Food Chemistry

Grant

Project Summary:

            During the chemistry course, the students will be learning in a different environment than what the students normally encounter.  This class will focus on project based instruction and will use this technique to help with the quality of learning.  Project Based Instruction needs to be use in more classrooms around the country.  This type of instruction will take students to a new level of thinking and thus students will perform better on tests as well as have the knowledge at a higher level.  Students will be taken through a unit that will consist of experiments, minimal lectures, videos, and a project in order to help the student understand the information efficiently and effectively.  The project will mainly focus on the chemicals in the body that take part in digestion, along with the chemicals in different types of foods.  Students will enter the world of food and the digestive system.  The students will be expected at the end of the unit to take all of the information provided to them and what the student has researched and come up with a project that consists of the digestive system and the chemicals that encompass the digestive system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Description:

            You are what you eat? A saying that we hear almost daily in a country that has such an overeating, unhealthy eating style and a obesity problem.  This project will encompass daily eating issues along with teaching the student about different aspects of the digestive system, the chemicals that help the digestive system work and the organs that help with the digestion of food and drinks.  There are three different parts to the unit:  lecturing stage, experimental stage, and the project stage.  During the first week and a half of the unit, the main idea of the lecturing stage is to get the students information and allow them to think about what is happening.  This is the period where the teacher needs to get the information into the students’ heads.  The first week will consist of taking a look at the digestive system as a whole.  Students will be given different web addresses and the students will ”play” and learn through interactive websites.  This will happen over a period of two class periods.  Along with the interactive websites, students will have to turn in a summary of what they learn on that particular day.  The second and third week of the unit will be mostly experiments and the students exploring on their own.  The first day of each week, the teacher will give a “mini” lecture. This will mostly consist of what is going on for the week and information that the students will need to complete the experiments.  The main goal of these two weeks is to get the students minds working and let them come to the conclusions on their own.  The teacher will be there to ask stimulating questions, but will not be there to guide the students.  The third part of the unit is the unit project.  This section of the unit will consist of the students doing a project that relates to the chemicals in the digestive system.  Each group will consist of 2 or 3 students.  The teacher’s main goal of this section of the unit is to have the students do research on their own and to figure out what they would like to research.  The teacher will then be there to help if the students have questions on which way to go with the project.  The project will consist of a research paper, a presentation and an experiment that they will demonstrate to the other students in the classroom.  The students will not be given a test during this unit; their main grade will be from the labs and the project.  

Rationale:

            Schools in Texas have recently band snacks to be sold in the cafeterias or in the snack machines.  This restriction comes at a time of a heated topic of obesity in children.   This is a concern for parents as well as teachers.  The teenage years are a prime time in a person’s life where they develop eating habits.  The United States is the fattest country in the world.  As a country, we need and have begun to take steps to educate about obesity and healthy food habits.  Along with obesity, bad eating habits can lead to diabetes, significant weight gain, depression, and many other diseases.  Students will be able to not only get an educational value to our project, but also a fundamental learning tool that will help them for the rest of their lives.   

 

Potential Impact:

            As a main concern in this country, we as teachers need to take part in the awareness of obesity and bad eating habits.  Through out this project, our main impact will be the students in our classrooms.  By studying the chemicals in the body along with the digestive system, the students will be able to distinguish good foods from bad foods and will be able to understand how different types of foods are broken down in the body.  This in turn, will make the students more aware of what they are eating and will hopefully then affect the people that surround them.  In addition, as a teacher, I will be spreading this unit to other teachers at my school and then to other teachers in the district, state, and maybe even one day to teachers around the country. 

 

Evaluation Plan:

            During the course of the unit, there will be different ways of assessing the students.  The first week and a half of the unit will be a more lecture, worksheet based time.  This will be the time that the students will be given the information and it will be their priority to understand the basics and therefore the students will be able to use this information through out the unit.  After the first week the students will have a laboratory.  The students will have worksheets throughout the laboratory that will be graded.  The second assessment will be a class project. Each group will consist of 3 group members.  Each group will pick two different meals, (one being healthy, the other being unhealthy) the students will then use the information and then talk about what happens to your food and how is your body affected by each of the different meals.

 

Budget:

Valerie Gibson

Resources:

 

Supplies:

 

Per student:

Computer                                                        (if donated)

Pipettes                                                           21.90

Gloves                                                             27.90 (500)

Goggles                                                           3.20 each

Lab apron                                                        ________                   

 

Per group:

Hydrochloric Acid                                          3.95 per bottle

pH paper                                                         2.99  each

pH meter                                                         54.95 each

test tube rack                                                   12.75 each

stirring rod                                                      0.85 each

Lugol’s solution                                              9.99 per bottle

Biuret reagent                                                 57.80

 

Per classroom:

Benedict’s solution                                         15.00 per 125 mL

test tubes                                                         17.51 per package (150)

Computer                                                        842.35

Projector                                                          149.99

Agitator machine                                            540 for 6.8 liters

389 for 1.2 liters

 

total $1622.88

 

School Provides:

masking tape

pencils

distilled water

newsprint paper

 

Food:

Chicken

Lettuce

Grapes

Apple Juice

Melted butter

Raw egg white

Raw fish

Raw potato

Raw spinach

Vegetable oil

 

Teacher websites:

http://biology.about.com/library/organs/bldigestoverview2.htm

www.mypyramid.gov

 

interactive student websites:

www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html

www.msjensen.gen.umn.edu/webanatomy/wa_digestive/default.htm

www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp

 

books

Pratt, Charlotte. Essential Biochemistry.  John Wiley& Sons. 2004

Chemistry Book

 

Dr.  Rogers  (suregeon)

 

 

Justification:

            Students need to be informed of the health risks related to bad eating habits which can therefore lead to obesity.  It is very important that we reach the students at a crucial time in their lives.  The United States is the most obese country in the world and it is because of the horrible eating habits that people have.  By having the students complete the labs about pH and about the digestive system, the students understand at a different level the effect of poor eating habits.  In addition, students will be using computers to use the World Wide Web in order to research different types of chemicals in foods, different foods, and the different processes that occur. 

Group Members:

Me, myself and I