Food is an interdisciplinary concept that intertwines through a wide range of subjects: home economics, science, math, arts, and many more.

In Episode 5 of our recently launched Thinking outside the Sandbox podcast, Dr. Kerry Renwick, Dr. Susan Gerofsky, and Dr. Lorrie Miller share their ideas and experiences with respect to food and the development of interdisciplinary learning experiences.

Below are a few resources that might be used to support each of the main points discussed in this episode:

1. Home Economics and Interdisciplinarity

Dr. Kerry Renwick shares how the concept of food could be intertwined with biology, chemistry, as well as issues of race and class.

The topic of food could be used as an entry point to discuss many topics and disciplines. Various interdisciplinary food-related activities and lesson plans are available at Teach BC:

• The Math and Science of Fast Food; students learn about math and science using online fast food nutrition calculators.
• Math First Peoples, cooking with fractions; students could learn about percentages and fractions through exploring First Peoples’ love for food in cultural gatherings and special occasions.
• Understanding Food and Climate Change; students learn how food and climate systems interact and how personal choices can make a difference
• Relating to soil; students learn how plants and animals cooperate to make the soil needed to grow healthy food.
• Social justice issues:

• • Rethinkgiving from the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition; In relation to certain events such as Thanksgiving, learn about justice; students explore poverty and overconsumption and ‘justice not charity’ during the ‘giving season’ such as Christmas and beyond.
  • Hungry Families Infographic could be used to spark discussions in the antipoverty month of February.
  • Life During the Great Depression– an interesting Budget Activity that includes comparing and analyzing budgets for low to high-income individuals and their families.
• Our Animal Neighbours; this unit identifies how animals were and continue to be relied upon and an important part of the lives of First Peoples; furs and skins for clothing and shelter, meat for food, bone, and antler for tools and weapons, etc.
• Forced from home; this unit explores refugees’ experience with finding food
• Mock Advertisement: Sustainable Community Lesson Plan; introduces marketing and advertising tactics aimed at children and youth, including those involving food and supplements.

Other resources are available at Teach BC that teach about food in relation to other cultures and geographic regions.

2. Learning from and in School Gardens

Dr. Susan Gerofsky spoke of her experience of the UBC Orchard Gardens where teachers could experiment with teaching outdoors. Check the UBC Orchard garden blog for more ideas on teaching, learning, and growing in the outdoor classroom.

• Growing your own food helps you eat fresh fruits and vegetables, helps you choose which fertilizers and pesticides come in contact with your food, and control when to harvest your food, thus having more nutrients in your garden-grown vegetables, as highlighted in this Harvard Health Letter.
• Engage your students with gardening their food in the school garden, or in one of the nearby community gardens.
• Encourage your students to learn about gardening through the various activities and lesson plans provided by Kids Gardening.
• Another interesting interdisciplinary idea in relation to gardens would be to encourage students to share their inspirations and reflections through writing poems. Explore this learning experience with the garden as a co-teacher where teacher candidates wrote their poems from the garden.

3. Food Literacy

Dr. Kerry Renwick elaborated on “food literacy” highlighting topics as food choice and responsibility when buying food, as well as seasonality and harvesting options/decisions.

Food literacy is knowledge, attitudes, and skills about food. This includes understanding the connections between food, health, and wellbeing; knowing how to select nutritious foods; and understanding what constitutes a healthy diet, as explained by Healthy Schools BC.

• Check out the resources  provided by Healthy Schools BC that support healthy eating and food literacy
• Bright bites is a non-profit project that aims to improve school nutrition. It offers rich grade-specific resources for educators, which include conversation starters as well as activities.
• A variety of food-related lessons offered by the BC Dairy Association could be useful for food literacy.
• Games for food safety are fun games that educate about food and healthy nutrition.
• National Geographic resources about food and food issues help students learn about food, the environmental and societal problems that involve food, as well as information essential for decision-making in regards to food.

4. Engaging with Aboriginal Knowledge and Understanding

Dr. Kerry Renwick spoke of the importance of incorporating Aboriginal ways of learning about food specifically on sustainable ways of dealing with food.

FNESC  (First Nations Education Steering Committee) provides various resources that highlight food in relation to First Nations Knowledge.

• For K-3, the teacher resource guide “In Our Words- K-Gr 3 Authentic Resources” includes guidance on how to incorporate First Nations materials into curricula. For food, there are connections to:

• • Science: Traditional Aboriginal cultures used natural resources for transportation, shelter, and food gathering.
  • Social Studies: Aboriginal peoples developed distinct foods, medicines, and clothing.

• For Grades 5-9, there is a teacher resource guide titled  “Science First Peoples”, which highlights First Peoples’ connection to the land for food. Examples include:

• • Science grade 5: How does Traditional Knowledge about body systems help First Peoples prepare and store food for the winter?
  • Science grade 6: How does Traditional Knowledge about life cycles help First Peoples harvest food in their territories?
  • Science grade 7: How did/do First Peoples use their knowledge of organisms’ survival needs- including food-to modify the environment for harvesting? (e.g. clam gardens, controlled burning, herring roe harvesting ), as well as other resources and activities.

5. Creative ways for sustainable engagement with food consumption

Dr. Lorrie Miller spoke of creative ways to make use of food scraps, one of which is food dyes.

• More ideas on creating natural dyes from food waste could be found here.
• Review these tips on how to compost kitchen scraps.
• Check this teacher’s guide by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority & Source Reduction and Recycling Board, San Leandro, California, for activities on how to bring compost into the classroom as a valuable teaching tool.
• Inspiration on ways of growing vegetables from kitchen food scraps is available in this blogpost by the UBC Orchard Garden.

Guest Post: Nashwa Khedr, EDCP graduate student, project assistant 2020