Sports and Nutrition 2019-2020

Project summary

This project is structured around the criteria of the BTEC First Extended Certificate in Sport. The students all already play or are involved in sport and fitness at a high level and are planning careers in sport and fitness. The aim is to develop their knowledge of nutrition by examining different diets: vegetarian, vegan, paleolithic, Mediterranean and pescatarian. The entry event involved a series of four cookery sessions at the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food at the Beacon of Light in Sunderland, where they made increasingly more complex recipes and learnt a variety of cooking skills. They demonstrated their cooking skills in the Ministry of Food to invited guests. They then met with five people following the five diets, and after a “client consultation” devised meal plans and recipe cards for them. 

As a final showcase, the plan was that the students would cook a meal in the college refectory, and the winners of a public vote would have their meal included on the menu in the refectory for a day. This was “tweaked” as a result of pupil feedback and teacher reflection throughout the process, and the college being unexpectedly closed due to Covid-19, meaning that the final lessons were transferred online.

Project timeline

Reflection from the teacher focused on the importance of “tweaking” and adapting the project:

“And the kids were just really buying into it and once it gets up, I know you can tweak it and change it as it goes and take their advice and I basically said to them in that initial lesson where so I gave them the overview after that launch event, look, this might change. It’s a new thing. Like, I’ve had the training on it. There’s only 30 people in the country or so doing it. So I don’t know how it’s gonna work. You guys can evolve that, I can evolve it and everyone just went yeah, no worries.”

For the full case study and more information, see the PBL planning guide.