Lettuce+Eat+Healthy

__**Big Idea**__: Fast food/obesity in America

__**Essential Question**__: What impact does fast food have on American's lives and their bodies?

__**Challenge**__: To find out why fast food is growing and convince people to try to cut down on fast food.

__Survey for classes__: Raise your hand if you eat fast food: -More than once a week, -Less than 5 times a week, -Do you think it affects your body (weight,skin, ect), -Do you think it affects how you act throughout the day, -If you knew a meal from Mcdonalds was 1550 calories, would you eat it?
 * __Guiding Questions__:**

__Other questions to be asked__: -Why do people buy it, -How many people would you say come in to the establishment, -Most popular thing people buy, -What do you think is the most fattening item on your menu, -Do you think more overweight people come into your establishment than average weight or underweight people?

__**Guiding Activities:**__ - Survey classrooms in PV - Interview students at school - Interview teachers and other adults - Contact a nutritionist or doctor - Talk to people who work at fast food companies

__**Guiding Resources:**__ - Websites []: nutritional facts about fast food were used for solution/action http://www.nourishinteractive.com/parents_area/family_kids_nutrition_healthy_eating_tips: eating tips were used for websites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_food: general information of fast food was used for solution/action http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=26976: general information of fast food was used for solution/action - Youtube: used for creating website and podcast - Saladbarproject.org - Teachers/Nurse/Manager of cafeteria food: used for solution/action - Quia Survey: used for guiding activities -Survey classrooms in PV: used for guiding resources Average: 4 12 15 6 9
 * Survey || # Of people in Class || Kids who eat fast food More than once a week || Less than 5 times a month || Kids who think fast food affects their body || Who think it affects their actions || Who would eat a 1500 calorie meal from McDonalds ||
 * || 23 || 9 || 8 || 8 || 4 || 14 ||
 * || 21 || 2 || 9 || 18 || 5 || 8 ||
 * || 15 || 7 || 6 || 9 || 3 || 10 ||
 * || 19 || 2 || 14 || 18 || 6 || 8 ||
 * || 19 || 6 || 9 || 13 || 4 || 6 ||
 * || 16 || 0 || 12 || 16 || 11 || 6 ||
 * || 25 || 3 || 18 || 11 || 8 || 11 ||
 * || 19 || 2 || 13 || 14 || 7 || 8 ||
 * || 20 || 2 || 10 || 16 || 2 || 11 ||
 * || 26 || 1 || 20 || 20 || 3 || 20 ||
 * || 19 || 3 || 14 || 19 || 10 || 1 ||
 * || 23 || 2 || 15 || 23 || 5 || 11 ||
 * || 26 || 2 || 17 || 20 || 9 || 15 ||
 * || 23 || 3 || 19 || 14 || 12 || 8 ||
 * || 24 || 1 || 18 || 25 || 2 || 11 ||
 * || 24 || 0 || 16 || 21 || 2 || 8 ||
 * || 20 || 0 || 18 || 21 || 16 || 4 ||
 * || 21 || 6 || 10 || 6 || 6 || 11 ||
 * || 24 || 5 || 7 || 14 || 3 || 8 ||
 * || 22 || 7 || 8 || 18 || 5 || 14 ||
 * || 25 || 8 || 4 || 11 || 4 || 9 ||
 * || 24 || 9 || 7 || 14 || 0 || 15 ||
 * || 6 || 0 || 6 || 5 || 3 || 0 ||
 * || 28 || 6 || 18 || 15 || 1 || 13 ||
 * || 12 || 3 || 9 || 7 || 4 || 3 ||
 * || 19 || 9 || 6 || 18 || 1 || 9 ||
 * || 27 || 2 || 16 || 22 || 14 || 11 ||
 * || 25 || 3 || 13 || 14 || 9 || 9 ||
 * || 19 || 2 || 16 || 16 || 1 || 9 ||

Total: 614 #1: 105 = 17% #2: 356 = 58%  #3: 446 = 73%  #4: 160 = 26%  #5: 271 = 44%

__**Solution/Action:**__ Fast food, that can be prepared and served very quickly, has become synonymous with America. Advertisements of fast food are everywhere and people eating fast food are easily seen on the road. Even though everyone knows that fast food is unhealthy due to the great amounts of sugar and fat, the convenience of fast food makes it hard for people to resist. As fast food meals become bigger and cheaper, more and more Americans are becoming overweight as part of the result. It is time to realize the danger of consuming fast food and try to cut down.

We surveyed PV students to figure out how many kids eat fast food and how they think about fast food. 614 kids in PV participated in our survey and answered 5 questions. 17% of students said that they eat fast food more than once a week and 58% said that they eat fast food less than 5 times a month. 73% of students think that fast food affects their bodies and 26% said that they feel tired and disgusted throughout the day after eating fast food. We found out that many people eat fast food even though they know it affects them negatively. We recieved another interesting result when we asked them whether or not they would still eat a McDonalds meal if they knew a meal was about 1550 calories. 44% of them said they would. An interesting theory behind it that was mentioned by a few teachers, is that, students who are constantly playing sports are more apt. to eat it since they would burn it off more easily (compared to them, the teachers.) A lot of teenagers were not aware of the danger of fast food.

To know more about the conditions of fast food in our school, we went to the manager of our school cafeteria and asked some questions. She said a lot of students come into the cafeteria to buy what is the most popular item; chicken and sandwiches. She said anything fried is the most fattening item on the menu. We thought we should reduce the amount of fattening items in the school cafeteria and need to put healthier items into our cafeteria.

We decided to try to put a salad bar into our cafeteria sandwich line to encourage students to make healthy choices while buying lunch. We're going to sign up for a grant online that helps us set the salad bar up, loans money for it, and all the equipment. The most important thing is to realize the need to cut down on fast food and make an effort to be healthy. There are some tips we hope students and all Americans should know. First, you should avoid any foods fried and cream based. Second, you should try to check nutrition information before ordering foods. Third, if fruits and veggies are available, try to add them into your meal. You must keep these things on your mind and consider it one more time before eating fast food.

__**Note:**__ __09/16/10__ Today was the first day of the project, so we discussed about what topic we are going to work on. We decided to research on fast food and obesity in America, and find solution to reduce consumption of fast food in America. We made our group’s name Lettuce Eat Healthy to encourage people to eat healthier food.

__09/17/10__ We decided to survey students in our school to figure out how many kids eat fast food more than one a week or less than five times a month, how many think it affects their bodies and actions, and whether they would eat or not if they knew that a meal from McDonalds was about 1550 calories. We made some questions for the manager of the school cafeteria to ask how many people come in to buy the varieties of food; what is most popular thing people buy, what he/she thinks most fattening item on the menu, and if he/she thinks more overweight people come into cafeteria/restaurant than average weight or underweight people.

__09/20/10__ Today we surveyed PV students’ fast food consumption. There were more students who eat fast food less than five times a month than students who eat fast food more than once a week. A lot of students thought that fast food affects their bodies and actions such as tiredness and disgust. It was interesting that quite a number of students said that they would eat a meal from McDonalds even though it was about 1550 calories.

__09/21/10__ We continued surveying on PV students’ fast food consumption. The result was similar with the result we received the previous day.

__09/22/10__ Today we asked some questions to the manager of the school cafeteria. She said that a lot of students come into the cafeteria to buy what is the most popular item; chicken and sandwiches. She says she thinks the most fattening item on the menu is mainly anything fried. She is not sure about whether more overweight people come into the cafeteria than average weight or underweight people.

__09/24/10__ We discussed about putting a salad bar into our cafeteria sandwich line to encourage students to buy healthier food and give more options to students such as vegetarians.

__**Publishing**__ - We're making a website that exposes fast food places and what they're really about. We're going to post clips from super size me and podcasts about fast food.