What is Food Waste?

Q300- Kindergarten

Jessica Gonzalez

jessica@q300.org or JGonzalez102@schools.nyc.org

Introduction

Let’s take a look at what food waste is. Here is a quick video of how kids become detectives to find food waste in their homes. Undercover Kids: Food Waste

Background

Here at school I and Ms. Sonita, our principal, noticed something during our breakfast, snack and lunch time. Our school makes a lot of food waste. We need to think of a way we can reduce the amount of food waste in our school.

Task

In groups we will work together to help reduce the amount of food waste our school produces.

Here are the steps:

1. At the end of this WebQuest your group will find out how many teachers, students, and families feel that food waste reduction is important.

2. You will conduct a google survey to find out if students, teachers and adults in our school building feel which way is best to solve the problem of food waste.

3. You will also create a flipgrid video to share what you find out and some solutions to help solve the problem of food waste in the school.

Process/ Procedure

Using the PPA Process, you will follow the six steps to solving the problem of the food waste in the school. The six steps of the PPA Process are: define the problem, gather the evidence, identify the cause, evaluate the existing policy, develop a solution, select the best solution.

Day 1: Define the Problem

At our school, we’ve encountered issues during breakfast, snack, and lunch where food is being wasted. Much of the food is being thrown out. Why do you think this is a problem? What is the cause of this problem? Brainstorm with your partner some reasons as to why students are creating such food waste.

Day 2 and Day 3: Gather the Evidence

With your group, discuss the time and places where you have seen the most food waste in our school building. After you have made your list of places where you’ve seen students create the most food waste, your group will write two to three sentences or draw about why you think this is happening in the school.

Day 4: Gather the Evidence

With your group, read and discuss the benefits of preventing food waste. Write three reasons why preventing food waste is important.

Use the resources below to help you learn more about food waste prevention and benefits.

Kids Go Green: Reducing

SWACO School Program

Saving Food

The Food Waste

Day 5: Gather the Evidence

Let’s create a google survey. Here is quick video on how I will help you to create a survey each group will hand out: How to Make a Google Survey

Step 1: With your group, you will create a google survey that we will send out to the school about food waste.

Step 2: Create the 1st question: “Is food waste a problem in our school? Answer Yes or No.

Step 3: Create a 2nd question: What do you know about food waste?

Step 4: Create a 3rd Question: Why do you think this is important or not?

If your group can’t make a google survey, a paper survey will be fine. We can gather the data from each of our classes.

Day 6: Analyze the Data

Let’s look at what we found out from our survey.

Write down 2 or 3 sentences about what your group has learned from our survey.

Day 7: Identify the Causes

Based on the data we’ve collected, why do you think food waste is a problem in our school community?

Day 8: Evaluate the Existing Policy

Now that we know more about food waste in our school community and what others have seen and felt. Let’s discuss the policies we have in place at our school to help our school community solve the problem of food waste:

● Compost only available in the cafeteria

● A required 5 food items on the lunch tray

● Healthy food items availability

Day 9: Develop A Solution

With your group, you will create a Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a recording and presentation safe website for us to present our ideas. Remember to Watch Video on How To Use Flipgrid. You may connect to this using our Google Classroom. On Flip Grid, you will do the following: (1) Inform others about the benefits of a food waste recycling program. (2) Share why reducing food waste is important to our school (3) Share your ideas on how we can make sure food waste recycling/ prevention is everywhere in our school. Remember to use the information from the video resources you learned about during your research.

Rubric/ Evaluation

Task	4	3	2	1
Group Work	Worked well with others to express their ideas. Contributed to the overall presentation. Participated fluently in class discussion.	Worked well with others. Provided some useful ideas to the group. Participated in class discussion.	Sometimes worked well with others. Sometimes provides useful ideas to contribute to the presentation. Sometimes participated in class discussions.	Rarely worked well with others. Rarely participated in class discussion. Did not provide meaningful ideas to the project.
Knowledge of Content	Has an excellent understanding of the problem and solution.	Has a well-developed understanding and knowledge of the problem and solution.	Has some development of understanding the problem and solution.	Has basic knowledge of the problem and solution.
Presentation of Content- FlipGrid	Presented a clear understanding of purpose and knowledge of content. Spoke clear and confident.	Presented a clear understanding of purpose and knowledge of content.	Presented some understanding of the purpose and knowledge of content.	Attempted to present a clear understanding of purpose and knowledge of content.
Presentation of Content- Research Writing	Research writing included all components: -facts from videos -opinion -possible solutions	Writing includes 2 of 3 components. -facts from videos -opinion -possible solutions	Writing includes 1 of 3 components. -facts from videos -opinion -possible solutions	Research writing does not include any of the components.

Conclusion

We have discussed and presented our ideas to Ms. Sonita, our fellow classmates and our school. I thank you for all your effort in providing some solutions to our problem. One of the changes we will see in the future is creating a compost recycling program for our school. I guess we have a new project we can use the PPA design to create a solution or positive result for our school.

Standards

KW1: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or emergent writing to state an opinion about a familiar topic or personal experience and state a reason to support that opinion.

KW2: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or emergent writing to name a familiar topic and supply information.

KW6: Develop questions and participate in shared research and exploration to answer questions and to build and share knowledge.

KW7: Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question in a variety of ways (e.g., drawing, oral expression, and/or emergent writing).

KSL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.

KSL1a: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions, including listening to others, taking turns, and staying on topic.

KSL1b: Participate in conversations through multiple exchanges.

KSL1c: Consider individual differences when communicating with others.

KSL3: Develop and answer questions to clarify what the speaker says.

KSL6: Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

KL4: Explore and use new vocabulary and multiple-meaning words and phrases in authentic experiences, including, but not limited to the following:

KL4a: Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., knowing duck is a bird and learning the verb to duck).

KL4b: Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, - ful, -less) as a clue to the meaning of a word.

KL6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.