7th Graders Create Healthy Food Choices
Our seventh grade crew visited a local farm to launch our first Expedition of the year: a 10-week exploration of Food Choices.
Our guiding questions are:
Where does our food come from?
How do we analyze arguments about how food should be grown and processed?
What factors influence our access to healthy food? How do we research this?
What factors do we prioritize when making choices about our food?
A visit to the local farm was a way for hands-on research to inform our students' work throughout the expedition and connect them with their role as critical thinkers and change agents, now and in the future.
When we first arrived, we spent time learning about what it takes to plant and grow crops right here in Detroit. We were then able to help Farmer Willie harvest crops. We even got to take some home!
Following our trip to the farm we learned about what food grows in season. We planned a meal with Chef E to teach our school community about locally grown food and healthy food choices. We first surveyed students to see what in season food they’d like to eat. Then based on the ingredients we worked to create a meal that was nutrient dense for lunch.
Finally, we worked together to prepare a meal of a sandwich and coleslaw for the entire school. Afterward, all of the remaining sandwiches were donated to The Detroit Community Fridge.
Our main takeaways from this unit were:
We should be conscious about where our food comes from
Animals are often mistreated and fed cheap, unhealthy food
Corn is in MANY foods is it cheap and mass-produced
We need to be critical consumers!
Written in partnership with Charlotte, Gabe, and the 7th Grade Crew