Science and Our Food Supply: Investigating Food Safety from Farm to Table

27

MIDDLE LEVEL

MODULE 1:

 UNDERSTANDING BACTERIA

THE 12 MOST UNWANTED BACTERIA

PROCEDURE

1. 

Divide students into 12 teams. Have a person from each 

team select a pathogen from the bowl. 

2. 

Ask the students what they’d like to know about  

bacteria in order to become “super science detectives.” 

Write their answers on the board.  

3. 

Give a blank food safety portfolio to each team.  

Challenge them to be constantly on the lookout for  

information about their pathogen and to record their 

findings in their portfolio. Remind them to include the 

date, URL for websites, title, author, year, and page  

numbers of books or articles. 

4. 

Have each team divide the questions on The 12 Most 

Unwanted Bacteria reproducible equally among members 

of their team, so that everyone in the group has a task. 

The reproducible can be used as a checklist during their 

research. 

5. 

Give each team background material on their selected 

pathogen from the Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide 

to get them started. 

6. 

Explain that students in each group will work together to:  

• 

Conduct in-depth research about their pathogen. 

• 

Find out how their pathogen makes an impact on food 

safety along the Farm-to-Table Continuum. 

• 

Discover what can be done to control the growth of 

their pathogen. 

• 

Present their research to the class to teach other  

students about their pathogen. Give students a date 

for their presentations.