Discovering the Past: Food and Farming (Discovering the Past for GCSE)

"Food and Farming" is an introductory project for National Curriculum Key Stage 2 history, covering the most popular supplementary topic option. The pupil's book contains stimulus material and information, while the teacher's resource pack contains preparatory material, documentary sources, assignment sheets and follow-up material. It is targetted at children of ages seven to eight and over. The "Food and Farming" project is designed to provide both children and teachers with a gentle introduction to the techniques required to cope with the three attainment targets at levels one to five. The approach aims to familiarize children with the sorts of strategies needed to deal confidently with the six core study units. Here, the pupil's work is contained in 31 units based on double-page spreads. It starts and ends in modern times, using the children's own experiences of growing, buying, choosing and preparing food. Modern food production is compared with techniques developed in other societies at different periods of history. There are case studies on Mesopotamia, Britain during the reign of Richard II and the 18th century. The book ends with a unit on the advantages and problems of modern agriculture.