu of milk. Candy and chips or Pop Tarts for breakfast are the norm. Habits that include [soft drinks], fats, and sugars, made now, will be hard to break."

Lincoln, who teaches life skills and foods to seventh and eighth graders at Chaboya Middle School in San Jose, California, designed A Culinary Trip Around the World. The online "trip" encouraged students to think about their nutritional patterns. They examined the foods people in other countries eat and what influenced their development.

"We had been studying nutrition and the Food Guide Pyramid by making posters showing the various food groups," Lincoln recalled. "Once I was able to put computers in my room, I realized there were at least four other food pyramids. I developed a lesson plan using the Internet to pre-test student knowledge of nutrition and then to research and analyze food pyramids and the nutritional values they represent. From there, we began to look at countries that might use those pyramids, and the culinary trip evolved.

"The trip involves students' researching how and why people in various countries eat the way they do and choosing the pyramid that best matches a country's eating patterns," she continued. "Then, when possible, the students contact a person in that country to see if the research matches the actual habits. As part of the trip, students visit two culinary academies and answer questions about to a career in that field."

"INTERNALIZING" NUTRITIONAL CONCEPTS

The "meat and potatoes" of the culinary trip is a research project. The students gather facts online and through the school library to write reports. They describe the cultural and geographical reasons for the eating habits of a people in a specific country. Reports include maps and recipes. On a map in the classroom, students keep track of their own countries of origin, the countries they research, and the countries of their newfound e-pals. As a culminating activity, the students give oral reports that incorporate any responses they have obtained from their e-pals through email.

"Students learn about more than the Food Guide Pyramid," Lincoln explained. "They gain a better understanding of what 'good nutrition' includes. For example, they compare a vegetarian pyramid to an American pyramid. In some cases, they gain a broader awareness of their world. When my students can't find students in third world countries to e-mail, they begin to realize that poverty and, therefore, hunger are real issues. Some semesters, my students have taken this one step further by donating to projects that benefit those countries."

Lincoln hopes that projects like hers will open students' eyes to what they put in their bodies. "I tell my students they are performing an experiment on themselves," she said. "No other generation has eaten so poorly, and ultimately the health of their bones and their hearts will pay for their choices. My generation was exposed to regular soft drinks, candy, and fatty snack foods starting in high school, and we are already seeing heart attacks occur at younger ages today. The average starting age for junk food consumption in our region is now four to five years old, ten years earlier than in my generation. Without a change in eating habits, I believe these students will have a higher incidence of osteoporosis and be at greater risk for heart attack at an even younger age. Nutrition education coupled with support by schools for better nutritional choices on campus is critical. Advertising has a huge influence; we have an uphill battle."

ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES

• Got Milk? Gives kids a fun way to learn about nutrition and the importance of dairy products as they grow. Features fun games and recipes that are easy for younger kids.
• Kids Food CyberClub Nutrition education site for kids which includes a free and downloadable Teacher's Guide with detailed lesson plans.
• Teenage Health Interactive Network (THINK) Designed to help teenagers and young adults learn more about nutrition, sports, addictions, fitness, and mental health.

Article by Cara Bafile
Education World®
Copyright © 2000 Education World

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