All about Food
The Food unit allows students to have fun learning about food sources, healthy eating, food safety, food groups, and overall nutrition. The unit’s integrated components help students understand important science, health, and environmental concepts related to food and food safety.
The Science of Food Teacher’s Guide provides inquiry-based lessons that entice students to discover concepts in science, mathematics, and health through hands-on activities.
The Mysterious Marching Vegetables. In the storybook, cousins Riff and Rosie learn that leaves are disappearing from some of the plants in Mr. Slaptail's garden. What is happening to the leaves? Rosie, Riff, and Mr. Slaptail brainstorm to solve the mystery and come up with a plan to discover who or what is behind the missing vegetables. What do the three friends discover?
Explorations is a colorful magazine full of articles and fun things for children and adults to try in class or at home, including hands-on activities, such as finding out how much fat is hidden in favorite foods.
The Math Link extends each unit by connecting the story and hands-on science activities to mathematics skill-building and critical thinking exercises.
The Reading Link provides language arts activities related to the story.
Complete Teacher's Guide
Teacher Guide
The Science of Food Teacher's Guide
Students investigate food sources, food webs and food chains, healthy eating and food groups, food safety and overall nutrition.
Slide Set
The Science of Food Classroom Slides
Slide set containing information and images from The Science of Food Teacher's Guide, for use in classrooms as needed.
Individual Lessons
What's That Food? (pre-assessment)
Students observe and describe samples of different food groups. This activity can be used as a pre-assessment of students' knowledge about food and nutritional needs.
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What Is Soil Made Of?
Students explore a sample of natural soil by identifying and separating its different components.
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Do Plants Need Light?
Students learn about plant growth and development by conducting an experiment that demonstrates the importance of light to plants.
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Plant Parts You Eat
Students observe and investigate different plant-originated foods, and learn about plant parts.
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Food Webs
Students construct possible food webs for six different ecosystems and learn about producers, consumers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers.
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Digestion
Students learn about digestion and proteins by observing the action of meat tenderizer on luncheon meat.
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Bio Build-up
Students make a simple model food chain and observe how toxins can accumulate in consumers at the top of the chain.
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They're Everywhere: Bacteria
Students grow bacteria collected from a variety of locations and compare the results.
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Using Food Labels
Students learn about food labels, healthful eating, and units of measurement commonly used on food labels.
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Safe Food Preparation
Students learn about safe food preparation by making fruit ice cream in class.
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Healthy Snacks (post-assessment)
Students rank food labels to indicate which foods are most and least healthful, and justify their rankings. Students also suggest ways to prevent snacks from spoiling.
View this lesson Download PDF Digital Slide SetUnit Components
Free, downloadable components from the Food unit for teaching your students about food, food groups and labels, and food safety.
Reading
The Mysterious Marching Vegetables
Rosie and Riff go undercover with Mr. Slaptail to discover why spinach is disappearing from Mr. Slaptail's garden. This storybook is an integrated component of the Food unit.
Reading
Explorations Magazine
Students match foods with the appropriate food groups, and they learn about food labels, plants and photosynthesis, food as fuel for the body, and more.
Worksheets
The Math Link
Math worksheets designed to meet common mathematics objectives. Activities are integrated with the storybook, The Mysterious Marching Vegetables.
K-2
Worksheets
The Reading Link
Reading and language arts worksheets with activities that are directly related to the unit storybook.
K-2
Worksheets
Make a Paper Ant Chain
Students create a paper ant chain from a template provided in the Food unit storybook, The Mysterious Marching Vegetables.
K-2
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BioEd Online is pleased to provide current biology and life sciences news stories from Nature News, the science syndication arm of the premier international science publisher, the Nature Publishing Group.
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Resources
The Air Unit
The Air unit lets students creatively explore air and the atmosphere, air quality and related issues such as allergens in the places we live, study and work.
Resources
The Global Change Unit
The Global Change unit gives students an opportunity to investigate a variety of physical and life science concepts related to energy, metabolism and the role of nutrients in the body.
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The Water Unit
The Water unit provides students with a fresh look at water and lets them discover why it is necessary to the well-being of all living creatures.
Funding
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
My Health My World: National Dissemination
Grant Number: 5R25ES009259
The Environment as a Context for Opportunities in Schools
Grant Number: 5R25ES010698
Science Education Partnership Award, NIH
Filling the Gaps: K-6 Science/Health Education
Grant Number: 5R25RR013454, R25ES06932