Exploring Our World: Landscapes and Livelihoods · third-class

Active learning ideas

Global Connections: Where Our Food Comes From

Active learning helps students grasp complex systems like global food chains by making abstract connections visible and tangible. Moving beyond maps and discussions, students physically trace food routes, role-play trade steps, and document real stories, which builds lasting understanding of interdependence and geography.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Trade and development
• NCCA: Primary - People and other lands

• 30–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Concept Mapping
• 45 min · Small Groups

Mapping Activity: Food Journey Maps

Provide world maps and images of foods like bananas or tea. In small groups, students draw routes from origin farms to Irish homes, labeling farms, transport modes, and challenges like ocean crossings. Groups share maps and compare journeys.

Analyze the journey of a common food item from its origin to your home.

Facilitation Tip

During the Mapping Activity, provide large world maps and colored yarn so students can physically connect origins to Ireland, reinforcing spatial thinking.

What to look for

Provide students with a picture of a common imported food item (e.g., an orange). Ask them to write: 1. One country where this food might grow. 2. One reason Ireland might import it. 3. One type of transport it likely used.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Concept Mapping
• 30 min · Whole Class

Sorting Game: Local or Imported?

Display pictures or real samples of 20 foods. As a whole class, students sort them into 'grown in Ireland' or 'imported' categories on a T-chart. Discuss climate reasons for each, using atlases for verification.

Explain why Ireland imports certain foods rather than growing them locally.

Facilitation Tip

For the Sorting Game, use real food packaging or images labeled only with countries to push students to justify their choices with evidence from climate data.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine you are a farmer in a country that grows bananas. What are two challenges you might face in getting your bananas to children in Ireland?' Encourage students to consider weather, transport, and market prices.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Concept Mapping
• 40 min · Small Groups

Role-Play: Supply Chain Simulation

Assign roles like farmer, ship captain, truck driver, and shopkeeper to small groups. Students pass a 'food item' (prop) along the chain, acting out delays from weather or borders. Debrief on teamwork and global links.

Evaluate the impact of global food trade on different countries.

Facilitation Tip

In the Supply Chain Role-Play, assign specific roles with clear scripts so each student experiences the constraints of their position, from farmer to shopkeeper.

What to look for

Show a world map and point to Ireland. Ask students to identify one food they eat that likely comes from another country. Have them explain why Ireland might not grow that food locally, referencing climate or season.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Concept Mapping
• 50 min · Individual

Passport Project: My Food's Story

Individually, students create a foldable passport for one food. They research and draw stamps for each journey stage, adding facts on why imported. Share in pairs for peer feedback.

Analyze the journey of a common food item from its origin to your home.

Facilitation Tip

For the Passport Project, set clear time slots for research and allow students to draft their stories before finalizing them to build confidence in writing.

What to look for

Provide students with a picture of a common imported food item (e.g., an orange). Ask them to write: 1. One country where this food might grow. 2. One reason Ireland might import it. 3. One type of transport it likely used.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should anchor learning in concrete examples students already recognize, like bananas or coffee, and connect these to personal experience before introducing wider systems. Avoid overwhelming students with too many examples at once, instead building depth through repetition and varied perspectives. Research shows that role-play and mapping engage different cognitive pathways, so combining these methods strengthens understanding more than lectures or worksheets alone.

By the end of these activities, students will be able to explain why Ireland imports certain foods, describe the transport steps foods take, and discuss some challenges involved. They will also show empathy for farmers worldwide and recognize trade-offs in global food systems.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Sorting Game: Local or Imported?, watch for students assuming all foods eaten in Ireland are grown here.

  Use the Sorting Game to help students confront this idea directly. Provide images of foods like bananas or oranges alongside climate maps of Ireland to show why these foods cannot be grown locally year-round, then have students research the actual origins before classifying them.

• During the Supply Chain Simulation, listen for comments that foods appear in shops without travel.

  Use the role-play to make the journey visible. Assign students to act as farmers, transporters, and shop owners, and have them physically move food items through each step, recording time and costs. Afterward, discuss how this process reveals the effort and time behind food availability.

• During the Passport Project: My Food's Story, watch for oversimplified views that food trade has no downsides for producing countries.

  Use the Passport Project to broaden perspectives. Ask students to include at least one challenge faced by farmers in their food's origin country, such as fair wages or environmental impact, and support this with brief research from news clips or websites provided in class.

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Methods used in this brief

• Concept Mapping