Positives

• This lesson is a practical and engaging way to practice mathematical concepts.
• The worksheet for the students is very detailed, with clear instructions on how to record and analyze dimensions measured.

Additional Prerequisites

• A large open space like a gym or field is needed for this lesson.
• Teachers will need to provide students with measuring tapes and cones or some other sort of marker.

Differentiation

• This activity can be used to review conversion from one metric value to another.
• For students who are not very math-loving, consider creating the groups so that their strengths are emphasized in the analysis/reporting section.
• Students could select from a wider range of foods using this resource.
• Other related resources include this SubjectToClimate lesson about the carbon footprints of foods, this video on innovative farming practices to reduce land requirements, and this video on the negative climate impacts of beef.
• Using this video as background, students could do similar calculations to those from this lesson but instead measure the land requirements for different energy sources like solar, wind, nuclear, and fossil fuel.