Studying Scotland
Food Culture: Food Choices and the Consumer - First level > Focus on Health and Wellbeing
Overview
This learning and teaching idea aims to explore food culture in Scotland and the ways we can keep ourselves healthy
by making the correct food choices. Using health and wellbeing as its lead curriculum area, this context for learning has
a strong science focus covering what our bodies and other living things need to be healthy.
These learning experiences have been prepared for learners working within first level and aim to teach skills in
analysing information and evaluating it to make informed choices. This strong responsibility of all link (literacy across
learning) encourages learners to be discerning of what they read/ hear/ watch e.g. advertising, persuasion techniques
used to entice the consumer and what diet is the right diet.
The following learning opportunities are exemplified:
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Food advertising – Do we get what is advertised to us?
What does the human body actually need? What is the effect of excess/ deficiency on the human body?
Using persuasion to create our own advertising campaign for healthy snacks.
Health and Wellbeing experiences
and outcomes explored
Responsibility of all areas, which could
be addressed in this learner journey:
I am discovering the different ways that
advertising can affect my choices.
Literacy across learning
To help me develop an informed view, I can
recognise the difference between fact and
opinion.
HWB 1-30a
I experience a sense of enjoyment and
achievement when preparing simple healthy
foods and drinks.
LIT 1-18a
I can convey information, describe events or
processes, share my opinions or persuade my
reader in different ways.
HWB 1-30b
LIT 1-29a
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland
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Sciences (See exemplification)
Other opportunities may exist in:
HWB 1-37a
By investigating the range of foods available I can
discuss how they contribute to a healthy diet.
Interdisciplinary opportunities
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Technologies through the design of new
packaging/ advertising.
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RME through engagement with food festivals
and food customs.
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Mathematics through analysing data on food
packaging and advertising. Completing
simple charts to exemplify what is in our food.
Studying Scotland
Food Culture: Food Choices and the Consumer - First level > Focus on Health and Wellbeing
This interdisciplinary approach shows some possible learning opportunities when the experiences and outcomes listed below are connected. These ideas are
starting points and could be used to support planning, depending on your context. In this example we have highlighted a lead curriculum area, however, other
curriculum areas can be included where relevant, based on needs and interests.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
SCIENCES
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*Watch/ read a variety of food advertising and
discuss – Does the product look the way it does in
the advert in real life? What make you want to buy
this product e.g. children eating it, bright coloured
packaging etc.
Compare adverts for healthy and unhealthy snacks
(both on TV and in magazines.) Decide which you
would prefer to buy and describe why.
Create a new wrapper/ advert for a healthy snack,
which would make it more appealing.
Plant, grow, prepare and eat healthy snacks.
Consider what we need to contribute to a healthy
diet and revisit the good food plate e.g. all food
groups, calories etc.
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Related Experiences and
Outcomes connected within this
context for learning
HWB 1-37a, 1-30a, 1-30b
SCN 1-12a, 1-03a
LIT 1-18a, LIT 1-29a
LITERACY ACROSS LEARNING
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www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland
*Investigate and describe the
function of the human skeleton and
vital organs. Describe what would
happen if the skeleton/ organs if
there is a deficiency or excess in a
food e.g. calcium/ salt.
Through planting activities design a
fair test to show what plants need
to grow and compare this to what
humans need to grow and be
healthy. (observe and share
findings in an appropriate way.)
Watch/ read a variety of food advertising and discuss – Is everything we see factual?
Is there any opinion in the adverts? (Discuss basic false advertising.)
Make a list of persuasive words that adverts use.
*Create an advert for an unhealthy snack, which makes it sound more healthy… then
create an advert for a healthy snack using persuasive language.
Consider food packaging and design a new wrapper for a healthy snack. Add a
healthy slogan.
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Studying Scotland
Food Culture: Food Choices and the Consumer - First level > Focus on Health and Wellbeing
Overview of learning in lead curriculum area
Possible prior experiences
Learners will all have eaten
foods (healthy and unhealthy.)
Learners will have seen
advertising (on TV, posters,
magazines)
Watch adverts/ read adverts
in magazines and describe
the main features.
Most learners will know that
food is advertised on the
television
Look at a variety of real foods
(ready meals) and discuss
whether they look like the
advert/ packaging.
Some learners will know that
advertising can affect our
choices.
Some learners will know what
is needed for a healthy diet.
Learners may not know what
living things need to grow and
be healthy.
Skills
Possible learning
opportunities in lead
curricular area
Remembering food groups
and how they contribute to the
health of the body.
Literacy Skills – watching and
reading adverts. Discuss
persuasion techniques.
Analysis of information and
persuasion techniques used in
adverts.
Investigate the ‘Eat Well
Plate’ and consider the
amount of calories needed in
a day.
Health and Wellbeing Skills –
making informed decisions in
order to improve and maintain
health.
Investigate what each food
groups give the body e.g.
diary is a good source of
calcium.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland
Evaluate – The images on
packaging compared with the
real life product.
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Possible sources of
evidence
Write – a non-fiction account of
what the main food groups are
and the effect they have on the
human body.
Say – recordings/ transcripts of
learners discussing persuasion
techniques used by adverts.
Do – Annotate packaging
compared with photos of the
products describing differences
in representation.
Make – A graph showing how
many people preferred the
unhealthy food adverts.
Write – Annotate the graph
(above) with some of the
reasons why learners preferred
the unhealthy food adverts.
Studying Scotland
Food Culture: Food Choices and the Consumer - First level > Focus on Health and Wellbeing
Learning experience 1: Food Advertising – Can we trust what adverts tell us?
Possible Starting Points
Resources
Take a walk in your local environment – are there any adverts
on bus stops, in shops etc. Make a list of the ones advertising
foods. What sorts of foods are they advertising?
Teacher resource from NHS regarding Disney banning unhealthy food
adverts (also very useful links in the side bar)
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2012/06june/Pages/disney-bans-junk-foodadverts.aspx
Look at food advertising in magazines and television and
discuss which foods are commonly advertised.
Use well-known corporate images e.g. vibrant colours, clowns,
cartoons to discuss images and persuasion techniques in advertising.
http://www.tellyads.com/
Look at a variety of ready meals packaging. Use the
instructions to cook and taste these foods. Are we getting
what we bought? (Compare the cooked product to the
packaging.)
An Education Scotland resource regarding advertising of Healthy Food:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/passeportfrancophone/links/langu
age/advertising/index.asp
Make a list of the persuasive words and phrases used in the
adverts/ on the packaging. Ask whether these words are fact
or opinion?
Skills
Remembering adverts and their slogans and persuasive techniques
Learning
Evaluating how well do food adverts tell us the best nutritional
information.
Foods are advertised on television, in magazines and on
posters in towns/ cities/ supermarkets etc.
Possible evidence
Advertising may use persuasion techniques to make a product
more attractive to consumers.
Recording sheets showing persuasive words used in advertising,
annotated examples of packaging showing misleading information,
Foods may not always look the way they do on their
packaging.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland
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Studying Scotland
Food Culture: Food Choices and the Consumer - First level > Focus on Health and Wellbeing
Learning experience 2: Create your own advertising campaign for healthy snacks
Possible starting points
Resources for Learning
Learners could make a list of the persuasive terms used in
other marketing campaign. (Especially adverts for a
specifically Scottish market e.g. Irn Bru, Scottish Blend etc.)
Cbeebies Storyboard
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/jackanoryjunior/makes/jackanory-junior-comicstrip
Learners could consider who the Scottish buyers are and then
think about the images and slogans appropriate to the market.
The learners may wish to target foods with less salt, more
Vitamin D.
Comic Life
http://comic-life.en.softonic.com
Persuasive word bank
http://www.frankwbaker.com/persuasive.html
Storyboard an advert with a beginning, middle and end.
Learning
Skills
Some of Scotland’s population are eating the wrong foods.
Applying learning from previous opportunities to create
Advertising encourages people to eat the right foods.
Creating a new advert for a healthy snack or drink
Storyboarding an advert makes it make more sense (like a
story)
Possible evidence
Slogans and persuasive language are key tools in suggestion.
Annotated photographs of learners planning their adverts,
Storyboard of advert, completed advert.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland
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Studying Scotland
Food Culture: Food Choices and the Consumer - First level > Focus on Health and Wellbeing
Learning experience 3: What does the human body need? What is the effect of excess/ deficiency on the human body?
Possible starting points
Resources for Learning
Introduce the main parts of the body e.g. skeleton, vital
organs (heart, liver, kidneys, lungs.)
2 BBC Class clips about the effect food has on your body:
Clip 1 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/good-and-badfood-choices-healthy-eating-pt-1-2/4081.html
Clip 2 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/good-and-badfood-choices-healthy-eating-pt-2-2/4089.html
Using the Eat Well Plate visit the food groups and consider
what they do for the body e.g. diary is good for bones and
teeth, drinking plenty of water is good for the kidneys.
Consider what may happen to your skeleton and vital organs
if you were deficient in something/ were excessively eating or
drinking a certain thing. Salt and Sugar are good examples of
this.
Change for life (NHS)
http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx
Skills
Investigate what the most common deficiencies and excesses
are in Scotland? What can we do to solve this problem?
Analysing and Evaluating information
Use a checklist to compare the taste and appearance of foods.
Comparing a well body to a body experiencing deficiency/
excess
Learning
Possible evidence
The human body has a skeleton and internal organs which
are crucial to keep us alive.
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Annotated diagrams of well bodies and bodies experiencing
deficiency/ excess.
What we eat has an effect on our body.
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Checklist of taste and appearance of foods tested, annotated
eat well plate.
If we don’t eat enough/ too much our internal organs/ skeleton
may suffer.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/studyingscotland
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