Food or Foe An Investigation of Genetically Modified Food

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Critical thinkers wanted! Where does our food come from? How have the advances in technology and selective breeding affected the food on our plates? These are the questions we as a class seek to understand through this project based learning.

My students are bright students capable of complex thinking and inquiry based learning.

They attend a large junior high with over 1500 students. We are 86% free and reduced rate lunch and come from families that survive below the poverty line. The students need relevant topics in their instruction and are intrigued by the use of technology. Most of their interactions with technology take place at school. They enjoy investigations that involve common misconceptions or misinformation in science. Our school is great about allowing learning to be shared through video announcements but our students lack technology in all classrooms to make this a consistent learning device. My school is wonderful but faces difficulties in meeting the 21st century skill needs of our students.

My Project

My students need large graph paper, legal paper, markers, and an iPad tablet with Wi-Fi/video to investigate the pros and cons of genetically modified foods. We as a science department are currently challenging our students to gather information from complex forms of text. Students will begin the project by evaluating articles that represent the pro and con side of genetically modified foods. They will use critical reading and writing strategies to collect data that will be presented on large graph paper. The markers will help these presentations to be eye catching and full of contrast. As students are exposed to video vignettes, political cartoons, and grocery store handouts they will build their own understanding of an issue that is pushing its way to the forefront of our society. After they create a brochure of what they learned I will expect them to form a group and create a video public service announcement to be shared with the student body during homeroom. These videos will also run on parent nights as a way of informing their families on this complex issue.

This project is designed to use current science, and project based learning to bring common core learning strategies into the science classroom.

The donation you make will directly affect 200 students annually and inform over 1500 students school wide. Please help me bring this relevant topic to life with your generous donation.