Separation of Powers: What’s for Lunch?

How would you rate your school’s lunches? How would you rate the food in your school cafeteria overall? 1 = Horrible 2 = Average 3 = Delicious! 4 = I don’t eat the food in the cafeteria. Do you think the food needs to be improved? Yes! Some of it. No! No opinion. Is the food being served healthy? Not at all Sometimes Always What does healthy mean? Distribute the handout entitled, “What’s for Lunch?,” to each student. These questions are at the top of the handout. Students are meant to complete them as the warm-up activity. When they are done, you can either have the students share their answers with a neighbor or call on select students for their responses.

Designing a New Menu: Today, you and your classmates are in charge of designing a new menu for your school lunches! One catch - it must be healthy!!! Second catch – no single student can decide this on his or her own. This will be a group effort! Organize the students into small groups (2-4 students each). Provide each group with a copy of the handout entitled, “Designing the Menu.” Introduce today’s activity, which involves five rounds focusing on designing a healthy school lunch menu.

Round 1: Choosing the Categories Role = Lead Chef Examine the menu options. Debate amongst yourselves, and then CIRCLE the 5 categories for your menu upon which you can all agree. Remember, it must be healthy! You will decide when each round starts and stops. Provide approximately five minutes for this first round. Ask the students to put all their names on the handout in the appropriate spot. When all the groups have completed this step, have the students pass the “Designing the Menu” handout to another group. A simple way is for each group to pass it to the next group to their right. STOP WHEN YOU’RE DONE!

Round 2: Creating the Menu Role: The Writers Using the categories that the “Lead Chef” developed, you are to choose what foods to serve. Tip: Your menu must match the categories that the writers created. This round will also take approximately five minutes. Ask the students to put their names in the appropriate space on the handout. Again, when all the groups have completed this step, ask the students to pass the “Designing the Menu” handout back to the initial group of “lead chefs” that wrote it. STOP WHEN YOU’RE DONE!

Round 3: Move Forward or Try Again? Role = Lead Chef If you agree with what the WRITERS came up with, vote YES for the menu to be made. If you do not like what the WRITERS decided, vote NO. This is a VETO! This round will be shorter than the first two. Give the students just 2-3 minutes to decide and vote on whether they approve of the menu. When all groups have done this, ask the students to pass the “Designing the Menu” back to the group of “Writers” who previously had it. STOP WHEN YOU’RE DONE!

Round 4: Where to go now? STOP WHEN YOU’RE DONE! If the Lead Chef said YES, your menu is one step closer to being made! If the Lead Chef said NO, then the WRITERS must vote again on the menu. If everyone likes the menu you created, it moves ahead. If everyone does not agree, you would try again to write something the Lead Chef would agree with. This round will also only be 2-3 minutes. When all the groups are done, have them pass the handout to a NEW group. ** NOTE: This is the only round in the activity where groups might be doing two different things. If the “Lead Chefs” approved the menu, then the “Writers” can simply sit with the paper and be happy that their menu was signed into law! They do not need to write anything for “Round 4” on the handout. If the “Lead Chefs” vetoed the menu, then the “Writers” will need to attempt to override the veto. They will vote as a group if they like their menu, and if the vote is unanimous, then it becomes a law. They would document this on the handout. If the “Writers” are not unanimous in their decision to override the “Lead Chefs,” then they mark this on the handout. For the purposes of this activity, the handout still advances to the “Judges” for Round 5, even if the veto was not overridden. You can explain that in “real life,” Congress would rewrite the bill to get the President’s signature, but that for this activity, unfortunately there is not time to do that. STOP WHEN YOU’RE DONE!

Round 5: Evaluating the Results Role: The Judge You have 2 important responsibilities: Decide what “healthy” means. (2)Decide if the school lunch menu meets your definition of healthy. This round will take approximately five minutes. Ask the students to put their names in the appropriate space on the handout. In their role as Supreme Court justices, students will first be evaluating whether the menu that the other two groups created is healthy. For the purposes of this activity, the students will define what their standard for “healthy” is. This symbolizes the way judges define language in the Constitution. When the Supreme Court considers a constitutional case, it looks at the language in the Constitution and interprets it. It decides upon a guideline that it will compare with the facts in the particular case to see whether the Constitution was violated or not. The students will be doing this as well. They will define what “healthy” means and then use that as a guideline to evaluate whether the menu lives up to their standard or not. If it does, then the school lunch menu is upheld. If it does not, then the school lunch menu is struck down. STOP WHEN YOU’RE DONE!

Final Result: Will your lunch be made? Raise your hand if your lunch will be made? Raise your hand if your lunch will NOT be made? Have the “Judges” pass the group handout back to the “Lead Chefs” connected with it. Take this opportunity to survey the students about what happened with their menu.

Quick Review: What was the goal? To make a healthy school lunch! Round 1: The Lead Chef chose the categories. Round 2: The Writers decided on the menu. Round 3: The Lead Chef said yes or no to the menu. Round 4: The Writers’ menu was approved by voting to overrule the Chef (if needed). Round 5: The Judges evaluated whether the menu was healthy. Final Result: Either the lunch will be made or it will not! If not, this all starts over from the beginning! Ultimately, this lesson is about connecting the activity with the roles of the federal government’s three branches. This slide is meant to review with students the specific job they performed in each round. As you will see, these connect with the three branches as well as the Balance of Powers video game.

In order for this to happen, what had to occur? Each group had to perform its role. Each group had to follow the rules. The final product was a compromise of all three groups. These points are intended to lay the groundwork for the concepts of “separation of powers” and “checks and balances,” which are a key component of the Balance of Powers videogame.

Connecting School Lunches to Your Government: The Lead Chef = Executive Branch The Writers = Legislative Branch The Judge = Judicial Branch Your goal = Making School Lunches The 3 Branches’ Goal = Making Laws This slide makes concrete connections between the previous activity and the three branches.

Role 1: The Executive Branch Main Part: The President President’s job – There are several! Set important issues for Congress to work on Signs bills into law Or says no, which is called a VETO Is the boss of the government and makes sure the government carries out all the laws Who does the President care about? ALL Americans Students are now using the “What’s for Lunch?” individual handout to take notes for the remainder of the lesson. NOTE: Writing the full descriptions of the President’s job may not fit in the designated space on the handout, so you can either abbreviate these or have students only write about a few.

Role 2: The Legislative Branch Main Part: Congress Includes: The House of Representatives The Senate Job: Write and pass bills Who do they care about? Their voters

Role 3: The Judicial Branch Main Part: The Supreme Court Their job: To make sure the other two branches are playing by the rules! What do they represent? The Constitution, which is the official rulebook for the U.S. government.

Let’s Review: What’s the goal? What must happen? To make laws! Round 1: President sets ideas for bills. Round 2: Congress writes and passes bills. Round 3: President says yes or no (VETO) Round 4: If yes, bill is a law. If no, Congress votes again and tries to override the President. Round 5: Supreme Court evaluates whether the law meets the rules of the Constitution. Final Product: A Law or nothing! If a law … then the lunches will be made! This slide connects each round of the activity with what the government actually does. Students will copy this information on the back of their individual handout. The bonus question is included to draw attention to the fact that after a law is created, it is the executive branch that carries it out. And the President would be the person making sure this happens. Bonus Question: Which branch would make the lunch (i.e. carry out the law)?

Today I Learned: What are the 3 branches of the government, and what is each branch’s main job? What is the goal the 3 branches are trying to reach? Can any one branch reach the goal on its own? Does any one branch have all the power?   These are the final review questions for the lessons. Students have these on the back of their individual handouts. You can have the students complete this and turn it in for a grade. Or you can review the answers with the students at the end of the lesson. The answer key is part of the formal lesson plan on the website.