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Nutrition
Kendra Gering
People consume food every day of their lives, whether it is at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or
a snack in between. But how many people actually think about what is in the food they eat?
Recently, eighth graders at Waunakee Middle School have been learning about nutrition.
Towards the beginning of the unit, students completed a project called the “Three Day
Dietary Assignment.” During this project, students chose three days to record everything that
they ate. The days did not have to be consecutive, and the students had over a week to complete
the assignment. The first step was to go to choosemyplate.gov and enter data such as age, height,
gender, weight, and daily physical activity into the website in order to figure out what their
recommendations for daily consumption of various food groups were. After this, they printed out
three copies of a worksheet on which to record their food choices and daily activity. On the left
of the document was a bunch of blank lines where the students wrote down each food eaten
throughout the course of the day. Then, they categorized the nutrition into each food group:
grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and protein. After they had done this they would write a goal for
the next day’s food choices, such as eating more vegetables, as well as a goal for the next day’s
total activity time, such as being physically active for at least 60 minutes. Finally, after they had
done this for three days, the students answered five questions about their experience through this
project. Also, they printed out a sheet with their daily recommendations.
In class the students studied the six basic nutrients: proteins, fats, carbohydrates,
vitamins, minerals, and water. They learned that while proteins and carbohydrates provide 4
calories per gram, fats provide 9. Vitamins, minerals, and water provide none. For homework,
students completed a worksheet on reducing fat, in which they had to choose a lower calorie
substitute for foods high in fat. They also learned that complete proteins come from animals and
incomplete proteins come from plants. To further study this they completed a worksheet labeling
various sources either complete or incomplete based on whether it came from a plant source or
an animal source.
In class, the students watched videos about the various nutrients while the teacher, Mr.
Steve Ryan, paused the video in order to further discuss the topics it discussed as well as
assisting the students in filling out note sheets. Through these videos, the pupils learned about
examples of vitamins and minerals, what they do for the body, what foods they are in, and
characteristics of particular ones. They also studied the other four basic nutrients in this fashion.
“I learned a lot about nutrients that I found fascinating,” one student commented.
The eighth graders in health class learned a lot about the food they eat every day through
this unit. It is knowledge that will be triggered whenever they look at a food label, or eat a bowl
of cereal.