Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Lower elementary, Upper elementary

• Subject Area: Math

Brief Description

    Following student data collection in a prior lesson, students can post their results to a Website or via e-mail to share and compare with other students around the country or world. Use this exchange of data as an opportunity for students to learn more about eating habits in different places and in different cultures.

Objectives

Students will:

• Learn about eating habits outside their local classroom.
• Consider how people's diets depend on other factors, such as culture, economic status, availability of foods, and family preferences.
• Learn what specific foods are eaten most often in other countries or states.
• Gain experience sharing data using the Internet.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
2. Special software requirements: None.
3. Internet access: Medium-speed (28,000 BPS via modem)
4. Web Server space: (Optional) Required for posting results on the Web.

Activity Description

    Using e-mail or by posting to a Web server, share the data collected on fat intake with other classrooms around the world. If the school or classroom has space available on a Web server, post the classroom totals and average fat intake per day to that server, asking anyone who visits the Website to send their own fat intake data. If Web space is not available, contact interested teachers over e-mail by joining a discussion group (see Professional Growth for more on how to do this) and posting a message asking for partners to exchange fat intake data.

    Students develop a profile of their classroom fat intake, including the total amount of fat ingested over the week that data was collected, examples of specific types of foods eaten, average fat intake per week for the class, and other relevant information. Encourage students to add their own information to help other students understand their "normal" eating habits, such as local customs, agricultural options, availability of specific foods, and cultural or religious preferences.

• Sharing fat intake via e-mail: To share your classroom fat results via e-mail, post a message requesting participation from other classrooms to one of the discussion lists described in the Internet Resources section below. You may want to do this before starting this unit to make sure you find other classrooms who will share their own fat intake data.

• Posting results to a Website: To post your classroom results to a Website, have the students create a report or profile with their fat intake data and translate it into HTML. (For more on generating HTML, see our Professional Growth section.)

Internet Resources for Students

• The E-Mail Key Pal Connection
  [http://www.comenius.com/keypal/index.html]
  A place to find key pals from around the world.

• Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections
  [http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/]
  A complete resource for finding collaborative classrooms and teachers anywhere in the world. You can join a discussion group (see Professional Growth for more on how to do this) and post a message to find teachers or classrooms to share your food data with.

• Pen Pal Connection
  [http://www.penpals.com/]
  

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