Inform the public: Create a public health brochure Over the course of the final four lessons of the Metabolic Disease Module, students will work together in groups to create a 15 minute presentation about a current nutritional topic of their choice. Each group member must speak to at least one of the following points with evidence supporting
Case Study 1 — Should we say no to GMOs? The debate about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food is heated and politicized. This debate is complicated by the amount of misleading information online and in the news, and deciding which resources are trustworthy is often confusing. This case study uses GMOs as a
How does this knowledge apply to me? This key culminating unit brings together all the understanding the students have acquired investigating the composition of food, digestion and metabolism, metabolic diseases, and how to evaluate nutritional research. But this leaves the question: How can I apply this information to my life? How can you use what
How do I identify ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food? In this unit we focus on the experimental processes used to identify ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, and how these experiments are translated to the public. We will critically evaluate some examples of nutrition research to understand how the design limitations of nutritional research contribute to confusion behind
What is metabolic disease? In this unit we will focus on the question: What is metabolic disease? We will first define and investigate the metabolic and physiological causes of obesity. Once we understand what obesity is, we can relate it to diseases like diabetes and atherosclerosis, which are both affected by obesity. In all the
How does your body use food? This unit explores in more detail the processes by which the nutrients in food become available, and how the body uses them. We will begin with digestion and absorption, and then use biochemistry to understand how the body shuttles energy and nutrients into and out of storage. A major
What’s in your food? This unit is intended to engage students with understanding what food is and what happens to it before it lands on our plates. Students start the unit by examining the industrial food chain and learning about the additives in food and what they’re for – are additives necessarily bad? Students then
The Metabolic Disease (MD) module has a simple goal – to bring real world science into the classroom! Students will learn about biology in a framework that is relevant to their everyday lives. The study of metabolic disease provides this framework because it focuses on how our body responds to food and how our lifestyle