Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Signature Lesson
Lesson Title: Where Did that Food Come From?
Lesson Author: Judy Purcell
Lesson Description: In today’s interconnected world, customs and other aspects of culture are
exchanged faster than ever—through trade, travel, and the media. Consumer products provide
evidence of cultural diffusion in many households. Analyzing the items that are found in a home
can tell us much about the residents' cultural heritage about cultural influences they are
experiencing. This lesson will help your students to identify some of the cultural influences new
to their part of the world and to understand more about cultural diffusion. It will also address
movement of different aspects of one culture to another. Most cultures have absorbed traits of
other cultures; many have imposed their own customs on others as well.
Grade Level: 8
Standard: Geography Standard Three: Students will develop an understanding of the diversity
of human culture and the unique nature of places [PLACES].
End of Cluster Expectations (Benchmarks): 6-8: Students will identify and explain the major
cultural patterns of human activity in the world's sub-regions.
Essential Questions:
•
•
What is cultural diffusion?
How has global connections affected cultural diffusion?
•
How has different cultures affected other cultures?
Assessment: Constructed Response
Benchmark Statement:
This assessment should give evidence of the student’s ability to:
identify and explain the major cultural patterns of human activity in the world's sub-regions.
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
1
Prompt:
People moving into the United States
United States Map
Item: Using the data above, describe a major cultural pattern that might be result of
immigration. Use examples.
Sample Response: Looking at the data, I can see that there are more people coming to America
from Mexico. This is because of the proximity of that country to the United States. It is easier
for someone from Mexico to get to the United States than to Canada. In our American culture
today we have more Mexican Restaurants and Mexican food available in stores. We are buying
and eating more foods today with the Mexican influence.
Rubric:
2 – This response gives a valid answer with an accurate and relevant explanation.
1 – This response gives a valid answer_ with an inaccurate, irrelevant, or no explanation.
0 – Inaccurate response.
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
2
Assessment: Multiple Choice
Benchmark Statement:
This assessment should give evidence of the student’s ability to
identify and explain the major cultural patterns of human activity in the world's sub-regions.
Prompt: Fast food restaurants have added some foods to their menus in the last five years. One
of the items listed below has been added due to a change in the cultural patterns of the United
States.
Item: Which item shows how cultural diffusion has affected the food offered in fast food
restaurants of the United States in the last 5 years?
a.
b.
c.
d.
wrapped sandwiches
sub/hoagies
hot dogs and hamburgers
cheese steaks and fries
Answer: A
Lesson Objective(s): Students will be able to:
•
•
locate on a world map the places of cultural origin of items from their homes and
other places that have impacted on United States Culture,
analyze the cultural diffusion that explains how those items got where they are today.
Prior Knowledge and Skills: A student must have some knowledge of the world map. Students
should also spend some time finding cultural artifacts in their home and reflecting on how
cultural diffusion might have changed their eating habits. The students need to understand what
culture is and how it can diffuse from one place to the next. They also must understand how
cultures interconnect with each other and what makes up the core of culture and the periphery of
a cultural region.
Time to Complete: one 90 minute block or two 45 minute class periods
Materials/ Resources Needed:
Homework- Data Collection Sheet (Handout 1 -- one for each student
A Morning with Joseph (Handout 4) -- one for each student
3 world maps (Handouts 2, 5, 8)
Admit one slip (Handout 3) -- one for each student
3 x 5 cards -- 14 for each pair of students
Vocabulary Definitions and Resources (Teacher Resource 1)
Paper for word poster (Teacher Resource 3)
Chart of the Foods of the World [adapted from Encyclopedia Britannica.
http://www-lj.eb.com:180/ 1998] (Handout 7)
Joseph’s Morning Reflection paragraph (Handout 6) -- one for each student
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
3
Procedure Steps:
1. Homework assignment to be completed prior to the lesson to stimulate prior thinking.
Each student will receive a map of the world and a chart to record the data they will
gather. The assignment is to find ten food items in their home and record the possible
country where those foods were grown or produced. Students should be instructed to read
labels to look for “Product of____” as opposed to “Distributed by_______” because
sometimes US companies import foods and then ship the food out under their label.
Students may need to investigate by asking a grocer the origin of fruits or vegetables.
While some foods may be produced in the US, it is hoped that the students will locate
many food items from other world regions. Once the data is gathered, students should use
the atlas or other reference to help them map the countries of origin for the ten food items
in the inventory.
2. On the day of the lesson students should bring the completed home inventory to class. As
they enter the classroom, each student will receive an Admit One slip. (Handout 3) The
students should complete questions 1 and 2 as a starter activity before the lesson begins.
This paper should be laid aside to be completed near the end of the lesson.
3. Ask students to refer to the data they have gathered and mapped as a home assignment.
Using the overhead or a wall map with sticky dots, compile a class map by asking
students to identify and locate the countries on their maps starting with the farthest from
the US, then closest to the US. Ask students if they can distinguish any patterns in the
mapped data. (possible observations: many southern hemisphere fruits and vegetables
during our winter, more items from closer countries, more items from areas with similar
culture to the US)
4. The following terms are essential to student mastery of this standard and benchmark:
Cultural, diffusion, pattern, interconnected, human activity, core, periphery (See
vocabulary resource for teacher for definitions and concepts.) (Teacher Resource 1) The
following activity will help students master these terms: Students will work in pairs for
this activity. They should to write each word from the list on a separate 3 x 5 file card.
Next they will look up each word and write the definition on another card. There must be
a class discussion of the words and their meanings before students try to match the
definitions. After they understand the concepts they will then turn all cards face down
and take turns turning two cards up. If the word and definition match, they will use the
word in a sentence. If it is correctly used, they keep the card. If the word and definition
do not match, the cards should be returned face down and the other student takes a turn.
The one with the most cards at the end gets a food treat from far away like rice candy, or
Swiss chocolate .
5. Distribute A Morning with Joseph (Handout 4), which is a story about a boy’s morning
and how many different cultures have become part of his day. Students will read the
story and locate the places around the world mentioned in the story on a world map
(Handout 5). The question is how have these places impacted the culture of the United
States? Using the vocabulary words from step 4, have students write a paragraph on how
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
4
Joseph’s day was affected by human activity and by different cultures in other parts of
the world. (Handout 6) (Teacher Resource 2)
6. Students will receive a list of foods and their origins.(Handout 7) Working in pairs or in
small groups, they will plot the regional location on their maps. (Handout 8) Then each
group should be assigned one of the ten world regions on the chart. They should select
one food item for their designated region and make a word poster on one new food word
associated with that region. The teacher will need to provide large paper and markers for
this activity. (Teacher Resource 3)
7. Closure: Ask the students to think about the mall or a shopping center that is familiar to
them. Is there anything there that might be evidence of cultural influence from far away?
Is there a store that seems out of place or context? In what ways does cultural diffusion
affect a local shopping center? How have global connections affected cultural diffusion?
How have different cultures affected other cultures in the shopping center? Have students
complete question 3 from their Admit One Worksheet.
Assessment: Administer the assessment. (Assessment Handouts 1 and 2)
Sources and references used:
Culture of a Cupboard, National Geographic Expeditions.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/10/g68/culture.html
Encyclopedia Brittanica. http://www-lj.eb.com:180/ 1998.) (Food Origins)
Arizona Geographic Alliance for world map
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
5
Where Did All That Food Come From?
Data Collection Sheet
Handout 1
Directions:
1) On the chart below, record the names of ten food items found in your home. Use clues found on labels
and packaging or other information to write the name of the place where the food was probably grown or
produced. (Be careful- some packages give the name of the distributor, not the grower or producer.)
2) Use the world map to show the countries where your foods were produced. Label the country and the
product. You may wish to use colored pencils.
Food Item
Where is it from?
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
6
World Map
Handout 2, 5, 8
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
7
Handout 3
Admit One Worksheet
Answer questions 1 and 2 before class begins. You will
complete question 3 at the end of class. This completed
worksheet is your ticket out the door!
Vocabulary words (Use these words in your answers.)
core, periphery, diffusion, cultural, interconnected, cultural, pattern, human activity,
1. What does this table show about the Haitian population? What might you find happening in
the United States based on the information on this census report? Explain your answer.
Table 1. Ten states with the largest foreign-born
populations from Haiti, 2000
Area
Number
Percent
United States
419,317
100.0
Florida
182,224
43.5
New York
125,475
29.9
Massachusetts
33,862
8.1
New Jersey
31,963
7.6
Connecticut
7,902
1.9
Maryland
5,367
1.3
Pennsylvania
4,977
1.2
Georgia
4,909
1.2
Illinois
4,358
1.0
California
3,006
0.7
Source: US Census Bureau, Census 2000
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
8
2. Locate and circle Haiti on this map. Discuss some ways Haiti might be interconnected with
the United States? Use examples.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
To be answered at the end of class and turned in before leaving the class. Your ticket out the
door.
3. What pattern can you see in the diffusion of people from Haiti into the US? How might
this affect the culture of places in the US? Explain your answer.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
9
Handout 4
A Morning with Joseph
7:30 a.m. and the radio sounds off, pumping the beat of Jamaican reggae into Joseph’s room in Milford,
Delaware. Joe tosses and turns but the music finally wakes him up. As he awakes he thinks, “Today is a
school day; I must get up”. It does not matter to him that his radio was made in Italy by a company
named after Gugielmo Marconi who patented the radio. He doesn’t know-or care- that the first radio
broadcast took place in Massachusetts in 1906. He only knows that this particular radio is not going to let
him sleep!
Joe drags himself up, dresses quickly, and heads for the kitchen for some Florida orange juice. Joe never
knew that oranges were very popular in the ancient world of China.
Joe’s mom is grinding coffee from real coffee beans from Brazil. She was using a trendy new electric
grinding machine, but it was first invented in Ohio in the 1930s. Next she measures the coffee into a filter
and starts the pot. Mom doesn’t know that the coffee filter was invented in Germany around 1900.
Joe starts eating his breakfast of Kellogg’s corn flakes, an all- American cereal. He reads the newspaper
as he eats his cereal.
After breakfast, Joe quickly brushes his teeth. (The Chinese claim they invented the tooth brush in the
1400s.) He says good-bye to his Dad who is shaving with a razor that was patented by a man in
Wisconsin. The earliest razor was claimed by the French and before that people used shells and sharks
teeth.
Joe gathers his school stuff together and prepares to head out. He carries his saxophone (invented in
Belgium around the 1840s). He picks up his CD player (invented in Japan in the 1970s, but made in
China just last year.) He pockets a pack of gum. Chewing gum has been around for a long time. The
Indians of Mexico chewed chicle, a substance from wild sapodilla trees. Chicle came to the United States
in the 1860s.
Joe is ready to leave when it starts to rain. His mom gives him an umbrella that was made in Taiwan. It
turns out that umbrellas have been around for along time, too. They appear in artwork from ancient Egypt
and have been used in various cultures ever since.
Joe dashes off to cross the street. He waits for the traffic light. Traffic lights were first used in the United
Kingdom and modern lights were invented in the early 20th century.
He walks across the street made of macadam which was invented by an English engineer. When he gets
to school he sees buses pulling into the school yard. The first bus line was established in Paris, France in
the 1600s.
Joe then sprints up the steps and into school for a day of learning.
(Adapted from Lizzie’s Morninghttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/11/lizzie.html)
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
10
Handout 6
Joseph’s Morning Reflection
(Cultural, diffusion, pattern, interconnected, human activity, core, periphery )
Using the vocabulary words, write a paragraph explaining how Joe’s day was affected by human
activity and products of different cultures.
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
11
TEACHER RESOURCE 1
Vocabulary Words and Definitions (Reference for Teacher)
8. Cultural-the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends
upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b
: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social
group c : the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a
company or corporation
9. diffusion-the spread of cultural elements from one area or group of people to others by
contact
10. pattern-a natural or chance configuration <frost pattern> <the pattern of events>
11. interconnected-to connect with one another
12. human activity-people in the act of doing
13. core-a central and often foundational part usually distinct from the enveloping part by a
difference in nature <core of the city>
14. periphery- the outward bounds of something as distinguished from its internal regions
or center
Diffusion
Periphery
Core
The spread of Walmart stores from
Arkansas. Source: Fellmann, Getis and Getis,
Human Geography 7th Edition 2003
Cultural Diffusion
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
12
Example Response
TEACHER RESOURCE 2
Joseph’s Morning Reflection- a suggested response
(Cultural, diffusion, pattern, interconnected, human activity, core, periphery)
Using the vocabulary words, write a paragraph on how Joe’s day was affected by human activity
and different cultures?
Jamaican music has a beat that young people enjoy. This is an example of human activity. The
influence of Jamaican reggae comes from the Caribbean. Due to the climate a person in
Delaware would never get orange juice unless they could depend on Florida and to think it came
all the way from China is hard to believe. Joe’s day is now touched by North America and Asia.
When his mom started that coffee his day was then influences by South America. Would he
have had a saxophone if the United States did not deal with Belgium? And to think that students
would not get to hear their music through a CD player is almost unimaginable. The Mexicans
started gum, where would a teenager be without gum. Each one of these items had to be made
and transported to the United States. Even the buses we travel in started in France. The French
also claim they used shells and sharks teeth to shave before a razor was invented. Each one of
these items had a core of production and the USA was the periphery until it caught on in USA
and now there are core centers of production in the US. If we took one item we might find a
pattern to its production and through it all we see cultural diffusion of each of these items as the
world and cultures become interconnected. (On the map I can show the cultural diffusion with
arrows.)
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
13
Foods and Where They Have Come From in the World
**Locate and label each world region on your world map. Prepare a poster illustrating one food from your assigned region.**
AFRICA
MIDEAST
ASIA
AMERICAS
Central Africa Mediterranean
Middle
Central
India
Southeast
China
Central North
Mexico
East
Asia
Asia
America
akee
baobab
bean, castor
anise
bay
bean, fava
almond
apple
barley
hyacinth
beet
coffee
cabbage
cowpea
buckwheat
tarragon
basil
cardamom
cinnamon
arrowroot
banana
bean, jack
carrot
eggplant
bean, moth
tamarind
bean, rice
cauliflower
chickpea
(garbanzo)
endive
turmeric
bean, winged
groundnut
melon
chard
chicory
fig
flax
breadfruit
cloves
millet, pearl
okra
palm, oil
rice, African
sesame
sorghum
tamarind
watermelon
yam
cilantro
coriander
cumin
fenugreek
kale
kohlrabi
lettuce
mint
oregano
poppy
radish
rape
rosemary
saffron
sage
graphe
lentil
lettuce
licorice
lupine
oat
olive
onion
palm, date
parsley
pea
pear
plum
poppy
radish
rapeseed
coconut
cucumber
durian
eggplant
grapefruit
jackfruit
kumquat
lime
lotus
mace
mango
nutmeg
orange
palm, sugar
Adapted from the Encyclopedia Brittanica
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
apricot
bean, adzuki
cabbage,
Chinese
chestnut,
Chinese
ginger
Andes
artichoke
bergamot
cranberry
allspice
amaranth
avocado
achira
amaranth
anu
grape,
concord
pawpaw
bean, dry
arracacha
bean, green
bean, dry
hickory,
Chinese
kiwi
loquat
pecan
bean, scarlet
sassafras
strawberry
runner
cacao
millet
millet, foxtail
peach
persimmon
quince
rapeseed
rice, Asian
sesame
soybean
tea
sunflower
calabash
cassava
corn
custard
apple
granadilla
guava
maize
palm, peach
papaya
passion fruit
peppers
potato, sweet
bean,
green
bean, jack
bean,
scarlet
runner
Brazil nut
canistel
cashew
cassava
cherimoya
cotton
guava
jicama
lupines
oca
mashua
mate
papaya
http://www.lj.eb.com: 180/1998
14
Social Studies Coalition of Delaware
Purcell-“Where Did that Food Come From?”
15