In our last post, we started thinking about where our food comes from. Here are a few food ingredients whose plant source might surprise you!
Vanilla comes from the seeds of a vanilla orchid.
Cinnamon comes from the bark of a tree native to Southeast Asia.
Black pepper comes from the seeds of a woody vine in the rainforest.
Ask your students to write down their favorite meal. Then see how many ingredients they can name. Which ingredients come from plants? See if they can take it one step further and name the plant sources of all those ingredients. This could be an excellent research project. Have students report back on their most surprising findings. (The fungi and minerals in our food might throw them for a loop!) Students could even compose a collage of all the plants in their favorite meal. An example of tracing an ingredient to its plant source might go something like this: Burger to Beef Patty to Cow to Corn Plant.
This food investigation could go in many directions and offer some unique teaching moments. How do they know what the cow in their beef patty ate? Students might get stuck on the multisyllabic chemical ingredients in some of their favorite processed foods. Do chemical foods offer the same nutrients and plant foods? What exactly are “artificial flavors”?
We’d love to hear where this food activity takes your class!
