Your+Food+Map

=Your Food Map=

Activity Description
This activity will help students understand where their food comes from and how far their food travels. It will also teach them about maps, map symbols, and geography.

Objective

 * Students will learn how far their food travels from the farm to their plate
 * Students will learn how to measure distance on a map
 * Students will earn basic geography

Materials

 * List of 10-20 foods that the student eats on a regular basis. Food labels should be kept that have the food location on them.
 * Very large wall size map of the world
 * Ball of thin dark colored yarn
 * Thumb tacks
 * Post-it page flags (very small sticky notes)

Procedure
1. Explain to the student that as a class they are learning how far their food travels to reach their plate. begin by putting up the world map and then marking the school location with a colored marker. 2. For the next week students should write down the common foods they are eating and save their food labels. 3. Once the list is collected, students can add their food location to the map. Stretch the yarn from the school location to the location of the food. Secure each end point of the yarn with a thumb tack. 4. Next, the student to measure the distance from the school to their food location. This will allow them to use the map legend to determine how many miles the food traveled. This measurement won't be precise, but it will give the students a ball park number. 5. Label the food and the distance the food traveled with the Post-it page flag on the yarn. 6. when students have completed this project they will have created a interesting map with lines of different lengths. Tally the first total of miles. Leave the map up for the few weeks and discuss how far their food travels. Ask them if there are food they can choose that are closer to their school. 7. Continue this project with another map for the next 3-4 weeks. See if the students can beat their original score. Ask them to reflect over what it is like to eat local and how then can eat local more often.

Principles of Learning
1. Active, Critical Learning principle -The students are engaged in active and critical learning by creating the food map. 2. Semiotic Principle, Students will gain understand through images, words, symbols through the food map activity. 3. Probing Principle - After completing the first food map, students will have to think about what food choices they will make to create a shorter farm to table distance.