Materials:

• Test Tube
• 20 mL water
• Test-tube tongs
• Thermometer
• Aluminum pan
• Metal Skewer
• Stopwatch
• Lighter or Matches
• Walnut (or any nut)
• Marshmallow (or any candy)
• Funyun (or any chip)
• Pencil

Procedure (As seen in Movie):

1. Place students in groups of 4
2. Assign each student in each group one of four jobs: test tube holder; food holder; time watcher; data recorder.
3. Once each job has been assigned, the test tube holder should go to the sink and fill the beaker with 20mL of water.
4. Tell the test tube holder to place the thermometer in the water. The data recorder should record the initial temperature of the water in degrees Celsius in the data sheet under “Initial Temperature.”
5. Once the initial temperature has been recorded, the test tube holder should hold the tube with the test tube tongs.
6. Next, tell the food holder to place the marshmallow on the metal skewer, and hold it over the aluminum pan (to prevent mess).
7. When the food holder is in position, the test tube should be held just above the marshmallow (See Film for Visual).
8. When all students are in position, the teacher can light the marshmallow using the lighter.
9. The time-watcher should start the stopwatch as soon as the marshmallow is lit.
10. The time-watcher should stop the watch when the fire goes out. If the marshmallow falls off of the skewer into the aluminum pan but is still burning, time is not up.
11. The data recorder should record in the data table the amount of time the marshmallow burned. The burning marsmallow will have caused the temperature of the water in the tube to rise, so the temperature of the water at the time the marshmallow stopped burning should also be recorded under “Temperature Two.”
12. Once all information has been recorded, spill the hot water out of the tube into the sink and get another fresh 20mL.
13. Repeat procedure for walnut and funyun.

Data Sheet:

My students' comments were mostly positive, in terms of admiration for the two narrators of the film, whose intelligence, curiosity and activism they deeply admired. In fact, they expressed some shame at being older yet not as involved in issues affecting them as Safiyah and Sadie. There was some discussion about the differences they perceived between themselves and the girls in terms of background, family life and environment and how these might partly account for the gaps in awareness of health issues, access to people and information, etc.

I explained that part of the reason I chose the film was for its depiction of the "whole food" (or "food justice" or call it what you will) movement as one cutting across age, class, gender, national and ethnic boundaries and uniting people in the common goal of accessing the safe, healthy, affordable and sustainable food supply that is our right. Many of the other films I had to chose from failed to convey this, and some proposed solutions I found difficult to, well, swallow. I much prefer the strategy of supporting small farmers, for instance, than that of focusing on getting organic food into Walmart. Along these lines, I would love to see a film explore the formation of member-owned food co-ops that use multiple members' labor, committment and buying power to encourage ecologically and socially informed, responsible consumption and to allow people access to these products affordably.

In short, the film facilitated a rich and timely discussion. I'm thankful to have seen it just when I did and to have been able to share it with my students. Very best of luck to you all in getting it out there.