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Project Title: Bugs For Lunch

Mission:

How can we encourage people to eat bugs to help reduce our impact on the environment?

Culminating / Take Action Project

Create a pitch for an idea that encourages the use of bugs to promote sustainability.

What Kids Learn

In this project students learn all about the environmental impact of our food and why bugs can have a much smaller impact on the environment than other kinds of proteins. To help students understand our environmental impact, they’ll learn all about how all living organisms need food energy to survive, and how all forms of food energy start with the sun. Students will use models such as food chains and food webs to show how energy is transferred from one organism to another. Then, students will compare and contrast the resources required to produce bug protein versus other meat and plant based proteins and the resulting impact this production has on the environment. Students will learn to confront barriers that hold people back from eating bugs, and grapple with whether or not it makes sense to incorporate bugs as part of a balanced diet.

Overview

Life Habit Focus: Creativity

Subject: Earth Science, Life Science, ELA

Grade: 3-5

Topic: Transfer of energy in ecosystems, food webs, earth’s resources

Project preview

Food Allergy Warning

The “Bugs For Lunch?” project explores insects as a food source. Kids do not eat bugs in this project, but are exposed to the idea of eating bugs. There are two key warnings educators should consider: 

  1. Students with shellfish allergies are more likely to be allergic to bugs. Students with other food allergies should also be careful when eating new foods. 
  2. Students should not eat bugs they find outside or around the home and should only eat insects from a trusted source. 

Project Materials

Project Module

Student Notebook

Teacher's Guide

Materials List

Virtual Field Trips

One of our goals is to help kids connect what they are learning in our projects to the real world beyond the classroom. To do that, we’ve partnered with experts to help students learn from and virtually visit with experts from around the world. The “Bugs for Lunch?” project partners with:

Chef Joseph Yoon

In this module, students meet Chef Joseph Yoon. Chef Yoon is the Edible Insect Ambassador at Brooklyn Bugs. Chef Yoon teaches students about different kinds of edible bugs, how he crafts delicious recipes with bugs, and how eating bugs is one way to have a positive impact on the environment.

Entrepreneur Rose Wang

In their Take Action Project, students meet entrepreneur Rose Wang. Rose teaches students how to pitch an idea that compels others to take action. Rose teaches students three strategies to create a compelling pitch including: the parts of an effective pitch, creating a pitch deck, and having confidence and poise.

Aligned Standards

Common Core Reading (CCSS):

  • Informational/Nonfiction Standards R.I. 1-10 for grades 3-5
  • Reading Literacy Standard L 5 & 6 for grades 3-5
  • Writing Standards W. 1,4,5 for grades 3-5
  • Listening and Speaking Standards SL. 1-6 for grades 3-5

NGSS Standards:

Performance Expectations (PE):

  • 5-PS3-1. Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun.
  • 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
  • 5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

 

Science and Engineering Practices (SEP): 

  • Use models to describe phenomena.
  • Engaging in Argument from Evidence
  • Developing and Using Models

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI):

  • PS3.D Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life: the energy released from food (in people or animals) was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).
  • LS1.C Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms: food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain warmth and for motion.
  • LS2.A Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: almost all food of any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs: some animals eat plants, some animals eat the animals that eat the plants. Organisms can only survive in environments where their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one where multiple different species are able to meet their different needs in a relatively stable and connected web. New species can damage the web.
  • LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems: matter cycles between all organisms, air and soil in an ecosystem. Organisms obtain gasses and water from the environment and then release waste back into the environment.

Crosscutting Concepts (CC):

  • Energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects.
  • Matter is transported into, out of, and within systems.
  • A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

Course Content

Module 1: Should Bugs be a Part of a Balanced Diet?
Module 2: Life Habit: Creativity
Module 3A: All Living Organisms Need Energy to Survive
Module 3B: Food Sources & Their Environmental Impact
Module 3C: You Decide! Should We Eat Bugs to Reduce our Environmental Impact?
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