Food and Fibre Investigations

There are so many resources available that can aid both educators and students on Food Fibre Production! How can you condense down to just one or two resources for students? Why not just use the Cool Food Planet resource.  It is a one-stop-shop for all your food and fibre needs. Not only does it provide students with interactive learning based games, but it provides a means of extension for those students that are developing their knowledge and want to move on to the next level!

Subject

Design and Technology

Year Level

Foundation to Year 6

Strand

Knowledge and Understanding

Sub Strand

Foundation to year 2 –

Explore how plants and animals are grown for food, clothing and shelter and how food is selected and prepared for healthy eating

Year 3 and 4 –

Investigate food and fibre production and food technologies used in modern and traditional societies

Resource Link

Home

Price

Free resource for students and teachers

 

General Capabilities

Cool Food Planet encompasses the general capabilities of:

  1. Numeracy
  2. Intercultural understanding
  3. Critical and creative thinking

 

Snapshot of Cool Food Planet

As discussed in the video below, children are exposed to food that is just present to them at meal times or presented to them in forms of packaging.  Cool Food Planet is a resource that enables teachers to teach to students the benefits of good nutrition and poses as an introduction to food production.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs9H-wL0P3E

 

 

Junior Landcare! Creating a Food Garden…

Subject: Design and Technologies

Year level: Grade 3+

Strand: Knowledge and Understanding, Process and Production Skills

Substrand: Food and Fibre Production

Content Descriptor Example: Types of food and fibre produced in different environments, cultures or time periods, including the equipment used to produce or prepare them (ACTDEK012). Past performance, and current and future needs are considered when designing sustainable food and fibre systems for products (ACTDEK021).

Cross-Curriculum Priorities:

  • Sustainability

General Capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Ethical Understanding

Links to other learning areas

  • Health and Physical Education
  • Science
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Art

Click the picture above to open the ‘creating a food garden’ resource

Link to Junior Landcare website: https://landcareaustralia.org.au/junior-landcare/

First Impressions

The Junior Landcare website provides teachers, students and parents with information about how to improve and look after the current and future environment. It is easy to read and navigate through the website. There are a heap of resources and links providing you with more ideas and inspiration. This resource is perfect for integrating Sustainability into the classroom and developing students ethical understanding. Landcare Australia also have a Youtube channel where there are a number of videos about Australia and the environment we live in. Perfect to guide student discussion developing knowledge and understanding.

What is Junior Landcare? 

Junior Landcare was created by Landcare Australia in 1998. This was created to encourage young people to play an active role in conserving current land to ensure a safe future environment. Junior Landcare encourages young people to be accountable for their actions and take responsibility of their future environment. Junior Landcare provide a range of days where students can volunteer and assist in creating a better future. The best thing about Junior Landcare, is that it links straight in with the curriculum. So you know that the students will benefit academically from the experience. The L.I.F.E website also provides event days where students can volunteer or you could create your own event to get people together. Discover more in the video below.

How you could use Junior Landcare in the Classroom

There are multiple resources on Junior Landcare that would be useful in the classroom. An activity that would provide multiple linked activities as well as benefit the actual school is to create a food garden. Creating a food garden involves multiple steps that can incorporate many other learning areas. Students would begin with investigating and defining when discussing potential ideas to create a food garden. Write all of their ideas down and discuss why some things might work better than others. Involve Mathematics by designing a to scale 2D drawing of a food garden including labels and technical terms. Now its time to produce and implement the design to create the food garden with the safe use of tools and equipment. Incorporate Science where students evaluate the growth of the food garden and ask questions like, ‘what could be done to improve the growth’. This will provide students with a collaborative and hands on experience. After the garden is created you can involve Art by drawing a birds eye view of the garden or involve English by writing a procedural text on how to create a food garden. There are so many possibilities with creating a food garden.

TIPS

Gather extra helping hands! Engage with parents and the school ground keeper to see if they can help create the masterpiece.

Create a rotating roster for students to water and look after the garden. Otherwise you will spend half the afternoon everyday doing it yourself.

Something extra…

Download and have a read of the Teacher’s Resource Guide.

Check out this classroom blog where they have created their own food garden for inspiration and ideas.

Also have a look at Landcare Australia’s Youtube channel.

Other Resources from Junior Landcare

Building a Worm Farm

Creating a Frog Pond

Enhancing and Restoring Habitats

Growing Healthy Plants using Natural Pesticides

 

By Jessica Read

 

References

Junior Landcare. [2015]. Retrieved from https://landcareaustralia.org.au/junior-landcare/

Landcare Australia. (2015, March 26). Junior landcare hits our tv screens [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEwFAwmdAoQ

Landcare Australia. (2014, December 3). Landcare is for everyone [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoVv_RMrDzk&t=34s

Landcare Australia. (2016, November 28). Love our Aussie land [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6sGGdIQ2SU&t=1s

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. [2014]. Design and Technologies. WA: Government of Western Australia. Retrieved from http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-browser/technologies/design-and-technologies2

Paddock to Plate: Get your hands on my food.

Subject: Design and Technologies

Year Level:3-4

Strand:Design and Technologies – Knowledge and understanding

Sub strand:Food and fibre production

Yesr 3 – Types of food and fibre produced in different environments, cultures or time periods, including the equipment used to produce or prepare them

Year 4 – Types of technologies used in food and fibre production or processing, including how they are used to help meet consumer needs

Link to the resource

http://www.primezone.edu.au/item_details.php?item_id=413&item_type=resource&content_list_id=2

Cross curriculum priorities and general capabilities

Critical and creative thinking (CCT),Personal and social capability (PSC),Information and Communication Technology (ICT),Literacy (LIT), Sustainability

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Personal and social capability
  • Ethical understanding
  • Intercultural understanding.

Links to other learning areas

English,

Science – Science understandings – Chemical Science – A change of state between solid and liquid can be caused by adding or removing heat (ACSSU046)

Science – Science as a Human Endeavour – Nature and development of science – Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE050)

A classroom activity using this resource

This is a well structured resource that allows the teacher to teach a lesson exploring the process of food from the paddock to the plate. It involved the students working through learning stations where they explore the ways in which food changes from the raw state to make it suitable for consumption. The stations offer different processes such as chemical changes in food or the processing of a food item. The stations are inquiry based and hands on allowing for addressing student misconceptions and creating thought and discussion to promote ideas.

How to use this resource

This useful learning resource includes the lesson plan, power-point and all the printable classroom support resources to match. It is very easy to follow and provides opportunities for extension activities and further research. It is clearly laid out with suggested assessment and student reflection sheets for reporting the groups findings back to the class. This lesson links well with the Science curriculum when investigating states of matter and the changes that occur.

 

AGRIFOOD Skills Australia- Changes: Fresh and Processed Foods

Post Author: Demi Taylor

Subject: Design and Technologies

Year Level: 3-4

Sub-strand: Knowledge and Understandings and Processes and Production Skills

Content Descriptors:

  • (ACTDEK012)- Investigate food and fibre production and food technologies used in modern and traditional societies.
  • (ACTDEP018)- Plan a sequence of production steps when making designed solutions individually and collaboratively.

Link to Resource: https://agrifoodskills.site-ym.com/?Educationresources#Technology%20and%20Design

Cross-Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability

Links to other Learning Areas: Science, Mathematics, Literacy, History, Geography

Overview: The AGRIFOOD website offers a number of resources available to teachers. The resources range from PowerPoint presentations to PDF Teaching Booklets with detailed lesson plans. In regards to the Year 3 to 4 band level, the website illustrates three learning resources, the first one being Design and Technologies: Paddock to Plate.

This resource focuses on the investigation of food production and food technologies. With a major link to sustainability, the program uses this concepts to aim and develop informed and responsible citizens who strive to understand sustainable living. This is developed overtime through discussions, debates and evaluating physical and documented evidence. It is an effective resource that addresses the Australian Curriculum sustainability cross-curriculum priority.

The teacher’s guide links the learning concept to all aspects of the Australian Curriculum and illustrates the learning outcomes and aims of the detailed program. The resource gives a number of sequential learning activities for teachers to incorporate into their programs and planning. This is offered as before, during and after activities/discussions and effective teaching practices.

Along with Australian Technologies Curriculum links, this resource provides teachers with an overview of assessment strategies and extension activities. I would recommend this resource to beginning teachers and teachers who are learning how to teach with regards to the new Technologies Curriculum. It provides teachers with guided learning experiences that meet a majority of the curriculum needs.

This resource is simple to use and easy to navigate around. It opens a world of teaching strategies and ideas that support educators when understanding the design technologies curriculum and its links to healthy living/lifestyles and design solutions, provides a gateway to developing sustainable living practices.

 

Picture 1

 

References:

ACARA. (2015). Australian Curriculum: Technologies [electronic] Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

Resources for school teachers. (2015). Retrieved from the AGRIFood skills Australia Website: https://agrifoodskills.site-ym.com/