Unit Overview and Teacher Notes

Including the teacher's parts of this unit and having students work in small groups for most or all of the activities are important components in teaching the unit effectively. In some cases answer keys provide sample answers-other reasonable answers should be considered. Individual activities are not intended to be accomplished in one class period. Each might take up to several class periods to complete. Key objectives addressed the previous day or two should be reviewed in some manner at the beginning of each class period. The teacher will need to begin collecting nutrition fact labels from various food items (and perhaps nutrition guides from various restaurants) prior to beginning the unit.

Many reference sheets are included in this unit. Some of these may be used as transparencies, although they might instead or also be distributed to students as handouts (reduced in size, if desired). A suggestion for saving both paper over the years and photocopying time is to prepare permanent copies of all reference sheets that you will not use as transparencies. For example, you might make multiple bound copies or copies placed in three-hole-clasped folders, which could be numbered for signing out to students during the unit, or several laminated sets might be prepared.