Lesson FS1: Introduction to Food Security - Baliga Systems Education Experiences

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Food security is a foreign concept to many Americans. Most believe that chronic hunger and malnutrition happens only to people in developing nations or to the homeless. In reality, 1 in 6 people in America go hungry every day and are not food secure. To some students, food insecurity is a reality, therefore this is a subject that must be approached with great sensitivity and care. Throughout the lesson, students will develop and refine their understanding of food security using online resources, videos and class discussion to help guide their thinking. This concept is the introduction to the unit and will be addressed in future lessons associated with the unit, so it is important that the students get a solid understanding of the concept. They are able to compare different countries and analyze what food security issues they have based on the three pillars using global statistics. The lesson ends by introducing students to the UN council meeting that will take place at the end of this unit, and answering questions to prepare for it in the Building Your Case worksheet.

FOR EDUCATORS

Please use this Complete Food Security (FS) Module link to access the most up-to-date version of our Food Security Curriculum Module (last updated 04/16/2019) which is currently being field-tested. All student and teacher worksheets and handouts are attached as additional pages to the end of each corresponding lesson. If you would like to field test these lessons, please email us at see@systemsbiology.org.

Begin this module (Lessons 1-7) by administering this FS Pre/post-assessment to all students. Assign each student an ID number that they will place at the top of this document as well as the post-assessment at the end of the module. Pre- and post-assessments can be compared using ID numbers (so as not to identify specific students) and allow Systems Education Experiences to show impact of this module on student growth. Please consider sending electronic versions of all pre- and post-assessments, as well as any other student work, to see@systemsbiology.org.

RESOURCES

For your convenience, the following are quick links to resources required for Lesson FS1. Links to these resources can also be found in the Lesson FS1 document.

Food Security Vocabulary PowerPoint
3 Pillars PowerPoint
Building your case – students – attached at the end of the lesson
FAO’s World Hunger Map: http://ref.data.fao.org/dataset?entryId=a66c7b52-c57d-4407-8dee-6707e7967e42
UN World Hunger Map: http://www.wfp.org/content/hunger-map-2015
Source of Statistics: UN’s World Food Program (http://www.wfp.org/)
Figure 1: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/TOT/)
Reliable websites students can use to research their country information:

Important Organizations

World Health Organization: WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, communicating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. (http://www.who.int/about/en/)
World Bank: The World Bank is a United Nations international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, and a member of the United Nations Development Group. (http://www.worldbank.org)
World Trade Organization: The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. (http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm)
United Nations: The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. (http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/index.shtml)

*Links to curriculum documents updated 11/01/18*

If you would like to access the previous version of this lesson (now out of date), you can click here to download the old version from October 2015.