1 YEAR 6 Food production and technology overtime Food production and technology overtime Introduction This unit introduces students to the influence of food production and technology on food availability food safety, food quality, nutritional content and consumer choice. Students compare the food available to their grandparents at their age with the food they have to eat in relation to these factors. Some key vocabulary students will be introduced to include: food availability, food safety, food quality, nutritional content, consumer choice, pasteurisation, pesticides, additives and shelf life. Key Messages • Technology can have both helpful and harmful effects on our healthy food supply. This unit will enable students to: • Explore and discuss systems for production of healthy and unhealthy foods or drinks. • Distinguish and discuss the influences of food production and technology on food availability, food safety, food qualities, nutritional content and consumer choice
Transcript
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Food production and technology overtime
Food production and technology overtime
Introduction This unit introduces students to the influence of food production and technology on food availability food safety, food quality, nutritional content and consumer choice. Students compare the food available to their grandparents at their age with the food they have to eat in relation to these factors. Some key vocabulary students will be introduced to include: food availability, food safety, food quality, nutritional content, consumer choice, pasteurisation, pesticides, additives and shelf life. Key Messages
• Technology can have both helpful and harmful effects on our healthy food supply.
This unit will enable students to:
• Explore and discuss systems for production of healthy and unhealthy foods or drinks. • Distinguish and discuss the influences of food production and technology on food
availability, food safety, food qualities, nutritional content and consumer choice
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Links to the Western Australian Curriculum Main learning area: DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES*
WA curriculum strands
WA curriculum content descriptions
Knowledge and Understanding
Past performance, and current and future needs are considered when designing sustainable food and fibre systems for products. Principles of food preparation for healthy eating. Characteristics, properties and safe practice of a range of materials, systems, tools and equipment; and evaluate the suitability for their use.
*Based on Western Australian Curriculum Design and Technologies.
Links to the Australian Curriculum Main learning area: DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES*
Australian curriculum strands
Australian curriculum content descriptions
Design and Technologies Knowledge and Understanding
Investigate how and why food and fibre are produced in managed environments. (ACTDEK021) Investigate the role of food preparation in maintaining good health and the importance of food safety and hygiene. (ACTDEK022) Investigate characteristics and properties of a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment and evaluate the impact of their use. (ACTDEK023)
*Based on Australian Curriculum Design and Technologies.
General capabilities The Australian Curriculum describes seven general capabilities which extend across each learning area. Their relevance to learning tasks in this unit is indicated below:
Learning Task Literacy Numeracy ICT capability
Critical and creative thinking
Ethical understanding
Personal and social capability
Intercultural understanding
Food without technology
Food sources fifty years ago
Thought shapes
Additional learning areas
Australian curriculum
strands
Australian curriculum sub strands
Australian curriculum content description code
Science
Science understanding Science inquiry skills
Use and influence of science Planning and conducting Processing and analysing data and information
Unit Overview Some learning tasks require food preparation and cooking. Before commencing any of these learning tasks:
• Check students do not have allergies or sensitivities to foods used. • Ensure included food and drinks are culturally acceptable. • Refer to food and drinks from other cultures in relevant class discussions. • Discuss food hygiene and safety practices, for example, always wash your hands
before touching food and do not use sharp knives without adult supervision.
Most learning tasks require prior preparation; therefore refer to the Resources needed list below before commencing each learning task.
Learning Task Suggested time allocation
Resources needed
Introducing Key Messages
1. Food without technology 30 minutes • Internet access
Developing Key Messages
2. Food sources fifty years ago
60 minutes • Food sources fifty years ago Activity sheet – 1 per student
• Computer access • Scissors, pens and pencils
Reflecting Key Messages
3. Thought shapes 25 minutes • Student journals or paper
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Teacher Information
Learning Task Useful information and resources to deliver this Learning Task
1. Food without technology
• This learning task introduces students to the role technology plays in the food production and preservation process.
• Specifically, this learning task looks at how technology has influenced food availability food safety, food quality, nutritional content and consumer choice.
2. Food sources fifty years ago
• No additional information required.
3. Thought shapes • No additional information required.
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Introducing Key Messages Learning Task One: Food without technology
1. Explain without advances in technology and food production:
o There would be no way to keep food fresh. o Nutrition would be a guessing game. o Food would look and taste bad. o Food would cost a lot more. o Dinner would take all day to prepare. o Food would be unsafe to eat. o There wouldn't be enough food for everyone.
2. Show World Without Food Science http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuaXO2A3Tk 3. Ask students to share one thing they learnt from the video with their partner. 4. Explain since the Industrial Revolution two hundred years ago, the food processing
industry has invented many technologies that have vastly changed the foods of our forefathers.
5. Discuss the following in this context: Food availability - For example with advances in packaging, preserving and transport systems plus strict import regulations mean that we can now import food from almost anywhere in the world to Australia.
Ask: o Can you think of some foods that you eat that your grandparents may not have had
available to them at your age if they lived in Australia? o Can you think of any traditional foods from other countries that you or your family eat
regularly? o In what way do you think the food that your grandparents ate at your age may have
been healthier than the food you eat today?
Food safety - Whereas people might have died from food poisoning on a regular basis a century ago, techniques such as drying, canning, pasteurisation, preservation, pressing and refrigeration (including chilling and freezing), are all examples of food processing techniques that help keep food edible and safe even after being harvested for extended periods of time.
o What foods do you think would need to be pasteurised? o What types of foods do we normally find in the fridge or freezer section of the
supermarket? Why? o Name some foods that are dried to preserve their safe shelf life? o Name some foods that are canned to preserve their safe shelf life? o Flour and cocoa and examples of foods that have been pressed or milled. Can you
think of any others? o In what way do you think the food that your grandparents ate at your age may have
been not as safe as the food you eat today?
Food qualities – Often heating techniques used to preserve foods can reduce the look, taste and nutrition of the food. Additives are substances added to foods, which are not normally consumed by themselves. They give foods desirable characteristics such as colour, flavour, texture, better nutrient composition and resistance to spoilage. Pesticides are chemicals used to control insects, disease, weeds, fungi, and other pests on crops and around animals to improve their quality. They can be hazardous if mishandled.
Ask:
o These additives must be listed on the food labels on the side of packets and cans. Why do you think this has been made a legal requirement in Australia?
o Can you think of some processed foods that you really enjoy eating because of their flavour?
o These foods might be high in flavour but what else might they be high in that is not healthy for you if eaten too often?
o Why should we always wash fruit and vegetables before we eat them?
Nutritional content - Some processed products such as frozen vegetables, are often a cheaper and more nutritious alternative to fresh vegetables. Stress that whole, fresh foods are generally nutritionally superior. Nutrients such as thiamine and folate are added to some cereals and breads to help avoid diseases such as beri-beri and rickets.
Ask:
o Do you think advances in technology always improve the food we eat? o Can you think of some examples of modern day processed foods that are not healthy
for us if eaten too often? Why? o Where can you find information about the nutritional content of the food you eat on
processed foods? o Why are nutritional labels on food important to make healthy food and drink choices?
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Consumer choice – We now have much more choice of foods to buy than our forefathers. For example, fruit and vegetables that are not in season; heat and serve meals; meal replacements such as breakfast bars; a wider range of snack foods; low kilojoule meals and electrolyte replacement drinks.
6. Ask students to find the meaning of the following words and place the meaning in a story
about how technology has changed the food we eat: o Wasabi o Gazpacho o Pasteurisation o Pesticides o Additives o MSG o Shelf life o Nutritional labels o Low-kilojoule meals
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Developing Key Messages Learning Task Two: Food sources fifty years ago
1. Have students form groups of five and explain that they need to develop a questionnaire to use with their grandparents or an older friend to find out more information about how technology has changed and influenced the nature of our food sources.
2. Students will need to find out information under the following categories: o How did the foods that were available differ from today? o How did the ways food was kept safe differ from today? o What processes were used to improve the quality of the food? o Was their diet more or less nutritious than today? o How did the types of meals and snacks differ from what is available today?
3. Using the Food sources fifty years ago Activity sheet as a guide, each group are to decide
on the best questions for each category. 4. Discuss the importance of open rather than closed questions. 5. Students assign a number between 1 and 5 to each member of each group. 6. They then form new groups where the all of the number 1s form one new group, all the
number 2s form another and so on. 7. In their new groups, students share the questions that their previous group developed for
their corresponding category (e.g. number 1 group will be sharing what foods were available).
8. Each group must now choose the four best questions for their corresponding category. 9. Have a representative from each group type the questions on a master questionnaire and
print off enough copies of the final questionnaire for each student. 10. Give students several weeks to complete the interview. 11. Explain those with no access to grandparents or older friends that they can ask their family
for assistance to complete the questionnaire. 12. Have students form groups of five again and ensure that each student has a copy of a
completed questionnaire. 13. Ask students to cut up the questionnaires into the different categories. 14. Each student in the group is then responsible for collating the findings of one category. 15. They must summarise the key findings and report back to their group. 16. Hear the key findings from a range of groups or ask groups to share their findings with
another group. 17. Students write their own summary report on “The helpful and unhelpful effects of
technology on the food we eat”.
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Reflecting on Key Messages Learning Task Three: Thought shapes
1. After being involved in the above learning tasks, ask students to draw the following shapes on four separate pages of their journal.
2. Students are to consider, then answer the following questions by placing their reflections inside the thought shapes.
▲ The most important thing I have learnt from doing these learning tasks.
■ What I enjoyed most about these learning tasks.
♥ How I might share the information I have learnt with my family.
● The thoughts still going around in my head after these learning tasks.
3. Provide opportunities for students to share their thoughts with others. 4. This can be done using strategies such as think-pair-share or circle talk.
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Additional activities Classroom
o Have students bring in foods and drinks relevant to their family culture. Discuss the foods and identify the technology processes involved to produce the food or drink.
o Interview an employee from the deli or meat section of the local supermarket to find out the about safety practices they must adhere to.
Whole school o Start a school garden and grow fruit and vegetables that can be used in foods
served at the school canteen. o Have students do an audit of the food and drink available at the canteen to
determine: o Whether foods from other cultures are represented? o What safety practices are adhered to? o What additives are in processed foods? o Whether foods are available that were not on the menu ten years ago?
