LiFE (Linking Food and the Environment) is a science curriculum series created to give upper elementary and middle school students an in-depth view and experience of food systems. It's a thought-provoking, action-changing, inquiry-based curriculum that encourages student investigations of science topics via the familiar and beloved entry point — food — in a way that busts myths and opens students’ eyes. As they take on the role of food scientists, students ask probing questions:

The LiFE lessons were developed around the QuESTA Learning Cycle, a five-phase process and practice of the scientific method. QuESTA asks students to:

LiFE is divided into four modules, each containing lesson plans with background information, practical teaching tips, tools for assessment, student activity sheets and readings, and a matrix that maps LiFE to the National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy.

The content of the LiFE Modules is framed around driving questions that allow students and teachers to gain knowledge, skills, and practices for making environmental and dietary choices that lead to nutritional well-being, healthy communities, and empowered families. These driving questions propel the modules by directly connecting scientific and nutritional ideas with what’s meaningful to kids. This kind of science education requires thoughtful, relevant, and worthwhile investigations. The LiFE modules include:

Farm to Table & Beyond (grades 5-6)
The driving question: What is the system that gets food from farm to table, and how does this system affect the environment? Students explore why we have food systems, learn about how food is processed, investigate the waste and pollution created in the process, and explore the environmental impacts of our food system. It concludes with students investigating their own food choices to decide if and what they want to change about how they eat and to discuss, debate, and defend their choices.
Farm to Table & Beyond will be published in Spring 2008.

Food & Health (grades 5-6)
The driving question: How does food provide our body with what it needs? Through studying human body systems, students learn how our bodies use food, how our body systems work, and what we can do to maintain good health. Students experiment with food and cook healthful recipes to eat with their peers.
Food & Health will be published in Fall 2008.

Choice, Control & Change (C3) (grades 6-8)
The driving question: How can we use scientific evidence to help us make healthful food and activity choices? Students first study energy balance in the human body and collect food intake (energy input) and activity (energy output) data on themselves. Next students learn how food and activity choices relate to health and explore why obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are increasing in our society. From here they analyze their own food and activity data and discuss, debate, and defend any changes they would like to make to their own lifestyles. Following that, they collect data on ways that our society presents challenges to maintaining healthful habits. The last unit of this module confirms student understanding of the science that connects food and activity to health. Choice, Control and Change is now in the final stages of pilot testing.

Related Article: LiFE's Origins