Diets Around the Globe

Grade Levels: 3 - 5

Overview

Students use a Web resource to explore the impact of the Columbian Exchange on diets in all parts of the world.

Objectives

• Students will identify the origins of various plants that are now found in both Europe and the Americas, but which were originally found in only one region.
  
  
• Students will explain how the Columbian Exchange changed diets.

Materials

Diets Around the Globe printout, one copy for each student (optional)

Procedure

1. Ask students to name some foods that we associate with Europe: e.g., spaghetti or pizza with tomato sauce, German potato salad, Irish corned beef and potatoes, French fries.
   
   
2. Remind students that before the European explorations of the Americas, many plants and animals could be found in only one region of the world, and that transatlantic trade introduced these plants and animals to new homes.
   
   
3. Distribute copies of the Diets Around the Globe printout. Direct students to complete the preliminary activity.
   
   
4. Have students go online to websites with information on the history of food and gardens. Have them check their guesses and find out interesting facts about the foods.
   
   
5. Back in the classroom, students can quiz each other, or simply exchange interesting facts they found online. The final activity – "Impossible Meals in 1492" – can be a class discussion or an individual activity.

Extension

• Talk to the students about the significance of the Columbian Exchange.
  
  
• The Columbian Exchange also included animals. Have students read about this aspect of transatlantic migrations.