This lesson follows a case study of a busy couple that is challenged by one of their coworker’s to figure out whether it is cheaper to make sandwiches or buy them from Subway. Students get a chance to apply their critical thinking & problem solving skills to a practical problem as well as get a chance to learn basic math in Excel.
I got this idea from my high school health class and have used it ever since in the classes I teach. The fish bowl activity is for any class that you want to have a orderly discussion for most of the block. The way it works is that you have some students sit in a circle facing each other then you have the rest of the class sit out side them facing them listening.
My students were aghast that the new Five Guy’s Burgers and Fries that opened up in town were selling 800 calorie hamburgers! Apparently one of them had done their research. I wanted to confirm this information for myself hoping it was only an exaggeration so I went to their website. Quite frankly I was surprised at what I found and thought surely not all restaurants were the same. My hunch was correct, not all restaurants and fast food places are the same some were much worse than an 800 calorie burger! Thus a new lesson was born.
My life skills students actually came up with this lesson. This particular class happened to be a class full of guys and they convinced me that simple cooking skills were something that they should learn before they graduate. Of course they also loved to eat…thus the birth of this lesson–cooking with small appliances!
This project is a part of a high school senior life skills class. I explain to the students that after high school it is really up to them to engage in learning on their own. No one is going to spoon feed them. One of the ways adults learn is by reading books on subjects that they need to work on or learn more about.
Basically this lesson is a challenge for students to make nutritious meals using the food guide pyramid for $60 a week and to find all their pricing and food choices from local grocery store fliers. The students would cut out what they wanted to purchase and paste them on a food pyramid chart for each meal. The students would then total the amount of dollars spent and estimate the amount of calories consumed for each meal.
A skillathon is a hands-on way of learning where students roate through a series of stations with specific tasks to master at each station. In this life skills skillathon students learn how to do laundry, fold laundry, take out stains, sew on buttons, tie a tie, iron clothes, and find colors that look good on them. I used this for high school seniors but I think it could be used just as well for middle schoolers.
