Integration in Teacher Education: Building Units around Ordinary, Everyday Objects

Abstract

In an average lifetime the typical American eats 35,138 cookies; 269 gallons of ice cream; 1,483 pounds of candy; 443 pounds of potato chips; 67 pounds of corn chips; 85 pounds of pret zels; 4,194 quarts of popcorn; and 152 pies (Heymann, 1991). United States is the number one nation in snack food consumption (Shapiro, 1992). We pooh-pooh the wet noodles who warn us of the dangers of our excesses and put away 500 million Twinkies a year (Sutton & Markey, 1993). It is not just snacks that fuel us: in an average lifetime we also eat 5,842 bowls of pasta; 18,216 bowls of cereal; and drink 56,044 cups of coffee (Heymann, 1991). We have more than a passing interest in food. Every cultur ally literate American can describe Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Three Musketeers (not the Dumas novel), Chee-tos, Shredded Wheat, Ritz crackers, and Wonder Bread. If economic conditions do not limit what we consume, we are big eaters. This is nothing new. Even in the early 1800s, James Fenimore Cooper said that, The Americans are the grossest feeders of any civilized nation known (Lasky, 1977). Although food is a large part of students' daily lives and they have learned about it through a hands-on approach, we rarely ask students to research the topic of familiar foods in-depth. A thematic unit on food can integrate history, science, and the social sciences of eco nomics, geography, and psychology into the middle school curriculum. It can provide lessons in human qualities that we admire. It also can encourage students to conduct research from original sources and can pol ish their letter writing skills as they seek corporate infor mation on a particular brand name food. A thematic unit on food can incorporate an analysis of advertising propaganda techniques used by manufacturers, and such a unit can show the interconnectedness of life.