1. Students will realize that we consume food for an energy source.
2. Students will be able to interpret data on a food label to determine the amount of energy gained from eating the item.
3. Students will be able to determine which foods require the most physical activity to "burn off".
4. Students will be able to determine the amount and type of exercise needed to "burn off" specific amounts of calories.
5. Students will use problem-solving skills to develop strategies for interpreting data.
The mathematics portion of this unit revolves around the topic of energy conversions in our bodies. The first activity familiarizes students with the fact that daily calorie requirements vary with age and gender. Likewise, the calorie requirements of physical activities vary depending upon the physical exertion required. Students will manipulate numbers to estimate their calorie requirements on a typical day, comparing those estimates to the average requirements for someone of their age and gender.
In the second activity, students use problem-solving strategies to devise approaches for determining the number of calories in single pieces of fruits, candies and cereals. This idea is extended in Activity 3: Energy Packet, in which students are challenged to prepare packages of food items with calorie counts totals equaling a predetermined number. This activity necessitates the manipulation of data in determining appropriate proportions of foods for the energy packet.
In Activity 4, students combine their knowledge and skills of energy expenditure through physical activity with energy intake by eating. They develop a plan of physical activities designed to burn off calories gained from eating pizza at a school party. This activity requires students to manipulate data, not only in designing an activity plan for burning off the calories ingested, but also to decide what and how much they will eat at the party.
Suggestions are provided within each activity for implementing the activities. Possible discussion questions are included.
While students are experimenting and collecting data in groups, it is recommended that each student complete his/her own student data sheets and tables. This ensures personal involvement by each student.
Teacher Notes
Objective:
Students will be able to use tables to determine the amount and type of exercise needed to "burn off" specific amounts of calories.
Materials:
Table 1: Recommended Daily Calorie Intakes (Appendix B)
Table 2: Calories Used During Physical Activities (Appendix B)
Calculators
Suggested Teaching Strategies:
In this activity, students will be looking at the number of calories burned by engaging in certain physical activities. They will be using data from two
different tables. Table 1 lists the daily recommended calorie intake for various ages. Rather than just handing the table to students, give them a reason for wanting to look at the figures recorded in the table. For example, begin the activity by asking students how they get the energy needed to
function. Most students will know that food is our source of energy. Ask students to make a guess as to how many calories a person their age needs each day. Some students may have no idea, while others may be able to make a fairly accurate guess. Place the student predictions on the blackboard. Also ask
students if they think the number of daily recommended calories stays the same for their entire life, or do they think it changes with age. Ask them to explain their reasoning. Finally ask students if they believe males and females have the same recommended daily calorie intake. If they think it differs, ask
them to explain why.
Following a discussion like the one outlined above, distribute Table 1, Daily Recommended Calorie Intake. Compare the data listed in the table with student predictions about number of calories, age, and gender. Ask students to look for any patterns in the data. They will likely notice that calories increase from birth to age 16-18 for males and to age 13-15 for females. At that point, the calorie requirement decreases with age. Another pattern is that males consistently require more calories than females, after 6 years of age.
Data Table 2, Calories Used During Physical Activities, lists some of the more common activities that might be engaged in during a typical day. It might be interesting to once again ask students to make predictions. This time you might ask students to rate 5 or 10 activities from least to most calories used. Students can then compare their predictions to the values listed in Table 2.
Pose the following problem to students:
Imagine yourself having a typical day. Use the data in Table 2 to estimate the number of calories you burn off in this typical day. Prepare a data table listing the important information.
Once students have completed their data tables of calories expended, give each student a copy of the pie template contained in Appendix B. The pie has been divided into 24 sections of equal size. These represent the 24 hours of the day. Notice how Data Table 1 is divided into three sections, low, moderate, and high energy activities. Ask students to use the pie chart to show the high energy, low energy, and moderate energy activities that make up their day. After completing their pie graphs, ask each student to estimate the percent of their day that is devoted to high energy activities. Thus should be an estimate at this point. What percent of their day do they estimate is devoted to moderate energy activities? What percent do they estimate is spent doing low energy activities? Once all students have made estimates, ask students to calculate the exact percentages. How do their estimates compare to the actual values?
Summing Up Questions:
1. Compare your daily calorie total to your recommended calories listed in Table 1. Determine the percent you are above or below the recommended calories.
2. Realizing that this is only an approximation of their idea of a typical day, ask students what happens if the recommended calories do not match up with their energy expenditure. Students should realize that if the energy intake is much greater than their energy expenditure, weight gain may result. This does vary with the metabolism of individual students, but is a good rule of thumb. It is also possible that weight loss may occur if more energy is used each day than is ingested.
3. Make an overhead of the pie template. Ask for student volunteers who would be willing to share their data by coloring in a pie graph on the overhead. The class could then make generalizations about what the pie graph tells us about that student's lifestyle.
4. Place students into small groups. Ask students to compare their typical day to that of other members of their group. Encourage students to notice differences both in types of activities and in the total calories expended.
Background:
One way heat energy is measured is in units called calories (cal). One calorie of heat energy is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water
by 1 degree C. Food energy is measured in kilocalories (kcal). It takes 1000 calories to make 1 kilocalorie. When referring to food, most people use the term calorie. Technically speaking, this is incorrect. In fact, kilocalorie is the correct scientific term. Sometimes kilocalorie is written as "Calorie",
with a capital C. The "calories" listed in most diet plans and on food packages are really kilocalories.
Home Connection:
Ask students to take Tables 1 and 2 home. Develop a table of calorie expenditures for several of your family members on a typical day. Once this is
completed, compare their energy expenditures with their recommended daily calorie intake. Students should explain the process to their parents, asking them to make an assessment of how they think their daily energy expenditure
compares to their daily energy intake. Remind students to record the gender and ages of the people they collect data from.
Extensions:
Teacher Notes
Objective:
After completing this activity, students will be able to develop, analyze, and explain procedures for determining the number of calories present in small amounts of foods.
Materials:
Packages of m&ms, raisins, skittles, peanuts, and other pre-packaged, bite-size foods. Each package should list the number of calories per package. You will
need one package of food per student group.
Calculators
Suggested Teaching Strategies:
Before distributing the packages of food to students, ask students to make a prediction in terms of which items contain the most calories and which contain
the least. For comparison purposes, list student predictions on the blackboard.
Give each student group one package of food. Challenge students to determine the number of calories in each item in their package. Allow student groups to problem-solve on their own. It is likely that all students will realize that they need to check the label to determine the total number of calories in the package. With this information in hand, students are likely to count the number of items in the package, determining the number of calories per item from this information.
Discuss the number of decimal places to use in recording the calories per one food item. The data will be used in Activity 3 and that activity will be more challenging if calories are recorded to the tenth or one-hundredth decimal place.
Chances are, if several groups are given the same type of food item, the packages will contain different numbers of items. Groups will, therefore, have different answers for the calories per item. Ask students to come up with reasons to explain the different answers. Following the discussion, ask students to devise a better way of determining the number of calories per food item. It is hoped that students will suggest that a better way would be to combine the number of items per package for each group and find the average. Use this average to find the number of calories per item.
Summing Up Questions:
1. How did each group's findings compare to the predicted calories?
2. Ask students how they determined the number of calories in each food item. Compare problem-solving strategies, discussing the pros and cons of the different approaches.
3. Ask students to determine if there is relationship between the size of the pieces and candy and the number of calories per piece?
4. Which package of candy gives you the most candy, by weight, for the fewest calories? Which gives the least amount of candy, by weight, for the most calories?
5. Were there cases in which groups testing the same items got different answers for the number of calories per item? Ask students to account for any of these differences. How could all of the student data be used to improve the accuracy of the answers?
Extensions:
Home Connection:
Ask students to get their parents to make a prediction about which kind of candy has the most pieces, which has the most calories per piece, and which has the
fewest calories per piece. After they have made their predictions, share your class data with them. How do their predictions agree with the actual data?
Teacher Notes
Objectives:
Students will be able to use problem-solving based on data to prepare packages of food equal to a given number of calories.
Materials:
Foods used in Activity 2, "Bite Size Fuel Binge". You may wish to place the items in bowls to allow easy access for students.
Baggies
Calculators
Data collected from Activity 2,"Bite Size Fuel Binge"
Suggested Teaching Strategies:
Post the data from Activity 2, "Bite Size Fuel Binge". It may be helpful if each student group is given a copy of the data to use at their work station.
Challenge students to prepare a packet of food that conforms to the following restrictions:
* there must be at least three different kinds of items in the bag
* the items in the bag must provide an energy value as close to 50 calories as possible.
(NOTE: You may wish to change this calorie value, depending on the calorie content of the items examined by each class.)
Summing Up Questions:
1. Ask each group to list the contents and total calorie count of their energy package on the chalkboard or overhead. Compare results from group to group. Ask students to explain why there were so many different collections of items.
2. Is there one "right answer" for the contents of the energy packet? Hopefully students will agree that there can be many answers that are equally correct. There may even be several combinations of pieces that may exactly equal 50 calories.
Home Connection:
Ask your parents to name their favorite snack food. Figure out for them the number of calories per serving and per bite of the snack. Share this information with them.
Extensions:
Teacher Notes
Objectives:
Students will be able to manipulate data to determine different combinations of physical activities required to "burn off" calories.
Materials:
Copies of Energy Expenditures Table (See Appendix B)
Suggested Teaching Strategies:
Students become most involved in activities dealing directly with their lives. For this activity, ask students to design a list of activities that will burn
off the calories gained from eating a special meal or treat. Their activity plan must include at least five different activities. The meal or treat could be a meal of their choosing (See calorie counts of foods from major fast food chains, Appendix B) or it could consist of food eaten at a school party. You
may wish to use the following scenario:
You are invited to a big school party. The following foods will be served at the party.
Cola ... 145 calories per can
Diet Cola ... 1 calorie per can
Pizza:
pepperoni ... 207 calories per slice
cheese ... 199 calories per slice
sausage ... 220 calories per slice
Cake ... 250 calories per piece
Ice cream ... 130 calories per scoop
Students should choose which items and how much of each food they would normally eat at such a party. The challenge comes in designing an activity plan that will burn off the calories eaten at the party. Give each student a copy of the Energy Expenditures Table. The data on this table is listed in terms of the number of calories burned in one minute of each activity. Some students may choose to spend their calories doing light activities like reading or sleeping, while others will want to burn off their calories as quickly as possible. Either route is acceptable. In any case, students will need to organize their data in a logical fashion. This may include notation of the activity, the calories burned per minute, the number of minutes each activity is engaged in, and the total number of calories burned.
Summing Up Questions:
1. How do the number of calories consumed by a "light eater" at the party compare to a "big eater"? This could be done as a stem and leaf graph.
2. Compare the amount of time it takes to consume food items with the amount of time (and effort) needed to burn off the calories.
3. Compare student activity plans. Different plans are likely to involve varying degrees of physical activities. What conclusions can students make regarding the value of getting a little exercise each day?
Background:
Most students realize the real reason we eat is to provide our bodies with the energy needed to live and not simply for pleasure. All living things need food to survive. Plants get nutrients from the soil. Soil supplies chemicals for
making proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Plants then make their own food through photosynthesis. When we eat plants, our bodies use these proteins, vitamins and minerals as building materials for bones, muscles and other physical parts. We get our energy from the carbohydrates stored in our food. Our bodies break down the carbohydrates into three fuels; glucose, glycogen and
fats. All three of these fuels are used by our bodies to produce the heat needed to keep our bodies at a steady temperature of 37 deg C (98.6 deg F). These fuels also provide the energy needed to keep your heart beating,
breathing, walking, talking, and everything else we expect our bodies to be able to do.
Home Connection:
Imagine that you and your family are eating at your favorite fast food restaurant. Using the data in Table 4, determine the total number of calories
that would be consumed by each of your family members. Then, using your Energy Expenditure Table, develop a Family Activity Plan designed to burn off the calories consumed at the restaurant.
Extensions:
| Table of Contents | Previous Section | Next Section |