This Spud's for You!

Authors

Suzanne Zobrist Kelly, Meeker Elementary SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Upper elementary students often seem to think that saving energy is limited to car pooling, turning off the lights when leaving a room and turning down the thermostat in the winter. Seldom do they consider energy as critical in the manufacturing, packaging, transporting, storing and distributing of products. Rarely is energy recognized as being involved in eating a sack of potato chips, buying fast-food carry-out French fries or preparing frozen hash-browned potatoes in the kitchen. Although my students list sources of energy as "electricity" or "fossil fuels,'' they often do not relate such sources to food production and marketing.

In order to help students attain and comprehend concepts in energy, nutrition and consumer research, potato labs were instigated at Meeker Elementary School. The labs were designed to further the students' progress in utilizing process skills, controlling and manipulating variables, interpreting data and formulating hypotheses. The learning from the labs was then applied towards better consumer choices for energy saving and more nutritious food.

Publication Date

Spring 1992

Journal Title

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Volume

29

Issue

1

First Page

21

Last Page

25

Copyright

© Copyright 1992 by the Iowa Academy of Science

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Kelly, Suzanne Zobrist (1992) "This Spud's for You!," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 29: No. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol29/iss1/5