Students explore New World and Old World food origins to discover how the Columbian Exchange altered people’s lives worldwide. Grades 9-12

Both a book and a movie, Guns, Germs and Steel lays a foundation for understanding human history. Enter a 10,000 year journey through history and across every continent of the world to learn how and why human civilizations evolved from hunter-gatherers to a growing civilization and why some civilizations progressed faster than others. Learn how farming and the domestication of plants and animals impacted this evolution. 

View this 17-minute video to learn about the origins of corn. Discover how the domestication of corn impacted society and what plant domestic corn originates from. This video supports lessons on the domestication of plants and genetic evolution.

Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip...and why?  Welcome to the Food Timeline! Food history presents a fascinating buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts. Some people will tell you it's impossible to express this topic in exact timeline format. They are correct. Most foods we eat are not invented; they evolve.