Teaching Sequence

10 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
40 minutes – Part B: What Does It Take To Get Our Food From The Farm To The Fork?
10 minutes – Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Invite students to complete a Think Pair Share routine around the following question (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How am I connected to agriculture and farming?

Think Pair Share
Think pair share is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question.
Think - students independently think about an issue or question and record their thoughts.
Pair - students work in pairs to discuss their ideas and record new thoughts.
Share - students share their thoughts with the whole group or with other pairs to reach consensus.

As students work to answer this question, provide them with the following prompts:

Are you connected through the food you eat?
Are you connected through the clothes you wear?
What other products do you use that might have ingredients that come from a farm?
Do you grow any of your own food?
Do you have animals – like chickens – that provide you with food?
Do you, or have you in the past, had a farm or farmer in your family?

Step 2.

Once complete, engage students in a discussion around their ideas. Through your discussion, lead students to the idea that we are connected to farmers in many ways throughout our daily lives. For example:

Food – much of the food we eat has ingredients that come from farms
Fibres – many of the fibres we use and wear are grown on farms (such as cotton, wool/fleece, linen, and silk)
Medicines and cosmetics – many of the ingredients in things like medicines, shampoo or soap are grown on farms.

Part B: What Does It Take To Get Our Food From The Farm To The Fork?

Step 1.

Now, explain to students that they should now understand how they have a connection to farming and agriculture. But what does it take to make this connection happen? What are the steps to get the food from the farm to your fork, from the paddock to your plate?

Explain to students that, when put together, all of the steps from paddock to plate are called a 'supply chain'. When you're talking about a food supply chain, you are talking about the series of people, businesses or organisations, activities, information, and resources (like time or money) involved in moving a product (like food or fibre) from the producer (the farm) to the consumer (those who buy it).

Project the following image for students to see or invite them to access the image on the Student Worksheet (also available here to download):

Work with students to talk through the image, describing all the stages in the process of making a potato chip, from the farm to the consumer.

Extend: If students are interested, you could also share one of the clips from this YouTube channel illustrating some of the steps involved in processing different foods, including milk, bananas, and bread.

Step 2.

Break the class into groups of four or five and assign each group one of the following foods (or allow groups to choose the food that most interests them):

Cheese omelette (ingredients: eggs, cheese)
Avocado cold roll (ingredients: avocados, rice)
Meat pie (ingredients: meat, wheat)
Bean tacos (ingredients: beans, corn)
Pizza (ingredients: wheat, tomatoes)
Strawberry ice cream (ingredients: strawberries, milk)
Hot cross bun (ingredients: wheat, sultanas)
Pavlova (ingredients: eggs, cream)

Explain that each group will be conducting a research task to find out how the ingredients of their food (listed above) are grown and processed. Groups will be challenged to create a supply chain diagram similar to the one above about potato chips. Explain to students that they don't need to provide a detailed list of steps involved in creating their food; it is enough to say that the food needs to go to a factory to be processed.

If students are conducting research online, remind them of the Search Strategies for Googling.

Differentiation: Ask students to focus on one or both of the ingredients listed in their food and design a diagram to accommodate either one or both ingredients. Year 4 students can also identify the natural resources used in their supply chains.

Invite students to complete their diagrams.

Step 3.

Once complete, invite each group to present their supply chain diagrams to the rest of the class. Each group needs to explain their diagram, pointing out the steps needed for the food to reach the consumer. At the end of each group presentation, invite other students to ask questions in order to clarify the supply chain being presented. In addition, students can provide feedback that can be used to improve the diagrams being presented. When providing feedback, remind students to be kind, helpful and specific:

Be kind – it can be hard sharing your ideas with others, so make sure you are respectful and supportive.
Be specific – be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying "I like the colours", say something like "I like the way those colours help create a mood that supports the message".
Be helpful – Try not to just say what is strong or weak but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Step 4.

Finally, engage students in a class discussion around what they looked at in this lesson. Consider the following points in your discussion:

What new ideas has this lesson introduced to you about food, agriculture, and farming?
How does this lesson make you think about where your food comes from?
How different do you think your life would be if we didn't have farmers to grow our food?
Why do you think it's important that we know and understand where our food comes from?
What questions do you now have about what you looked at in this lesson? How might you answer these questions?
How do you think visiting the Show might help you understand the supply chain of different types of food?

You could record students' thoughts and use some of these ideas to guide further discussion or inquiry.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was most interesting for you in this lesson?
What new vocabulary did you learn?
What was the most challenging thing for you in this lesson?
How did you rise to this challenge?

Take It To The Show

Invite students to take photos of different parts of a food supply chain at the Show, for example, the animals, the farmers, the food producers and the food. Students can incorporate these images into their supply chain diagrams when back in the classroom, or create new supply chain diagrams to accommodate their images.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Show - From Farm to Fork

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