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Abstract Food is a prime necessity in life. Meals vary greatly between countries but also between individuals due to differences in religion, culture, climate, food supply and taste. Acquaintance with these differences and their origins supplies both an opportunity for respectfully handling each other's eating habits as well as an opportunity for expanding one's own eating habits. Within most schools there is much variety in students' eating habits at home. This however often does not surface because students eat the meals provided at school. Investigation of these differences promotes social cohesiveness at school and students' citizenship development. Copyright/Creative Commons Materials are published under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Lesson activities Conduct a small survey about what students at your school eat for lunch at home. Investigate which different cultures and religions are represented in your class/school. Are students' eating habits connected to these backgrounds? Make groups with similar cultural eating habits. Make a poster about what you eat, what you do not eat and why. Read a text about healthy food and study the five food groups. Develop a healthy meal plan for your school. Make sure the different cultures and religions present at your school are respected and represented. Calculate the costs, using information from shops, folders etc. Present your meal on a poster or flyer or menu.

Curriculum content - Dietary choices - Religion - Citizenship - Food production Discipline - Mathematics ✓ - Biology ✓ - Physics - Chemistry - Engineering Target group - Primary Education - Lower Secondary Education ✓ - Upper Secondary Education Age range 11-15 Duration 100 min. Documents Download handout (pdf) Download handout (docx) Credits NL   Monica Wijers, Utrecht University

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