LIVING IN THE FAST (food) LANE!
by Janet Cundiff
Introduction ·
Question ·
Background Info ·
Individual Roles ·
Group Process
Rubric ·
Conclusion ·
Teacher's Guide
Introduction ·
Question ·
Background Info ·
Individual Roles ·
Group Process
Rubric ·
Conclusion ·
Teacher's Guide
Introduction
You are a senior in high school and very athletic. Your mom will be away for a week. You want to impress her with your ability to be 'head of the household' and prove to her you are ready to get your own apartment. This is the perfect opportunity! You're in charge of meals for your grandmother who has high blood pressure and your little brother who tends to be overweight. They both LOVE fast food and encourage you to use the money to feed them by bringing in dinner each night. As you think about the situation you wonder if that's the best idea, given these conditions.
What's the answer? In the old days (say just before you were born), people could read books, study, and feel pretty sure they knew what was going on. Then things started changing. We realized everyone had an opinion and if we listened, we could learn something. You could ask people. You COULD look in books. Nahhhh...and then there's the web! Ah-oh... Because anyone can publish a Web page and passionate people tend to want to get their ideas out there, almost any interest, concern or issue finds an answer on the web. Guess what: you're going to use the Web for learning about fast foods. As you are exploring, remember to evaluate what you are reading and use information that is from valid sources. I have selected some sources for you to read, but if you need others, please feel free to do your own searching.
You and your friends are going to explore the topic of healthy eating. Each member of your team will become an expert for one fast food restaurant. Then you'll have to come back together to decide the positive and negative aspects of each as related to health issues. I want you to do a good job, so why not read the evaluation rubric for this WebQuest and you'll know how I score you BEFORE you start the work?
The Question
The main question you will be asked to find an answer for is:
Can you 'eat healthy' by frequenting fast food restaurants?
Background Information
Before becoming an expert on one aspect of this topic, we'd better make sure that everyone on your WebQuest team knows the basics. Use the two links below to review the fundamentals of healthy eating.
A. Read the FAST FOOD FACTS article. Create a table in a MS Word document to record the safe intake of each of the food components listed.
FAST FOOD MEALS
In the section called 'Fast Food Meals' copy the table for your favorite meal from this list. Include it in your MS Word document.
BETTER FAST FOOD CHOICES
In this section copy the table for the same food (as in the previous section) in your word document. Compare and contrast the two meals. Would you consider ordering the second meal instead of the first? Why or why not?
FAST FOOD SURPRISES
Read through the section to see that better choices are available. At the bottom of the page, click on 'Fast Food Finder.' Choose one of the restaurants and type in your favorite meal. Click to find the contents of this food item. Compare it to the safe intake of the components that you recorded in your word document. Is this a healthy option for your family?
B. FOOD PYRAMID
Use this for background information to help you answer the big question, 'Can you 'eat healthy' by frequenting fast food restaurants?' There are many connecting links to provide you with ideas for your answer.
Food Pyramid Defines and outlines daily food group requirements
Fast Food Facts
Individual Roles
Now that you have some overall background knowledge, it's time to return to the main question for this WebQuest. Questions this big and important are better answered when a few people are working on it at one time. Things work even better when a group of you decide to look at the question from different perspectives. This way team members can become experts on different aspects of the question and then come together to poll their learning. This is where team work pays off. After becoming experts, each of the fast food teams will divide and form a different group to teach them what they have learned. So are you ready to divide and conquer this question?
Team 1
Use the links below to learn more about your restaurant:
Each team member will select a different food choice to research. Add the items to a word table including calories, fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.
Remember the question you are trying to answer and find the most healthy dinner food item you can find.
- Taco Bell
- Nutrition guide for food items
Team 2
Use the links below to learn more about your restaurant:
Each team member will select a different food choice to research. Add the items to a word table including calories, total fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.
Remember the question you are trying to answer and find the most healthy dinner food item you can find.
- Burger King
- Interactive wizard for planning a meal
Team 3
Use the links below to learn more about your restaurant:
Each team member will select a different food choice to research. Add the items to a word table including calories, total fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.
Remember the question you are trying to answer and find the most healthy dinner food item you can find.
- Subway
- Click on 'Menu/Nutrition' tab
Team 4
Use the links below to learn more about your restaurant:
Each team member will select a different food choice to research. Add the items to a word table including calories, total fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.
Remember the question you are trying to answer and find the most healthy dinner food item you can find.
- Kentucky Fried Chicken
- Check nutrition info on any product. Click on 'nutrition' tab.
Team 5
Use the links below to learn more about your restaurant:
Each team member will select a different food choice to research. Add the items to a word table including calories, total fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.
Remember the question you are trying to answer and find the most healthy dinner food item you can find.
- Pizza Hut
- Click on the nutrition link. Pick your crust first, before the toppings, and don't forget about the salad options!
Team 6
Use the links below to learn more about your restaurant:
Each team member will select a different food choice to research. Add the items to a word table including calories, total fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.
Remember the question you are trying to answer and find the most healthy dinner food item you can find.
- Chick-fil-a
- Nutritional information for food items
Group Synthesis
Congratulations! Your team is now full of expertise. Each person on your team has become an expert on the topic of one fast food restaurant.
Because you've been doing a lot of fact finding, you have done two things:
1. You have listed and defined some of the characteristics of 'healthy eating.'
2. You have found out the opinions of experts relating healthy eating.
You are now ready to 'kick it up a knotch' and evaluate what you have learned and make some decisions for your family. Based on what each of your friends have found out about fast foods, will you bend to your grandmother's and your brother's requests and feed them fast food in your mother's absence?
You've all learned a lot of information, but guess what, gathering useful information isn't the same as truly understanding a topic. What experts in the field of learning suggest is that you now use that information in a new and challenging way. Then you'll really know about this topic.
At this time you will redivide so that each NEW TEAM has a member from each of the fast food groups. So with your new fast food experts all gathered together, carefully read the articles listed to get some information from experts in the field relating to the health conditions of your brother and your grandmother. Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with. Include in your response supporting arguments from the research below.
Your 'Friends and Family' Team will present your information to the class. Be sure to include what you have fed or will feed them in your explanation. Your answer to Granny and Bubba will give the class the answer to the BIG QUESTION for this webquest: main question A visual of some sort (Suggestion: Power Point) must accompany your presentation. The class will be either your Mom or your Granny and decide if your decision is sound. Be convincing!
1. After reading the health articles, create a visual organizer (Suggestion: Inspiration) to display the ideas you have learned.
2. Present the information to your teammates to see where you all agree and where differences arise. Argue your points by showing your results from the data you have found. Convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Question.
3. One of two options is possible:
If you decide to feed Granny and Bubba fast food, create an explanation for your mom explaining why you did it.
If you decide not to go the fast food route, explain to Granny and Bubba why you chose to feed them more healthy food.
See where you all agree and where differences arise.
Use information from the projects that you have developed to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Question. Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with. Include in your response supporting arguments from the research below.
You will present your information to the class. Be sure to include what you have fed or will feed them in your explanation. A visual of some sort (Suggestion: Power Point) must accompany your presentation. The class will be either your Mom or your Granny and decide if your decision is sound. Be convincing!
Soft drinks can make kids fat. See page four for article.
Increase in Diabetes Cases Blamed On Escalating Obesity Rates Scroll down past the summary to find the whole article.
Most people these days have questions about weight that range from the definition of 'overweight'... Scroll down past the summary to find the whole article.
Real World Feedback:
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Conclusion
At the beginning of this activity, you were asked. 'Can you 'eat healthy' by frequenting fast food restaurants?'
Did you discover the answer? Did everyone on your team agree? How did you answer the main question for this WebQuest? Have you checked the evaluation rubric to guide what you did?
You deserve a lot of praise for all the hard work you've done. And so does your brain. You've sure put that gray stuff to the test!
The first thing you did was to research the facts: What IS healthy eating? Next, you looked for information from the fast food sites to show what they had to offer... healthy or not. Once you had FACTUAL information in place, you redivided and researched some health conditions to consider in choosing meals for your family. Finally, the FUN part. You had to present your information to your partners and argue your point to develop the answer to the question. At this point, your team got into a fairly expert analysis and QUITE a DISCUSSION. At times, you must have felt confused with ideas spinning every which way. That's normal when you're building new mental connections. It's funny, with each link between what you already knew and the new learning going on, you broke another different kind of link, remember the temptation to 'steal' information from the web. You made your OWN decisions, formed your OWN opinions, and presented your OWN argument. You're free! Doesn't it feel great?
How will you use these ideas and strategies as you continue to grow and learn? It's all up to you. Good luck and HEALTHY EATING!
|
created by Janet Cundiff email: jcundiff@ebrschools.org http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/jcundiff/fastfoods/webquest.htm |
