Sarah Baidani

LTEC 330
02/26/19
What’s in My Food?

Grade Level: 5-8th

Subject: Health

Common Core Standards:

Grade 5th
Strand 1: Nutrition and Physical Activity
Standard 2: Access Information
1.5 Interpret information provided on food labels
Grade 7-8th
Standard 3: Health Behaviors
1.15 Evaluate the availability of nutrient-dense foods in the school cafeteria and
throughout the school environment.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.1. B
Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and
demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.

Technology Standards:
6-8. CT.1. Use databases or spreadsheets to make predictions, develop strategies, and
evaluate decisions to assist with solving a problem.
6-8. C.T.3. Gather data, examine patterns, and apply information for decision making
using available digital resources.

Lesson Goals:
• Students will be able to use spreadsheets and the Internet to assist in examining
the quality of cafeteria food.
• Students will be able to develop a meal plan on how to improve the nutritional
value of food in schools.
• Students will be able to discuss the healthy quality of cafeteria foods.

Lesson Objectives:
• Students will be able to explain the dietary guidelines for pre-teens and
teenagers.
• Students will be able to recognize the nutrition content on a food label of items
available in school.
• Students will be able to use spreadsheets to find calculations and to create
graphs.

Required Materials:
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
 • Internet
• Several food items from the cafeteria such as lunch and breakfast choices,
items packed from lunches, and items from vending machines in the group (1
item from each group)
• Poster Board- one for each group

Instructions for each group:

• Students will work together in groups of four and each group will examine one of
the following topics: cafeteria breakfast and lunch choices, packed from home
lunches, and vending machine snacks.
• Students will count off by fours to be assigned to one of the topics.
• There will be two groups for each topic.
• When choosing the food items, students will communicate with other groups who
have same topic to make sure they are not using the same food choices.
• Each group will have the following job:
o Collector: This student will be in charge of obtaining and returning any
food items the group decides to use from the cafeteria, packed lunches,
or vending machine.
o Supervisor: This student will be responsible for making sure everyone in
the team is contributing, feeling that their ideas/voice is being heard, and
focused on their individual tasks. The student will keep track of time, keep
materials organized, and provide assistance where needed.
o Recorder: This student will be responsible for recording all of the
collected data and other information to be entered in the spreadsheet.
o Checker: This student will double check the information in the Excel
spreadsheet.

Project Instructions:
1. Students will be presented with the following example:
o Parents are worried their children aren’t getting the recommended
nutrition from the cafeteria food. Your job is to examine whether or not the
cafeteria food aligns with the nutritional guidelines for the average
teenager.
o After investigating your topic, how could we improve the nutritional
serving of food in our school?
2. Students will plan out a “meal” from their selected topic (cafeteria breakfast and
lunch, packed lunch, or vending machine). After approval from the teacher, the
collector will obtain the items they decide to use.
3. Using their selected food items, students will look on the nutritional label to find
the amount of sodium, added sugar, and fat in the item. They will enter this
information into the Excel spreadsheet. If foods do not have a nutrition label,
students may use https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/ to find the nutrition facts for that
item.
4. Then the students will research using the Internet, the recommended nutritional
guidelines for students their age. They will input the data they find for
 recommended daily amounts of fat, sodium and added sugar in the same Excel
spreadsheet.
5. Once they have obtained the necessary data, students will use a sum function to
add together the total sugar, total sodium, and total fat for the meal.
6. They will also find the percent of the daily recommended amount by dividing the
total amount they found by the recommended amount of each category.
7. Then the students will create graphs showing the relationships between the daily
recommended amount and the actual amount students consume during one
meal.
8. Each group will write a short summary in a Word document discussing whether
or not the food they examined is healthy or not. If not, they will indicate
recommendations for how to improve the nutritional quality of the food in their
school.
9. Each group will create a poster it must include the following:
o Graphs of the data collected
o The food choices they chose
o Whether or not the food choices are good options
o What improvements could be made

10. After that each student will present their findings to the class.
11. Submission: After the teams have presented their posters each group will email
their Excel spreadsheet and Word Document to the teacher for evaluation. An
example of the Grading Key:

Letter Grade Percentage

A 90-100%
B 80-89%

C 70-79%

D 60-69%
F 0-59%

*I have an example of what the Excel spreadsheet portion of this assignment could look
like with data.