Challenge B
Welcome to the elementary school challenge page for Challenge B of the Fairchild Challenge! Read below to find challenge information, entry requirements, resources and more for the challenge.
Challenge B: Food Science
Title: Planet to Plate
Due Date: Fri., Dec. 5, 2025 by 5 p.m.
Your Challenge:
Do you have a favorite meal? Have you ever wondered where the ingredients to make your favorite meal came from before they got to the grocery store? Before it reaches your plate, every ingredient has a story—from the soil it grew in, to the farm it came from, to how it was packaged and transported. Explore the journey your food takes and how it connects to the Earth!
Your challenge is to create a 3D sculpture of your favorite meal using reused or recycled materials. Then, draw its life cycle: Where does it come from? How was it grown or made? How does it get to you? In this challenge, you will learn all about how everything we eat is connected to farming, nature and the environment.
This challenge helps us understand how our food choices affect the planet—and why it's important to think about things like food waste, packaging and where our meals come from.
K – 1st Grade: Choose 1 ingredient from your favorite meal and draw its “life cycle".
2 – 3rd Grade: Choose 2 ingredients from your favorite meal and draw its “life cycle".
4 – 5th Grade: Choose 3 ingredients from your favorite meal and draw its “life cycle".
Entry Requirements:
Deliver to the science education coordinator at Phipps in person or via certified mail (electronic submission is not accepted):
- Challenge Entry Form
- Each scavenger hunt MUST be labeled with the participating school and students’ names
- Schools can submit a maximum for three projects (sculpture and life cycle analysis)
- Sculpture must be crafted with recycled or reused materials
- Each life cycle analysis must be an original piece of work either hand-drawn or drawn electronically
- No AI
School Submits:
Challenge Entry Form, sculpture and life cycle illustrations
Resources:
The following list of online resources may be used when preparing your entry:
- Where in the World is your Food from? (Food Mapping!)
- From Seed to Fruit | Interactive | Everyday Learning | PBS LearningMedia
- Farm Animal Life Cycles -
- Know Where Your Food Comes From with USDA Foods | Home
- Where does your food come from? | Food + Farm Exploration Center
- Welcome to Grow Pittsburgh - Grow Pittsburgh
Standards:
Read below to find the standards for each grade level for Challenge B of the Elementary School Fairchild Challenge
- 3.4.K-2.A Students who demonstrate understanding can categorize ways people harvest, re-distribute, and use natural resources.
- 3.4.K-2.C Students who demonstrate understanding can explain ways that places differ in their physical characteristics, their meaning, and their value and/or importance.
- 3.4.K-2.D Students who demonstrate understanding can plan and carry out an investigation to address an issue in their local environment and community.
- 4.3.2.A Describe the jobs/hobbies people have in the community that relate to natural resources.
- 4.3.2.B Identify products and by-products derived from renewable resources.
- 4.4.2.A Identify agriculture as a living system and that food and fiber originate from plants and animals.
- 4.4.2.B Explain how agriculture supports jobs in Pennsylvania.
- 4.5.2.A Identify the natural resources used to make various products.
- 4.5.2.C Identify how people can reduce pollution.
- 4.5.2.D Describe how people can help the environment by reducing, reusing, recycling and composting.
- 4.1.3.C Identify sources of energy.
- 4.3.3.A Identify the natural resources used to make various products.
- 4.3.3.B Identify local natural resources.
- 4.4.3.A Identify Pennsylvania crops that provide food for the table and fiber for textiles.
- 4.4.3.B Explain how agriculture meets the basic needs of humans.
- 4.4.3.C Use scientific inquiry to investigate what animals and plants need to grow.
- 4.4.3.D Identify technology used in agriculture.
- Identify tools and machinery used in agricultural processes.
- 4.5.3.A Identify resources humans take from the environment for their survival.
- 4.5.3.C Identify different types of pollution and their sources.
- 9.1.3.E Demonstrate the ability to define objects, express emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through creation of works in the arts.
- 4.1.4.B Identify how matter cycles through an ecosystem.
- Trace how death, growth, and decay cycle matter through an ecosystem
- 4.3.4.A Identify ways humans depend on natural resources for survival.
- Identify resources used to provide humans with energy, food, employment, housing and water.
- 4.3.4.B Identify the geographic origins of various natural resources.
- 4.4.4.A Describe the journey of local/global agricultural commodities from production to consumption.
- 4.4.4.B Describe how humans rely on the food and fiber system.
- Identify Pennsylvania’s important agricultural products.
- 4.4.4.D Identify how technology affects the development of civilizations through agricultural production.
- 4.4.5.A Explain why animal production is dependent upon plant production.
- 4.4.5.C Investigate the factors influencing plant and animal growth. (e.g., soil, water, nutrients, and light)
