Biology I – Discussion Board
Second Partial Reading
Biology I – Discussion Board
Instructions
Posted By: Mtra. María Félix Cerón
The Biology course has created a space of interactions called Discussion Board in that
the students can prove their abilities to understand a foreign language, in this case the
English, with this activities the purpose is that the students obtain other kind of
resources in English, and then using their findings they can participate in discussions of
controversial topics in the classroom in another language, first of all this activity covers
some topics of a lot of subjects but the most important are English and Biology.
When the students finished this course they can improve their TOEFL scores attending
new vocabulary and new experiences with the foreign language.
The readings of these activities are academic readings in fact the students can be helped
by a teacher.
The procedure of this activity has the next following steps.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
The students read the text “ Bugs as Food”
The students solve the comprehension quiz
The students review with the teacher the answers
The students investigate more about the topic
The students make a discussion oriented by the professor in teams of 6
The students will have an exam of the reading
The students make pictures or videos about their conclusions and this products
will be shown in the school to other students
ENDING OF THE ACTIVITY
RUBRIC
Aspect
Grade
Points of the total
First Quiz
/ 20
Discussion
/ 20
Findings
/ 20
Final Quiz
/ 40
TOTAL Points obtained _________ out 100 Final Grade : __________
Teacher: _____________________________________________________
Student:____________________ Enrollment number : ______________________
Biology I – Discussion Board
Second Partial Reading
Bugs as Food
New York City; USA – Edited By National Geographic USA
I am sitting in an expensive New
York restaurant and I read the
menu. I can’t believe my eyes!
Chocolate – covered by crickets.
Yuck! I can also order Ant Egg
Soup or Silkworm Fried Rice.
And it’s expensive - $25 for 5
Crickets.
I don’t like the idea of eating
insects. However, in many
countries insects are not luxury
food. They are part of an everyday
diet. In Thailand, open-air markets
sell silkworm and grasshoppers.
Movie theaters in South America
sell roasted ants as snacks instead
of popcorn.
I am probably eating insects
without knowing it, anyway. “ It’s
estimated that the average human
eats half a kilogram of insects
each year, unintentionally”, says
Lisa Monachelli, director of
Youth and family programs at
New Canaan Nature Center in
Connecticut. “For example, in the
United States, chocolate can have
up to 60 bits of Bugs (like legs
and heads) per 100 grams. Tomato
sauce can contain 30 fly eggs per
100 grams and peanut butter can
have 30 insect bits per 100
grams.”
Well, if I am eating insects
anyway … I decide to order the
chocolate covered crickets and
hey, they taste good.
The properties of this food are so
incredible that when I was
searching for the nutrimental
information I was very surprised
by the findings, for example .1
grams of crickets can contain as
the amount of proteins that the
fish has in a plate, in fact the
nutrimental properties of the bugs
are really complete, in addition of
that I think that eating bugs is an
important way to have a better
diet.
An important study in New York
City has proved that the people
who eats bugs alive their suffering
in terms of the circulatory system
sicknesses, in another hand
scientist of the Toronto university
has calculated that If a person
change his diet with the using of
more natural food as a bugs they
can make better their lifestyle
because the properties of the
insects can make a better
functionalism of the body work.
Biology I – Discussion Board
Second Partial Reading
Bugs as Food: Human Bite Back
New York City; USA – Edited By National Geographic USA
Imagine sitting down to the dinner table
and being served a bowl of thick, slimy
larvae. It's enough to make most
Americans' stomachs turn. But in other
countries that same meal makes people's
mouths water.
"It's estimated that the average human
eats one pound (half a kilogram) of
insects each year unintentionally," says
Lisa Monachelli, director of youth and
family programs at New Canaan Nature
Center in Connecticut.
Entomophagy—the consumption of
insects—has been around for thousands
of years in some cultures. Today, it is
estimated that more than half the people
of the world eat a variety of flying,
crawling, and biting bugs. Not only do
these insects apparently taste good, but
they're an inexpensive and nutritious
food source.
Cochineal insects give a red or pink
coloring to foods, lipsticks, and
beverages. The small, scaled bugs are
listed as cochineal extract on the
ingredient list.
Only about 800,000 of the world's
millions of insect species have been
described. And of these multitudes of
bug types, only about 1,500 are known
to be a regular part of the human diet—
including cicadas. Hoards of these black
bugs with transparent wings are
expected to emerge from underground,
along the U.S. east coast, in May.
In Thailand, open-air markets sell
silkworms, grasshoppers, and water
bugs by the pound. Movie theaters in
South America sell roasted ants as
snacks instead of popcorn, and Japanese
supermarkets stock their shelves with
aquatic insect larvae.
In the United States, insects are eaten
more for the shock value than
nutritional one—just watch an episode
of reality television shows like Survivor
or Fear Factor. Contestants gobble
down stink beetles, leeches, and cave
spiders while viewers watch, squirming
in disgust. But what many viewers don't
realize is that they have more in
common with contestants than they
think.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) also allows certain levels of
natural or unavoidable defects in foods,
as long as they doesn't pose a health
risk.
For example, chocolate can have up to
60 insect fragments per 100 grams,
tomato sauce can contain 30 fly eggs
per 100 grams, and peanut butter can
have 30 insect fragments per 100 grams
(3.5 ounces), according to the FDA.