Chocolate: The New Health Food. Or Is It?

This packet features a highly rated ChemMatters article accompanied by a variety of student activities and teacher resources for an emergency lesson plan. Choosing from activities grouped into three categories below, a teacher can design a plan, suitable for delivery by a substitute teacher, which will fit his or her own classroom needs. The content of “Chocolate: The New Health Food. Or Is It?” illustrates a number of chemistry topics, including oxidation of free radicals in biochemistry, molecular structure, and organic chemistry functional groups.

Starter Activities

These are intended to be completed before students read the article. These activities activate prior knowledge, engage student interest, begin a conversation on the topic of the article, and help students relate to the information to be discovered in the article.

While Reading Activities

These are for students to do while reading the article. They help direct student exploration so they can understand and organize the content. Strategies are included to help students explain what they have learned.

Further Exploration Activities

These are to be completed after reading the article, to reinforce and practice new ideas and elaborate on the topic.