Peer Review

Food a Fact of Life

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Dec 2, 2017 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Food a Fact of Life is a site for children ages 3-16 years old and teachers on healthy eating choices. There are categories for different age groups with interactive games, teacher resources, fact sheets, recipes, and cooking videos.
Type of Material:: The material is a repository for learning objects to include simulations, power point presentations, and videos.
Recommended Uses:: This website has many teacher resources available, but they require advance preparation before they can be used in a classroom. For example, card sets must be copied/laminated. Worksheets must be printed and copied. Many of the worksheet activities are interactive and suitable for in-class instruction. Resources for older students (11-16) are more individually based and could be either in-class or homework. Recipes could be assigned as in-class assignments if facilities permit, or as homework assignments.
Technical Requirements:: For downloadable materials on the website: PowerPoint, Microsoft word, Excel, PDF reader
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The major learning goal is to teach students healthy eating habits, the importance of a healthy lifestyle, and the farm- to- the- table process. The interactive site helps children, adolescents, and teachers learn about healthy eating choices.
Target Student Population:: The target student population is elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers in food science biology, and health classes. The site lists ages 3-5, 5-8, 8-11, 11-16 University level (only for British Nutrition Foundation Healthy Eating Week) Teachers of above ages Students / Teachers in the United Kingdom /EU
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Knowledge of the UK Educational system is helpful but not required as some of the resources are sorted by exam type Knowledge of farming from the EU perspective is helpful

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: Concepts are presented in age appropriate ways, from pre-schoolers to high school students. Topics vary from recipes and cooking videos, what a balanced diet looks like, where food comes from, reading food labels, to food science. Materials have been designed with each age group in mind; activities for younger children include more stories. Those for older children include videos, podcasts, and more writing activities. Additionally, the British Nutrition Foundation, who created the site, sponsors a yearly healthy eating week for schools, universities and workplaces. Materials for this week are available on this site as well. Resources are available in English and Welsh.
Concerns:: Some areas of the site have not been updated recently.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: After using this website, students (depending on age) should be able to: identify where food comes from, name the skills needed to cook, explain how to make healthy food choices, describe a balanced diet, explain how to buy, purchase and store food for cooking, read and explain food labels, and use proper food hygiene and safety. The website includes learning assignments and assessments which can be included easily into a science, home economics, or even a reading class. The curriculum is aligned with the National Curriculum in England. Target learners are students from 3-16. Learning objectives are clearly stated in all the materials and would be easily integrated into a teacher's classroom.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The Food a fact of Life website is colorful and easy to navigate. Materials are easy to find and download. Dropdown menus are attractive, easy to use and without broken links. Buttons (either on the left or the bottom) on individual pages take users to the different modules for each age group. Students of all ages as well as teachers would be able to use this site successfully.
Concerns:: None.

Other Issues and Comments:: Some of the materials on the site have not been updated since 2015. Other parts (including the splash page) are updated more frequently.
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