Unit Map: Metabolism Engineering Internship: Health Bars for Disaster Relief (Middle School)

Students act as food engineering interns to design a health bar to feed people involved in natural disasters, with a particular emphasis on two populations who have health needs beyond what can be provided by emergency meals: patients and rescue workers.. These plans must meet three design criteria: 1) Addressing the metabolic needs of a target population; 2) Tasting as good as possible; and 3) Minimizing costs so as many people can be served as possible. Students focus on the practice of considering trade- offs while designing solutions to deepen their understanding of metabolism; students also learn about questions of scale, proportion, and quantity involved as different proportions of types of molecules affect a body’s health and metabolism.

Research Phase Design Phase Proposal Phase

Students review information from the Metabolism Students use the RecipeTest Design Tool as a part of the Students gather evidence and write proposals, supporting unit, and learn new related content about Design Cycle. They design health bar recipes for either their claim about an optimal solution. They focus on the carbohydrates and glycemic index (a measure of patients or rescue workers, analyzing the results, and types of evidence for the design decisions that helped the rate at which different carbohydrates, releasing conducting further iterations. Students learn the value of them address each criterion. They submit an outline of glucose into the blood) by reading detailed iterative tests, how to balance trade-offs, and how to the proposal to their project director for feedback. They supporting articles in the project Dossier. They work make sense of the results in order to inform their next use the feedback letter, proposal rubric, review of the with the digital Design Tool, RecipeTest, to conduct decisions. They submit an early version of their recipe to dossier, and peer discussion to improve the body of their iterative tests and better understand how different the project director for feedback. They then have a proposals so it is clear how and why each decision led to ingredients affect each criterion. chance to refine these designs in order to create an the proposed optimal design. They run tests and optimal design that addresses all the project criteria. determine whether or not a bar that allows users to perform well under low oxygen conditions would be possible.

Students apply science content: To design successful health bars, students apply their understanding of digestion of food molecules, the role of glucose in cellular respiration, and the role of protein in growth and repair of the body from the Metabolism unit. They also learn about a new related concept- how different types of carbohydrates are digested into glucose at different rates.

Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations MS-ETS1-1; MS-ETS1-2; MS-ETS1-3; MS-ETS1-4; MS-LS1-7

Science and Engineering Practice 1; 2; 4; 6; 7; 8 Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas ETS1.A; ETS1.B; ETS1.C; LS1.C

Crosscutting Concepts Scale, Proportion, and Quantity; Energy and Matter; Cause and Effect

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Reading Informational Text CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1, R.7; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.1,6-8.3; 6-8.4, 6-8.5, 6-8.7, 6-8.9, 6-8.10 Writing CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1;.W.2; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.1, 6-8.1.A, 6-8.1.B, .6-8.1.C, .6-8.1.E, 6-8.2.B, 6-8.2.D, 6-8.4,6-8.5, 6-8.9, 6-8.10 Speaking and Listening CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1, 2, 3, 4, 6 Language CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.4; L.6

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Practices CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1, 2, 3, 5, 6 Content CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.3c, 6.RP.3d, 6.NS.3, 6.NS.5, 6.NS.7, 7.NS.2, 7.NS.3, 6.SP.1, 6.SP.5, 7.SP.1, 7.SP.2, 7.SP.4