Introduction

You and your family are about to embark on a family vacation. Everyone is excited about the trip. However, mom is a bit nervous that the family's eating habits will get worse. You and your siblings decide to see if fast food chains offer healthy options as well as those highly publicized non-healthy foods. You know this will ease mom's mind and allow the family to enjoy the trip. As the old saying goes, 'If mom's not happy, then no one's happy.'

How do we find the answers we need? We are going to look for information by utilizing resources we uncover on the internet. However, we must keep in mind that anyone can post their ideas on the web, whether it is factual or fictional. You must be careful when evaluating the contents of the web site itself. Look for sites developed by groups of organizations which you know to be reputable. Feel free to look at sources other than those I have provided you with. Take your time and proceed with caution and an open mind.

As a group you're going to explore the topic of Healthy eating at fast food locations. Each member of your team will become an expert in one part of the topic. Then you'll have to come back together to answer a question that gets to the heart of 'what's the truth and who says so?' Each member of the team will play an active role in the presentation, so know your facts. You may wish to take a look at the grading rubric before you begin. This will give you insight on how you will be graded and what the expectations of your group will be. Good luck and HAVE FUN!

The Question

The main question you will be asked to find an answer for is:

Do fast food chains really offer healthy choices on their menus?

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. In order to properly answer the question, we must first review guidelines for healthy eating. Take time to review the attached links. This will allow you to become familiar with what makes up meals which are considered to be 'healthy'.

My Pyramid Food Guidance System

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005

Nutrition Data

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. So are you ready to divide and conquer this question?

team one

Use the links below to learn more about your role. Each member of the team should evaluate a different item from the restaurant's menu. Remember, the idea is to select items that are advertised as 'healthy choices' or ones you feel offer the most nutritional value. Evaluate your menu item in terms of calories, fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.

Subway

Go to Menu/Nutrition link to begin

team two

Use the links below to learn more about your role. Remember, the idea is to select items that are advertised as 'healthy choices' or ones you feel offer the most nutritional value. Evaluate your menu item in terms of calories, fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.

Chicken Express

Click on Menu link and the Nutritional Info link to begin

team three

Use the links below to learn more about your role. Remember, the idea is to select items that are advertised as 'healthy choices' or ones you feel offer the most nutritional value. Evaluate your menu item in terms of calories, fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.

Taco Bell

Go to Nutrition Guide link to begin

team four

Use the links below to learn more about your role. Remember, the idea is to select items that are advertised as 'healthy choices' or ones you feel offer the most nutritional value. Evaluate your menu item in terms of calories, fat grams, cholesterol, and sodium.

McDonald's

Go to Food, Nutrition, and Fitness link and then Nutritional Info link to begin

Group Synthesis

Congratulations! Your team is now full of expertise. Each person on your team have become experts on the topic of one fast food restaurants options of healthy eating. 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.

So with your team members all gathered together, carefully read and try answering the main question for this WebQuest. See where you all agree and where differences arise.

Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Quest(ion). Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.

As a team you will be expected to create a presentation on healthy food choices at your particular restaurant. You will be asked to do the following:

1. Prepare a visual aid presenting what facts you gathered from the websites on healthy eating and making good food choices.

2. Come up with a creative way for presenting what each team member discovered on their particular food item. What did they draw as a conclusion based on main question of the WebQuest and the nutritional information they discovered.

3. As a team, tell the class what consensus your team made based on the nutritional values of the food items studied as a whole. Can your family find healthy eating choices at this particular restaurant?

Keep in mind that the person needing the information is your mom. As we know, moms tend to have higher standards than our peers. The presentation should illustrate your findings to her. Remember, your trip may be dependent on this presentation. So, be creative, but do not manipulate the facts. Moms have a keen sense of the truth.

You will be receiving two grades on this project; an individual and group grade. These grades will have equal merit towards your average.

The individual grade will be based on the research that was done for your portion of the presentation? Did you keep the main question in the forefront of your research? Did you gather accurate information to make an informed decision about the nutritional value of the food chosen?

For the group grade, you will evaluated on your participation in both the preparation and actual presentation of the information your team collectively gathered. Did you take an active role in both? Were the materials organized and presented in a clear and easily understood manner? Did they support your consensus as a team?

Real World Feedback:

Conclusion

At the beginning of this activity, you were asked if fast food chains really offered healthy food options. Did you find the answer? Was there only one? Did everyone on your team think so? How did you answer the main question for this WebQuest? Have you checked the evaluation rubric to guide what you did?

You deserve a big pat on the back. Everyone worked so hard. Research is not easy, but it is the first step. Next, you and your team members compared what you had learned. Having a collection of minds allows us to hear other viewpoints we may not have considered in our original take on the subject matter. Collaboration and presentation played keys roles in the process as well. Without everyone working together this project would not have been a success.

How will what you have learned influence the way you make choices when eating fast food? Will you apply the knowledge you have gained through this exercise? Don't let what you have learned go to waste. Eating healthy is a choice...Will you make it?

created by Amy Corallo email: acorallo1@earthlink.net http://web-and-flow.com/members/acorallo/fastfood/webquest.htm