In the Victorian Curriculum F–10, content related to healthy eating features in both Design and Technologies and Health and Physical Education curriculum areas. When teaching about healthy eating, these two curriculum areas can be used to complement each other.
The focus area of Food and nutrition provides a context through which to teach and assess content drawn from the Health and Physical Education curriculum. Healthy eating addresses the role of food and nutrition in enhancing health and wellbeing, growth and development, identity, and connecting to others. Students develop the knowledge to make healthy choices about food and nutrition, explore the range of influences on these choices and build the skills to access and assess nutritional information that can support healthy choices. Students also explore the social and emotional roles of food, including links to identity and connecting with others.
In the Design and Technologies curriculum area the emphasis, through the context of Food specialisations, is how to apply knowledge of the characteristics and scientific and sensory principles to food selection and preparation. Students can do this through the design and preparation of food for specific purposes and consumers. They also develop understandings of contemporary technology-related food issues such as convenience foods, highly processed foods, food packaging and food transport.
Together these two curriculums provide ways for students to develop personal and social skills and critically appraise cultural and social factors that influence healthy eating.
Unit of work samples
The following units of work provide examples of how Home Economics teaching and learning programs can draw on both Design and Technologies and Health and Physical Education.
Each unit of work has an accompanying summative assessment task, including implementation instructions and an assessment rubric with clear links to the Victorian Curriculum F–10, along with annotated student work samples.
Unit of work sample: Savoury breakfast muffin
The following unit of work provides another example of how Home Economics teaching and learning programs can draw on both Design and Technologies and Health and Physical Education.
In this unit of work, students design and produce a savoury breakfast muffin to a standard suitable for entry into a competition such as the Royal Melbourne Show Art, Craft & Cookery Competition.
Levels 7 and 8 sample unit of work: Creating a savoury breakfast muffin
The Design and Technologies curriculum and the Royal Melbourne Show webinar recording