Whatcha' Packin' Sugar?

The topic of study in science this week for one of my students is the food pyramid and deciphering between healthy and unhealthy foods. After giving a brief presentation of the food pyramid, I allowed this student to play a game in which she was expected to drag the different foods into the correct food group. I was surprised to find that the shape of the food pyramid had changed into a plate rather than the well known pyramid. The student that I was working with has Autism and is non-verbal so it is often hard to read what she is thinking. Through this activity though, she was fully smiling throughout the entire activity which allowed me to know that she was enjoying it.

The end of my lesson involved this student participating in an experiment. First, I laid out 4 different snacks and explained that we were going to be sorting them according to healthy and unhealthy snacks. In order to complete this activity, I gave her a science log and had her write down her hypothesis of what snacks she thought were the healthiest through the unhealthiest. The snacks I provided were alphabet cookies, fruit roll-ups, apple sauce and a Reese’s cup. After her hypothesis was completed, I had her (using a tea-spoon) measure out the amount of sugar that is included in each snack. Due to the fact that conversions are too difficult for her to solve, I had converted the amount of sugar (which was presented in grams) into teaspoons so that it was easier for her to measure out. After measuring out the sugar in each snack, we compared the piles to determine which was the healthiest. My student had a blast with this activity and it really was eye-opening as to how much sugar is actually in each of the foods that we eat.