This video explains the problem of food waste and offers several solutions to this huge climate problem.
It shows the power of MIT Media Lab's food cam, a camera that is mounted in the break room at the MIT Media Lab to alert everybody in the building whenever there is leftover food.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Employees from around the building come to eat the food from the food cam, and food waste has dropped significantly because of this invention!
Additional Prerequisites
You may have to watch an ad before and during this video.
Differentiation
This video can be used in homeroom, advisory, or one of those other "in-between" times to teach your students about food waste.
One of the best things you can do to reduce food waste in your school is eliminate dining hall trays from your cafeteria. The video explains that removing food trays from the cafeteria reduced food waste by 50% at UC Santa Barbara. Perhaps students could spearhead this project.
Your students can explore Project Drawdown's Table of Solutions to find out that reducing food waste is an extremely simple and effective way to reduce emissions.
Food waste is a global environmental problem. Efforts to reduce food waste could present a win-win solution by reducing our carbon footprint and also combat global hunger. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
