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Combatting Food Waste Lesson

Provided by: Great Lakes Now

Lesson Plans Grades 6-8

Synopsis

This multi-week lesson includes several activities for students to explore food waste, its impacts, and possible solutions.
Students will watch a video and read an article about efforts in Cleveland to reduce food waste, research local efforts to combat food waste, bake with minimal ingredients, and compare food storage methods.

Subjects: Biology

Authors: Great Lakes Now, Detroit PBS

Region: Ohio, MI-Upper Peninsula

Languages: English

Positives

The 4 Notes Summary Protocol is a handy procedure that teachers can use for other note-taking activities outside of this lesson.
Students will love the hands-on baking activity to demonstrate limiting reactants.

Prerequisites

The portion of the video about food waste begins at 9:30.
Teachers should refer to the Introduction section for a list of topics students should be familiar with.
Some students may benefit from having a formal definition of the terms composting and circular economy.
If students are interviewing and contacting local business owners, teachers may want to call ahead of time.
Teachers should know of any food allergies in the class and plan accordingly for the baking activity.

Differentiation & Implementation

Depending on class length, teachers may want to assign the article as homework and begin the class the following day with discussion and activities.
Teachers can have information for each of the food-related businesses in their city available for students to look at when they start their research project.
To help students prepare to interview local business owners, teachers can hold practice interviews and help students generate a list of relevant interview questions.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

Standards

Resource Type and Format

All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.