Introduction
This activity was developed from the exhibition ¨Bites: When nutrition meets the Sustainable Development Goals¨, which addresses the challenge of thinking globally and acting locally for the transformation towards more sustainable nutrition and a more sustainable world.
We welcome groups of up to 30 students, aged between 10 and 14, who visit us for activities that complement their academic curriculum. We meet for an hour and a half in the “Domus Open Laboratory” where we have all the technological and audiovisual material, etc., necessary to carry out our activities.
Stages of implementation
Introduction (15 minutes). We start by asking questions such as: Do you know the Sustainable Development Goals, What do the words “goals” or “sustainable” mean, What SDGs would you propose? We watched a video explaining the 17 SDGs and started with the 3 activities.
1. “Discover cereal” (25 minutes). We introduce the activity by saying that the WHO recommends eating cereals and we ask the students what foods they eat that contain cereals. We talk about “SDG 2: Zero Hunger” and comment that, in poor and developing countries, cereals are the main food and that we must obtain them through sustainable agricultural practices. We distribute on each table the grains of the 8 most consumed cereals in the world, as well as 8 images obtained from Europeana of the plants of each cereal. We give them a few minutes to relate each grain with its plant and we play a game of questions with Kahoot. Finally, we talk about what small actions we can do to support the SDGs, such as not wasting food, making responsible purchases, cooking for our own use, etc.
2. “Fruit for everyone” (25 minutes). We begin by talking about the vitamins and minerals, which are essential for our bodies, that fruit and vegetables contain. We ask the students which fruits they usually eat and how often they eat them. We addressed “SDG 1: End Poverty” by commenting on the importance that all people should have access to basic foods, such as fruit and vegetables. We distributed coloured paper and instructions for making origami fruit on each table. We discussed how we can help the SDGs: by consuming more responsibly, buying seasonal and local products and thus reducing our carbon footprint.
3. “Be a molecular cook” (25 minutes). We start by asking how many cooking techniques students know and whether they are all equally healthy. We addressed “SDG 4: Quality education” and highlighted the value of schools in teaching us how to eat better, lead healthier lives and even perform better academically. We distributed the material needed to make “fake caviar or spherifications” on the tables and let them experiment. We spent the last few minutes reflecting on “how many small people, in small places, doing small things, can change the world”.
Outcomes
Creating, experimenting, learning, playing… It has been really rewarding to work on this activity with the students, to discover the SDGs and, above all, to find together how, individually, we can help to achieve the goals.
Link to the learning scenario implemented: //teachwitheuropeana.eun.org/learning-scenarios/bites-when-nutrition-meets-sdgs-ls-me-554/
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
CC0 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Tartu Art Museum.
