Fast Food Junkies

1. Fast Food Junkies A General Math WebQuest

2. Introduction This webquest is designed to give you, the student, an opportunity to compare the menu items you typically order at your favorite fast food restaurant with other, possibly healthier, menu options and restaurants. You will compare your menu items utilizing the health information provided by each restaurant and what you’ll learn through the quest. Your job will be to calculate the percentage of daily calories from fat using the formulas developed in class then utilize your data to defend your decision whether the menu options are healthy or not.

3. Tasks • The students will learn and discover the importance of limiting daily calories from fat and how to read the nutritional labels; • The students will journal their diet for a day and calculate the percentage of calories from fat; • The students will focus on their favorite fast food restaurant and three different meals they might order and compare the meals to see what the healthiest option would be; • The students will use excel to organize their data and then create graphs to compare their results; and • The students will write a professional letter to a manager of the restaurant to defend their solutions – whether they have healthy or unhealthy options.

4. Process Step 1: Why limit calorie intake? Step 2: Percentage of Calories from Fat. Step 3: Reading the nutrition label. Step 4: Discovering your diet! Step 5: Evaluate fast food restaurants and their menu options. Step 6: Comparing and Defending your Data!

5. Step 1: Why limit calorie intake? While watching the video, begin filling out the Fast Food Junkie Notes Guide. You must have your notes sheet graded before you can move on to Step 3: Reading the Nutrition Label. After watching this video, you will need to visit KidsHealth.org for help with the answers to the notes guide worksheet.

6. The 2005 U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that children and teens ages 4–18 get between 25% to 35% of their daily calories from fat. We need good fats to absorb essential vitamins like Vitamins A, D, K, and E. We should try to get our daily fat amounts from unsaturated fats. They are usually liquids at room temperature. Examples: Peanut, sesame, and olive oils. Saturated and Trans fats are bad – usually are solids at room temperatures. These fats are bad for our heart. Butter, shortening, fat on meat Often found in packaged “snacks”

7. Remember, we should only be getting 25 – 35% of our daily calories from fat! If we do choose a food that is high in fat, we should try to make up for it elsewhere by eating other foods low in fat calories.

8. Step 2: Percentage of Calories from Fat After watching the video, complete the rest of the notes sheet using the next few slides.

9. How do we calculate the percentage of calories from fat? First, we must know: • the TOTAL number of calories • the calories from fat or the grams of fat For example, you ate a cheeseburger from McDonald’s for lunch. According to McDonald’s nutritional information, the cheeseburger’s nutritional facts are: Calculating percentage of fat: Fat calories/total calories x 100 = percentage of calories A percent can always be written as a decimal, and a decimal can be written as a percent. *Remember to use the percent sign in this example! 110/300 = .366 = 37% 110/300 = .37

10. Try an example! • Choose menu items from this list or find additional menu items at McDonald’s. • Enter the number of calories under the first column. • Enter the number of fat calories under the second column. • Calculate the percentage of calories from fat under the third column. You must turn in this notes guide before you can move to the next step (Step 2).

11. Using Microsoft Excel • Open Microsoft Excel. • Type your headings in Row 1: • Food, Calories, Fat Calories, Non-fat Calories, Percentage of Fat. • Type the food items you chose in column 1 under the Food heading (use your handout for an example). • Type the calories and fat calories from the table on your worksheet. • Save your worksheet before we continue working.

12. Using Microsoft Excel: Part II When using formulas in excel, we should always start with the equal sign (=). For our example, the formula will be: = fat calories/calories*100 Then click enter/return on the keyboard. See the table below for an example of how to write the formula in Excel.

13. Step 3: Reading the nutrition label. • Visit FDA’s website for information on the nutrition label. • Read the nutrition label tips from Health.gov. • Determine what your estimated calorie intake should be using this worksheet and put in your journal when finished. • Click on the nutrition facts image to watch a video on Nutrition Facts.

14. Step 4: Discovering your diet! You will need to journal everything you eat for one day. Use the attached spreadsheet to help organize your data. Bring the log back to class to calculate your percent daily value. We will use the results to compare all the student’s daily diets in the class. You may move on to the next step after completing the evaluation of your daily diet.

15. Step 5: Evaluate Fast Food Menus • You will use the websites provided on the following slide to choose at least 3 meals that you like to eat and drink from the listed restaurants. Meals should include a sandwich (or main food item), snack and drink. You will need to collect the nutritional data at the restaurant’s website. You may use this handout for a guide. • Next, you will use the formula we created earlier in this webquest, in class, and on your notes guide to calculate the percentage of calories from fat for the entire meal. • After you are finished collecting the data, use an excel spreadsheetto enter the total calories per meal, the total calories from fat per meal, and use the formula tool to calculate the percentage of calories from fat.

16. Fast Food Restaurant Choices Below are the restaurants that have been provided for you, if you have a favorite restaurant not listed here, please see me for approval. McDonald’s Subway Burger King Moe’s Friendly’s Taco Bell

17. Step 6: Comparing and Defending your Data The last portion of this WebQuest consists of writing a professional letter to the manager of one of the fast food restaurants you evaluated for healthy food options. You must explain and defend whether you think the restaurant offers healthy or unhealthy menu items. Be sure to use the information you have learned about calories and calories from fat and support your opinion with your calculations. You may utilize the chart tool in Excel to provide a good visual in your letter. You will need to turn in your Fast Food Junkies Notes Guide, the excel file with your data and formulas (charts if applicable as well), and the letter. The letter will be graded based on this rubric. You must also do a self-evaluation. Please fill out the project rubric with your final copies. You should provide comments for each criteria.