chocolate and fairtrade

8/18/2019 Chocolate and Fairtrade

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Chocolate and FairtradeIntroductionThis activity comprises three lessons whichgive pupils a clearer picture of the production,transport and consumption of food around theworld, using chocolate as an example. Pupilswill investigate:

• how chocolate comes from cocoa

• what cocoa plants and plantations look like

• how much chocolate the UK consumes each

year

• where cocoa is grown

• what food miles are and how chocolateaffects our planet.

The activity includes:• Lesson 1: An introduction to chocolate

• Activity sheet 1

• Lesson 2: Food miles: How does chocolateaffect our planet?

• Activity sheet 2a

• Activity sheet 2b


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Curriculum focusEngland KS2Geography

Knowledge and understanding of places 3a, b,c, d; Themes 7b

ICT

Knowledge, skills and understanding 1a, 1b, 1c;Developing ideas and making things happen2a, 2b, 2c;

Exchanging and sharing information 3a, 3b;

Breadth of study 5a, 5b

Citizenship

Developing confidence and responsibility andmaking the most of their abilities 1a, 1b, 1c;Preparing to play an active role as citizens 2a,2e; Developing good relationships andrespecting the differences between people 4b.

Scotland 5-14 guidelines

Social Subjects – People in the past

Knowledge and understanding: People, events

and societies of significance in the past;Change and continuity, cause and effect, Timeand historical sequence

Skills: Preparing for the task; Carrying out thetask; Reviewing and reporting on the task

Understanding and using informationtechnology

Features and characteristics of forms of IT:using computer operating systems;understanding and use files

Developing informed attitudes: A commitmentto learning

Features and characteristics of forms of ITstrand: using computer operating systems;understanding and use files

Wales KS2Geography

Geographical Enquiry and Skills 1.1, 1.2, 1.4,

1.8, 1.9, 1.10

Information technology

Communicating and handling information 1.1,1.2, 1.3, 1.4; Modelling 2.1

Northern Ireland KS2The world around us: Covers elements ofinterdependence, change over time, place,movement and energy.

Language and literacy: covers elements oftalking and listening, reading, writing.


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Lesson 1: An introduction to chocolate AimThe aim of this activity is to show pupils whatchocolate is made from and where it comesfrom. This should demonstrate that it’s relevantto students because they eat chocolate, placestudents within the chocolate chain asconsumers and show them that their spendingpower is important to farmers in the developingworld.

Time requirements60 minutes, depending upon age and ability.

Resources• Internet access

• Interactive whiteboard or display facility

• Google Earth installed

• Activity Sheet 1

Learning objectivesPupils should learn:

• what chocolate is made from

• how chocolate is made

• where chocolate comes from

• about Fairtrade and how it can benefit cocoafarmers in developing countries.

Preparation• Teachers should make sure that Google

SafeSearch is set to strict filtering. To dothis, click the Preferences link on the Googlehome page to the right of the search box,then click next to ‘Use strict filtering’.

• Google Earth will need to be installed on thecomputer that is being used for thedemonstration. It is a free piece of softwarewhich can be downloaded fromhttp://earth.google.com/

• Teachers will need to familiarise themselveswith Google Earth and Google Maps: thereare several pages of help and guidance onGoogle to help you find your way around thetools: http://earth.google.com/support/ andhttp://maps.google.co.uk/support/. A Googleaccount is required to use My Maps.


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Lesson 1 OverviewThis lesson is an introduction for pupils aboutchocolate and global trade. Pupils should findout some important facts about chocolate, suchas what it is made of and where it comes from.

Starter (5 minutes)Start the lesson by asking the pupils if theyknow what chocolate is made from. Write downthe answers on the board. These will includesugar, milk and

cocoa beans.

Activity 1 (20 minutes)Now tell the pupils that they’re going to find outwhat the main ingredient of chocolate is andsome information about how it is farmed. Go toGoogle Images and type in the word cocoabeans. This will bring up some useful examplesof what cocoa looks like.

Ask the pupils to use Google Search to try tofind out how chocolate is made from the cocoabeans. They should also try to find 3 interestingfacts about chocolate.

Activity 2 (20 minutes)Hand the pupils Activity Sheet 1 asking them tofind out where cocoa is grown. They should useGoogle Search to find out which countries arethe largest exporters (Ivory Coast, Ghana,Indonesia, Cameroon, Brazil and Ecuador).

Once they have done this they should workthrough Activity Sheet 1 which asks the pupilsto plot their findings on Google Maps.


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Activity 3 (15 minutes)Now that the pupils know where cocoa isgrown, talk about what these countries have incommon – for example, that they are equatorialand there are often a large number of peopleliving in poverty.

Introduce the idea of Fairtrade and how this canbenefit both farmers and the environment bypromoting sustainable farming.

Demonstrate the Fairtrade Certified Global Awareness layer in Google Earth, where theycan read information about many differentFairtrade cooperatives; from cocoa farmers in

Ghana and the Ivory Coast, to coffee farmers inSouth America and tea farmers in India.

Ask them to consider whether the prices thatGhanaian farmers sell their cocoa for are fair.

Follow-up activitiesLesson 2 is a follow-up activity about foodmiles. It shows pupils how to find out theenvironmental impact of the chocolate trade.


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Lesson 2: Food miles: How doeschocolate affect our planet? AimThe aim of this activity is to teach pupils how tobegin to investigate more complicated issues –in this case the environmental impact of foodtransport.

Time requirements40–50 minutes, depending upon age and

ability.

Resource requirements• Internet access

• Interactive whiteboard or display facility

• Activity Sheet 2

Learning objectivesPupils should learn:

• about food miles and the environmentalimpact of transporting chocolate

• how to find out about the distance betweenthe source of a food’s production and itsdestination for consumption.

Preparation• Teachers should make sure that Google

SafeSearch is set to strict filtering. To dothis, click the Preferences link on the Googlehome page to the right of the search box,then click next to ‘Use strict filtering’.

• Teachers will need to familiarise themselveswith Google Maps: there are several pages

of help and guidance on Google to help youfind your way around the tools:http://maps.google.co.uk/support/. A Googleaccount is required to use My Maps.


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Lesson 2 Overview

This lesson introduces the pupils to the idea offood miles, using chocolate as an example. Itaims to make the pupils think about howconsumers behave in the UK and what impactthis can have on our environment. This couldbe a follow on lesson from the previous oneabout chocolate and Fairtrade; or could supportthe teaching of carbon footprints and climatechange.

Starter (5–10 minutes) Ask the class to think about the food that they

eat. Do they know where it comes from? Canthey think of some foods that they eat that don’tcome from the UK? As well as chocolate thereare many items that can’t grow here, forexample bananas, coffee, tea and sugar are allcrops that have to grow in much warmerclimates.

What impact do they think the transport offoreign foods has on the environment?

Activity 1 (20 minutes)Pupils should work in teams to do researchabout food miles and how they affect theenvironment. Give pupils Activity Sheet 2awhich gives them some directions on how bestto do research in Google Search.

They should be able to find a definition of foodmiles, how the transport of foods can affect theenvironment and also learn how to calculatehow far produce has to travel to the UK usingthe line tool in Google Maps.

Activity 2 (20 minutes) Activity Sheet 2b has the ingredients for a pizzawith information on where the ingredients comefrom. Tell the pupils that although a pizza cancome from the local supermarket, theingredients could have come from a lot furtheraway. Ask the pupils to work out how manyfood miles are involved in the three separatefoods using Google Maps to calculate thedistances.

Are they surprised by the answer?

Follow-up activitiesPupils could create their own ‘Chocolate Quiz’offline, working in groups. The class is split intotwo groups and each group creates one 10-question multiple choice quiz working together. At the end of the lesson the quizzes could beprojected onto the whiteboard. The groupscould then take each other’s quiz to find theclass chocolate experts.

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chocolate and fairtrade

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