FamilyConsumerSciences.com » Living on Your Own

Subway Economics

M.Sandoval — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:00:26 +0000

This lesson follows a case study of a busy couple that is challenged by one of their coworker’s to figure out whether it is cheaper to make sandwiches or buy them from Subway. Students get a chance to apply their critical thinking & problem solving skills to a practical problem as well as get a chance to learn basic math in Excel.

Time Frame: 1 block

Set

Ask your students how much lunch costs them everyday. Is there a price difference between brown bag lunches and buying it from the cafeteria?

Materials

Instruction

If you have a smart board you’ll definately want to set it up to walk through how to use Excel to do math. Don’t know how to use Excel? Click here for a tutorial – it’s easy!
Read through the case/problem with the class.
Depending on the level and brightness of your class you may want to walk through the basic problem solving steps asked in question #1 on the Subway Economics Worksheet.
You may also want to assign students a partner. (optional)

Activities

Students will work on completing the worksheet using the internet and Excel.

Extensions

You can also have your students figure out if it is cheaper to eat at your school’s cafeteria or make the equivalent product at home and bring it for lunch.

Closure

What did you find was cheaper for this couple? Were you surprised? Why or why not?
Does anyone work at Subway? How does Subway keep its costs down?
Is eating out always economical?
What other factors are we not considering in this price comparison? (Opportunity Cost of Time)

Attachments

Websites

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Fish Bowl Discussions

M.Sandoval — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:00:12 +0000

I got this idea from my high school health class and have used it ever since in the classes I teach. The fish bowl activity is for any class that you want to have a orderly discussion for most of the block. The way it works is that you have some students sit in a circle facing each other then you have the rest of the class sit out side them facing them listening. You then have a jar or a fish bowl and you pick questions or topics from the fish bowl for the inner circle to discuss with each other. The outer group cannot say anything until it is their turn. Then the groups switch and the inner group moves to the outside of the circle to listen. This kind of discussion works especially well if you know you have groups that are already divided such as men vs. women or right vs. left. It is a way for these groups to have a private discussion without having to defend themselves and let the other side hear their thinking.

Relationships & Sex Fish Bowl Questions

Morals, Spirituality, Ethics, & Religion Discussion

Print the questions or come up with y0ur own and cut them apart and put them in a fish bowl. Then you’re ready to have a vibrant class discussion!

Fish Bowl Steps Simplified

Break the class in half. Some common divisions are by gender or age.
Set up half of the chairs in a circle facing one another.
Set a second circle of chairs around the center circle facing the center circle.
The way the discussion works is that the people in the center most circle talk about the issue/topic while the outside listens and may not speak.
Then allow the inner and outer circles to change places.

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Fast Food Comparison

M.Sandoval — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:00:47 +0000

My students were aghast that the new Five Guy’s Burgers and Fries that opened up in town were selling 800 calorie hamburgers! Apparently one of them had done their research. I wanted to confirm this information for myself hoping it was only an exaggeration so I went to their website. Quite frankly I was surprised at what I found and thought surely not all restaurants were the same. My hunch was correct, not all restaurants and fast food places are the same some were much worse than an 800 calorie burger! Thus a new lesson was born.

Objective

Evaluate fast food items and compare food based on nutrition, quality, packaging and price.

Set

Watch Super Size Me or portions of the video to get the students thinking about fast food.

Materials

Amazon.com Widgets

Instruction

With all the buzz about nutrition, fast food, from movies like Super Size Me let the students draw their own conclusions. The task is simple, in groups or pairs students will chose one fast food menu item and compare it with at least 3 other restaurants or fast food joints that carry a similar product. The students will compare the nutrition of each item, as well as cost, size, and weight. They will show their process in front of the camera creating a short video presentation of their findings.

Activity

Library and planning time is all you need once you explain the project to the students. In one class they should be able to come up with one menu item they would like to compare that is served in three restaurants that provide nutrition facts. Students should have enough time to figure this all out and to also print the nutrition facts in class.

Background Teacher Information

You may want to limit one food item per class. It may be kind of boring for three groups to research French fries or then again maybe it would be interesting if they all chose different restaurants or sizes.
Other ways to do this project is to have groups make presentations in front of the class instead of creating a video.
You can also give your class a choice on whether they would rather do their presentation in front of the class or video tape themselves.
One way to make this work for middle school students is to ask the class what three food items they would like to compare and from what restaurants and you can purchase them and have the class analyze them kind of like a science experiment. Create a station for each food item and have groups of students go from station to station and write down their observations on a chart. Download the chart under “attachments” below.
Another way to set up this experiment is to give them the assignment and allow them to make a flip book of pictures of their experiment with written statements about each food item underneath. For example, under a picture of a burger on a scale it could say “This is the Wendy’s ½ lb burger- it weighs 10oz.”

Closure

What do you think is important to keep in mind when buying food from restaurants?
Are all foods with the same name created equal?
Is it ever okay to eat fast food?

Attachments

Websites

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Small Appliance Cooking Assignment

M.Sandoval — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:14:23 +0000

My life skills students actually came up with this lesson. This particular class happened to be a class full of guys and they convinced me that simple cooking skills were something that they wanted learn before they graduate. Of course they also loved to eat…thus the birth of this lesson–cooking with small appliances!

Time Frame: 3- 1.5hr blocks depending on the number of student presentations

Objective

Students will demonstrate how to make a simple recipe using only small kitchen appliances.

Set

Give a stellar demonstration of this assignment with a recipe of your choice on the day you introduce it so they know what you are expecting.
Suggested Set Demonstration: Bruschetta- using a food processor and microwave oven to toast the baguette.

Materials

Amazon.com Widgets

Background for Teachers

I taught this lesson in a regular classroom- not the culinary room so you can imagine that it takes some planning ahead of time to make it successful! The way I worked around the room situation is by assigning student’s presentations by appliance day. So all the students doing a microwave lesson went on the same day. I placed my appliances on a Rubbermaid Heavy Duty Cart and wheeled them to the room. I also brought a supply of extra things students might have forgotten like bowls, utensils, can opener, measuring cups/spoons, etc.
Things like blenders, food processors, grills, & griddles all need to be washed between uses. Make sure you account for the extra time it takes to wash appliances on those presentation days.
Suggested Toaster Oven Recipes: English muffin pizzas, bagel bites, quesadillas
Suggested Food Processor Recipes: guacamole, hummus, salsa, bean dip
Suggested Blender Recipes: smoothies, milkshakes
Suggested Crock Pot Recipes: chili, fried apples, meatballs, artichoke dip, soup
Suggested Griddle Recipes: pancakes, bacon & eggs
Suggested Microwave Recipes: oatmeal, baked apple, scrambled eggs

Instruction

Go over the directions for the assignment on the first day. If you have time you can have your students go to the library, computer lab or look through cook books to find their recipes.

Activities

Day 1: Look for a recipe & get teacher approval. Sign up for a presentation day.
Days 2 & 3:Recipe Presentations

Extensions

This lesson is a good way to also talk about nutrition. You can have your students analyze the recipe that they chose and determine how healthy it is or how many servings from each of the categories of the food pyramid it represents. You can also have your students analyze the nutritional density of the recipe by entering the ingredients into a computer program or website like www.fitday.com. Fitday and other programs like it will tell you how many calories, grams of fat, vitamins and minerals are in the recipe.
You can also have your students grade each others presentations. This helps students stay focused on the presentation at hand and to better their presentations because they know the criterion.

Closure

What are some things to keep in mind when operating a microwave?
What are some safety precautions when working with small appliances?
What is one thing that you learned today that you will use in the future?

Assessment

See Assignment Rubric

Attachments

Small Appliance Cooking Assignment Directions & Rubric (Word)

Websites

Similar Lesson Plans

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Life Long Learning Book Report

M.Sandoval — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:27:32 +0000

Time Frame: 1.5 hour block

Objective

Students will read a non-fiction self-help book and write a book report summarizing the book and applying the information to their lives.

Set

This project is a part of a senior life skills class. I explain to the students that after high school it is really up to them to engage in learning on their own. No one is going to spoon feed them. One of the ways adults learn is by reading books on subjects that they need to work on or learn more about.
I always warn my students that self help books a lot of times are written by religious authors that may have opinions different than yours. If you disagree with what what your authors say please explain that in your book report.

Materials

Amazon.com Widgets

Instruction

Go over the Life Long Learning Book Report Directions & allow students to either choose a book from the book list that you provide or get their book approved by you. I let my students choose from a collection of books that I have and if they are not satisfied with my selection they have to purchase a book from the book list or one that I approve that is a minimum of 200 pages.
Depending on your students you can assign the project and have them complete it entirely on their own or you can do parts of it in class. I happen to have a group of students that were frank with me and said they pretty much wouldn’t do it if I just assigned it. Although I hate the fact that some students refuse to do homework, I knew that I was basically setting them up to fail if I didn’t rethink the assignment. So I made a deal with them that we would have reading day every Friday for a quarter so they c0uld get most of it done in class. The incentive of class time is that if they were productive with their class time they won’t have to do any of it at home.

Activities

Read the book in class and have students fill out the Reading Comprehension Chart – the chart is in the Life Long Learning Book Report Document under “Attachments.”
Pass out one sticky note per student. Have students find at least one interesting idea or quote that they read to share with the class at the end of the reading day.

Closure

At the end of each reading day save about 15 minutes at the end of class to have each student talk about a main idea or quote that they found interesting from their reading.

Assessment

Life Long Learning Book Report Rubric (Word)

Attachments

Life Long Learning Book Report (Word)
Life Long Learning Book List (Excel)

Websites

Amazon.com : Usually a cheaper place to buy self help books than a physical bookstore
Half.com : A good place to find cheap used books

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Arrange-a-Room

M.Sandoval — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:28:39 +0000

Better Homes and Gardens came out with an interactive room arranging application a few years ago. It has been a while since I have been back on the site. Some things have changed for instance they now require all your personal information before being able to arrange a room. After you get through the lengthy login process the Arrange-a-Room application is very easy to use.

It lets you select a room shape. If you wanted to design a specific room you can change the dimensions. After you have picked the dimensions you start adding furniture. The application essentially only allows you to design living rooms, bedrooms, offices, or dinning rooms because of the small selection of furniture the application offers. After you have arranged furniture you get to color your room and the furniture in the room. You can see my example below.

Pretty cool for being free but not the most sifisticated. This would be a good activity for middle school or for basic furniture arrangement. Another idea might be to use this program for a life skills class that has to furnish an apartment.

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Comparison Food Shopping: Buying Groceries for Two People for One Week

M.Sandoval — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:36:50 +0000

I found this lesson on the Columbia Education Center’s website and think that it is a great idea. Basically it is a challenge for students to make nutritious meals for $60 a week and to find all their pricing and food choices from local grocery store fliers. The students would cut out what they wanted to purchase and paste them on a food pyramid chart for each meal. The students would then total the amount of dollars spent and estimate the amount of calories consumed for each meal. Check out the lesson by following this link for more specific details.

Some additional ideas that I would add to this lesson is to allow the students to use online grocery stores like PeaPod or Shoprite for New England and Safeway for AZ, CA, MD, OR, VA, WA, and DC to find their grocery prices. The reason I suggest using online grocery stores is because students can see the serving size and nutrition labels for each item they want to purchase therefore they would not have to estimate the number of calories for each item. The grocery cart will also calculate how much their meals cost once they put them in the “basket” as well eliminating some math or you can just keep that to yourself. If you don’t have a grocery store that delivers in your state the trick is to use a zip code from a city that the store delivers to which will allow your students access.

You probably will want to discuss some tricks to grocery shopping frugally. Here are some websites that have good grocery shopping tips.

For Information on the Government’s Food Guide Pyramid:

Similar Lesson Plans

Consumerism- Grocery Shopping

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Life Skills Skillathon

M.Sandoval — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:05:55 +0000

Time Frame: 1.5 hours

Class Size: 20 ideal

Objective

Students will be able to perform the steps to folding and washing laundry, taking out stains, sewing on a button, ironing dress clothes, and tying a tie. Students will also be able to judge what colors look good and bad on themselves according to their skin color.

Set

Have the stations already set up. Ask students to place their belongings in a corner out of the way.

Materials

Stain Samples

Pre-stained fabric swatches
2 cans Hair spray
8 Tooth brushes
Lemon juice
Dish Soap
Bar Soap
Laundry Detergent
2 Large Erasers
Sponges
2 sinks
Baking soda
Buttons
Thread & Needles
Fabric Swatches
Scissors
Old clothes & sheets to fold
Dress pants & shirts to iron (ask students to bring them in)
5 Dress ties
Color Bibs & Color Me Beautiful Book
Directions for each station printed out

Background for Teachers

Classroom Set up: Since I teach seniors, and it is hard to get enough free teachers or parents to participate, I don’t have an adult or facilitator at each station. I personally check off their task completions (see Station Check off List below) and use either YouTube videos, or printed instructions for each group to follow. I supervise the learning to make sure everyone is participating and answer questions.

Instruction