So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From?

39 Pages·2014·2.82 MB·English

Year 6
TEACHER GUIDE
Food in the Australian Curriculum: an educational unit for the Year 6 curriculum
So You Think You Know Where
Your Food Comes From?
This resource was produced by AgriFood Skills Australia with funding from the Australian Government
through the Department of Agriculture.

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First published: May 2014
Developed by: SAVA ideas2outcomes – Sheridan van Asch
Designed by: Tim Welch
Advice provided by: Mrs Laurie Steel, Primary School Teacher, Childers Primary School, Queensland
James Elkerton – Year 6 Student, Tasmania
© Commonwealth of Australia 2014
AgriFood Skills Australia
General inquiries: Location: Postal address:
Phone: [phone] Level 3, 10-12 Brisbane Avenue PO Box 5450
Fax: [phone] Barton Kingston
Email: [email protected] ACT 2600 ACT 2604
Web: www.agrifoodskills.net.au
Table of contents
Food in the Australian Curriculum Programme – Introduction ii
So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From – Overview iii
Learning Topic 1 – So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat 1
Description 2
Learning outcomes 2
Activity 1: So what do you eat? 3
Setting the scene 3
Student activity – Work task 1: What are the most common foods eaten
in your class? 4
Activity 2: So where does the food you eat come from? 7
Setting the scene 7
Student activity – Work task 1: Create glossary 8
Student activity – Work task 2: Explain key agricultural words/phrases 8
Student activity – Work task 3: So what is free-range and what is
organic farming? 9
Resources 10
Activity 3: So what is needed to make food grow? 11
Setting the scene 11
Student activity – Work task 1: Let’s summarise what you have learnt 12
Student activity – Work task 2: Loaves of bread and sustainability 12
Resources 12
Activity 4: Australian cuisine – the food you eat – a result of a diverse
and connected world 13
Setting the scene 14
Student activity – Work task 1: Australian food before European
settlement – did it exist? 14
Student activity – Work task 2: The introduction of foods from other places 15
Student activity – Work task 3: Major project 16
Resources 17
Learning Topic 2 – So How Is The Food You Eat Produced? 19
Description 20
Learning outcomes 20
Activity 1: How and by who is some of the food you eat produced? 21
Student activity – Work task 1: Farming animals to produce the food you eat 21
Student activity – Work task 2: Making butter – is the change irreversible
or reversible? 22
Resources 23
Activity 2: So how about growing your own garden 24
Student activity – Work task 1: Growing a garden 25
Student activity – Work task 2: Garden in a box 25
Student activity – Work task 3: Growing a garden and selling the produce 25
Student activity – Work task 4: The kitchen garden 27
Appendix 1: Additional teacher support resources 28
Appendix 2: Links to the Australian Curriculum 28
List of websites 31
Food in the Australian Curriculum Programme
Introduction
Food in the Australian Curriculum is an initiative of the Australian Government funded by the
Department of Agriculture. It aims to raise awareness and enhance the teaching and learning of the
agribusiness industry in Australian schools.
The programme supports teachers in the implementation of the English, Maths, Science, History,
Geography and Technologies curricula.
Implemented by AgriFood Skills Australia, the programme provides free:
• in-school presentations for students in years 4-10 on the agrifood industry that are aligned to the
curricula;
• teacher professional development workshops on the industry, curricula and classroom resources;
and
• teaching materials to support the implementation of the English, Maths, History, Science,
Geography and Technologies curricula.
What is included in the resource
This Year 6 Unit has been developed as one of the teaching materials to support this programme.
The “kit” comprises:
Teacher Guide Student Activities and Tasks
The Teacher Guide The Student Activities and Tasks is
offers tips and in powerpoint format to allow for
sample activities, direct use with smartboards and
tasks, resources the functionality to enable you to
and assessment adapt the activities to meet the
options. needs of your students. The text
that are in grey directly links to
the PowerPoint.
Navigation
The icons below are used to help identify activities and navigate the document.
Learning PowerPoint Internet movie
learn outcomes work task resource link movie resource link
A+
PowerPoint Assessment Website
discuss resource link assess resource link web resource link
Note about the cover: This is a photo of a young girl on her farm in NSW. They grow corn, cotton and
sunflowers and raise beef cattle.
ii So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From?
Overview
This Unit, So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From is divided into two standalone key
learning topics: So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat and So How Is The Food You Eat Produced.
Together they provide students with the skills to answer the key inquiry question: So you think
you know where your food comes from?, during the course of which students will develop an
understanding of both where their food comes from and the processes involved to get it from the
paddock/garden to the plate.
Students will also gain an appreciation of the importance of food in their daily lives as well as
the impact food has had on shaping our history and culture, and the way it reflects our diverse
and connected world.1 At the same time they will gain an appreciation of the role farmers play in
sustaining our way of life by ensuring that we have food on our tables, as well as gaining a fresh
perspective on our agricultural sector and the important role it plays in our nation.
The purpose of this Unit is to provide you with a guide for integrating agricultural concepts and
ideas in the delivery of the Australian Curriculum in a practical way, in this case for Year 6. The
suggested activities and tasks contained within this Unit aim to build a deep understanding of where
our food comes from, as well as building skills in the areas of English, Science, Mathematics, History
and Geography.
Links to the Australian Curriculum
This Unit supports a cross-curricula approach to the delivery of the Year 6 Australian Curriculum
within an agricultural context. It focuses on the key learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science,
History and Geography. It does not cover all aspects of the content descriptors for the Year 6
curriculum.
The sample activities and tasks have been mapped to the relevant Year 6 Content Descriptor -
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Year6 - for each of the key learning areas. Further details of
the relevant content descriptors can be found in the Appendix.
This Unit also aims to assist teachers in meeting those achievement standards of key learning areas
that can most effectively be supported by the activities and resources focussed on agriculture.
The relevant achievement standards are linked to each learning area and can also be found in the
Appendix.
Timeframe
The timeframe for delivering this Unit will depend on whether you use all or only part of the activities
and tasks.
Teaching and Learning Activities
The Unit is divided into two standalone key learning topics, namely:
1. So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat; and
2. So How Is The Food You Eat Produced?
Each Learning Topic includes:
• description (purpose)
• learning outcomes
• relevant Australian Curriculum achievement standards
• Activities with:
– relevant Australian Curriculum Descriptors
– specific learning outcome/s
– suggested work tasks
– assessment options
– suggested teacher support resources
1 Australian curriculum: Year 6 geography level description.
So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From? iii
Key Inquiry Questions
The key inquiry questions for Year 6 are:
1. How important is the physical environment to ensuring the growth and production of food in
Australia? (Science)
2. How has food contributed to Australia’s global connections between people and places?
(Geography)
3. What contribution does agriculture (food) make to understanding how Australian society changed,
particularly throughout the twentieth century? (History)
Learning Outcomes
Following this Unit, students should be able to:
• describe the role agriculture plays in where our food comes from and how it gets to our plate;
• explain the different farming practices and processes involved in producing familiar food products;
• demonstrate an understanding of and explain reasons for the diversity of food that has become part
of Australia’s cuisine;
• assess the importance agriculture has played in shaping Australia’s history; and
• explain the importance of the physical environment in food production.
Key Supporting Teacher-Specific Resources
In preparation for delivering this Unit and the associated activities it is recommended that you
review the following resources, which have been chosen to provide you with an understanding of the
importance of agriculture in Australia and how key concepts can be delivered in a classroom setting:
1. Australian Agriculture – The Greatest Story Never Told – You Tube Video (5:08)
2. Bill Bailey’s – F.A.C.E (1:49)
3. Splash – ABC – From paddock to plate
(this resource supports many of the activities contained within this Unit)
Many of the resources contained within this work unit are available on the Scootle website. To make
access easier, teachers and students should be logged onto Scootle before accessing resources.
Resources identified by a TLF-ID, can be accessed on the Scootle search engine via the reference number.
iv So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From?
Year 6
TEACHER GUIDE
So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From?
Learning topic 1:
So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat
LT1 > Overview So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat
Learning topic 1:
So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat
Description
This is an introductory learning topic where students explore the food they currently eat: whether it is
fresh or processed, and its place in our culture.
Students will interact with others through class discussions and presentations, represent data in
different formats, use a range of communication techniques, express and develop ideas, and create
texts including note taking and persuasive texts, by undertaking guided inquiry.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this learning topic students should be able to:
1. explain key agricultural concepts such as fresh, processed, free-range, organic, sustainable, etc.
2. understand the importance of physical conditions in creating an environment conducive to
growing food.
3. write a persuasive text and prepare a report and a presentation about the food they eat.
4. explain how Australian cuisine has contributed to an understanding of the diverse and
connected world we live in.
Relevant parts of the achievement standards:
Students will be able to:
English:
• compare and analyse information from different texts, including digital texts. They will be able to
listen to discussions, clarify content and challenge others’ ideas in relation to ‘Where your food
comes from’.
• create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. Make
presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions using a variety of strategies
for effect.
• create informative texts encompassing reports, reviews, explanations and discussions.
Mathematics:
• interpret and compare a variety of data displays and evaluate secondary data displayed in the
media.
Science:
• describe and predict the effect of environmental changes on individual living things.
• explain how scientific knowledge is used in decision making and identify contributions to the
development of science by people from a range of cultures.
History:
• sequence events and people (their lifetime) in chronological order and represent time by creating
timelines.
• identify a range of sources and locate and compare information to answer inquiries.
Geography:
• explain the characteristics of diverse places in different locations at different scales from local to
global.
• describe the interconnection between people and places.
• develop geographical questions to frame an inquiry.
• locate information from a range of sources to answer inquiry questions, and represent data and
location of places and their characteristics in different graphic forms, e.g. large-scale and small-
scale maps.
2 So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From?
So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat >
So What Do You Eat? LT1 > Activity 1 > Overview
Activity 1: So What Do You Eat?
Content Descriptor:
Maths Statistics and probability: describe probabilities using fractions, decimals ACMSP144
and percentages.
English Identify and explain how analytical images like figures, tables, diagrams, ACELA1524
maps and graphs contribute to our understanding of verbal information in
factual and persuasive texts.
Learning Outcome
Understand percentages and how to create graphs, and interpret a range of data displays to explain
what are the most common foods that are consumed in their class.
learn
Description
This activity aims to engage students by discussing what they already know about the food they eat,
as well as introducing them to key concepts such as growing food, fresh vs processed foods, types of
farming and production. Students are also introduced to the mathematical concept of percentages
and how this can be applied to determining the percentage of the food they eat in terms of what is
fresh or processed.
1. Setting the scene
Begin by getting students to think about the food they eat. This could be done by asking initial focus
discuss
questions, such as:
a). What are your favourite foods?
– write down your favourite foods
– which ones do you think are fresh and which are processed?
– what ingredients do you think have been used to create the foods you have chosen; and
– where do you think the ingredients have come from?, e.g. sugar comes from sugarcane.
You will need to create a sense of difference between those foods that are fresh and those that are
processed. Students should look up the following words:
– Fresh
– Processed
– Ingredients
You could provide them with a copy of the table What are Your Favourite Foods which can be found at
the end of this activity. They can also use this table for Work task 1.
b). Bring in a range of food types such as potatoes, bread, cauliflower, basil, spaghetti, peanuts,
avocados, apples, oranges, milk, bacon, cheese, butter, tuna, frozen chips, sauce and eggs, and
also a few tricky items like broccoli (which is a flower).
To guide the discussion ask your students the following:
The food in the shopping bag:
– Do you think it is fresh or processed?
– Is it grown in the ground or above the ground? Or not in the ground at all? If not, where might
it come from?
OR
c). Have students look at what they have in their lunch boxes and discuss with them:
Where do you think the food in your lunch box comes from?
– Is the food from a plant or an animal?
– Is it fresh or processed?
– How do you think it gets to your lunch box? Make a list of the steps.
So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From? 3
So Let’s Talk About The Food You Eat >
LT1 > Activity 1 > Work task 1 So What Do You Eat?
2. Investigation and analysis
Work task 1: What are the most common foods eaten in your class?
work
task Students should work in pairs or groups (no more than four in a group2) to identify the most common
foods eaten in their group and whether most food eaten is fresh or processed. Working together they
should establish the percentage of fresh and processed food eaten by their group, and then explain
the findings/results of their group by using graphs.
Before undertaking this task you may need to either introduce or revise the concept of percentages
with students.
Teacher support resource:
Educational Services Australia: Supporting Australian mathematics project - Year 6 percentages.
web [opens web site]
Work task 1: What are the most common foods eaten in your class?
You are to:
• Select a spokesperson for your group.
• Make a list of all the foods that are the most common in your group.
• Why do you think they are the most common foods?
• Make a list of those that are fresh and those that are processed.
• Where do you think most of the food that you eat comes from? The supermarket? Is it grown in
Australia? If not, where is it grown?
• Collate the group’s findings in a table (your teacher will provide the sample table What are your
favourite foods?.
• Construct a column graph and/or pie chart to display your findings, demonstrating the range of
foods from the most common to the least common.
• What percentage of the food eaten by your group is fresh and what percentage processed?
• Write a short piece explaining your group’s graphs. Your spokesperson will share this with the
class.
Students should use computers to create the relevant graphs and columns.
Teacher support resources:
Constructing graphs [opens website]
web
SCOOTLE:
Maths Years 5 and 6: chance and data: data [opens Scootle]
web
2 Four is considered to be the optimum number for conducting effective group work
4 So You Think You Know Where Your Food Comes From?