Three Creative Ways to Incorporate Nutrition Concepts into the Classroom

Schools across the country are discovering that kids don’t need to learn about healthy eating in isolation; nutrition can be woven into and reinforced by nearly every academic subject. From English to geometry, check out how three different schools are integrating nutrition lessons into the classroom this school year:

Grow fruits and veggies in an on-site aquaponics system
For a Boy Scouts project, a 13-year-old Atlanta student built an aquaponics system at his middle school, and now the school is using the system as a teaching tool for math and science classes. According to an Athens, GA Patch article, the aquaponics system recirculates water between a 200-gallon fish tank and two garden beds, giving students a hands-on chance to:

• Learn about sustainable food production and the life cycles of 55 tilapia in the fish tank;
• Help grow fresh tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and strawberries in the two garden beds (idea: taste-test and serve the produce in the school cafeteria!);
• Calculate volume and displacement based on the fish tank in math class. 

Read the full article: http://bit.ly/19POlt5

Ask the big questions about food in math, English and science class
This year educators in two Baltimore public schools created English, math and science lessons around “healthy lifestyle decisions.” Students wrote in food journals, studied the locations of grocery stores and fast food restaurants in their area, and learned about food cell structures in science class – all tying back to bigger questions like, “Why are we eating the foods that we eat?” Read the full article: http://bit.ly/1caClBh

Build school gardens and greenhouses for outdoor classrooms  
Students in Ohio’s Federal Hocking Secondary School used geometry to help build a new greenhouse on campus that will complement their existing three-year-old school garden. Educators use the garden as a way to learn about soil types and pH levels, according to a recent CTPost article. As a bonus, the garden grows kale, spinach, and radishes that become options on the cafeteria salad bar. Read the full article: http://bit.ly/HNQyva

How do you weave nutrition lessons into the classroom or the home? Tweet us at @BagtheJunk, write on our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below.

Photo credit: John Halley/AP via CTPost.com