Goal
After completing the lesson, students should be able to:
- Discuss where food waste can occur
- Understand how food waste affects the climate
- Read and discuss the data on food waste in Antiloop
Material
What you need to conduct the class:
- This lesson plan
- Computers or tablets to view Antiloop
About
About this lesson:
- Year group: middle school
- Subject: SO
- Time required: approx. 45 minutes
- Written by: The Antiloop team
How does food waste affect our climate?
5 minutes
Read the text with the students – give them a few minutes to further discuss how food waste affects the climate. For example. energy to transport the water to irrigate farms. Cows and pigs that emit methane.
When we waste food, we waste all the resources used to produce and transport the food, such as land, water, and fuel use, without gaining any benefits from feeding people.
For example, think of all the emissions that occur when bananas, meat or coffee are transported from other parts of the world to Sweden. Think about the plastic used for the packaging of e.g. frozen vegetables. These resources are used instead of feeding us. Also consider when food does not end up in the compost, but is instead burned as part of our waste, we create unnecessary emissions that affect our climate.
Did you know
5 minutes
Read the text with the students.
Info source: https://www.eufic.org/en/food-safety/article/food-waste-in-europe-statistics-and-facts-about-the-problem?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgK2qBhCHARIsAGACuznCctBaJjJxHbGcZiP2UUxemWS5muksGN1DpQWrIrSmZytB6Ev10GgaAmisEALw_wcB
- About 1/3 of the food produced in the world for human consumption is lost or thrown away.
- Food waste itself generates approximately 8% – 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
- It is estimated that 931 million tonnes of food waste was generated in 2019, of which:
- 61% came from households
- 39% from restaurants and shops
How much food waste do we have?
Discussion in small groups or with the whole class (15-20 min)
- Enter Antiloop.eco and project the web page to the students. You can also ask the students to open the website on their computers
- Find your school to check the visualization for food waste and discuss the measurement value. You can also show how the metrics can be viewed for this week or the week before.
- Ask students for ideas on how you can use the school’s food waste data. For example. Can you analyze over time if there is more food waste linked to certain dishes or certain days. You can discuss ideas for how the school can reduce its food waste.
- Ask students for ideas on how they can influence and reduce their food waste at home.
What have we learned?
Closing (5 min):
- Summarize what you have learned about food waste.
- Food waste can occur at various levels
- Food waste affects our climate
- Food waste at our school
help us become better
Share your feedback!
- How do you think that format works with hidden instructional images along with images that can be used in the classroom?
- What do you think of the content?
- How much does the teaching material need to be adapted based on whether it is to be used in primary, middle or upper secondary school?
- Does having the material in Google Drive work?
- How do you think you as a teacher best collaborate and advise others on lesson plans?
- Other comments?