Project  McWebquest

A WebQuest for 8th Grade (Math/Science/Health/L. Arts/Technology)

Designed by

Patricia Chenail
pchenail@thompson.ctschool.net

December, 2006

 

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits |

 

Introduction

“You are what you eat.”  Isn’t that what they say?  What if you could eat every meal at a well-known fast food restaurant for an entire week?  What would you eat?  Would you care?  Would you choose based on cost?  health? taste? In this activity your wish will come true… well, almost!  You will research and create a 7-day menu for yourself consisting only of food from McDonald’s!  You may choose to eat what ever you would like.  Once you have made your choices, you will have an opportunity to explore the calories, total fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates and sugars that are in the foods you chose! How does your week at McDonald’s compare to your usual week’s worth of food?  Which do you prefer? 

 

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The Task

You will use the links and resources provided on the following pages to help you complete this assignment.  You are going to eat at McDonald’s for a full 7 days; therefore, you must plan a week’s menu and the costs associated with doing so.  You have a budget for the week of $100.00.  You are going to define nutritional/health terms, so that you have an understanding of what you are putting into your body.  You will use the worksheet provided to complete your definitions.  After you have eaten at McDonald’s for entire week, you are going to have a completed spreadsheet, including all of the food, costs, and nutritional facts for the food you consumed.

You will be responsible for submitting the following:

·        2 Spreadsheets – The first spreadsheet will be your 7-day meal plan, organized by day & meal, and the costs for each item you plan to consume.  The second spreadsheet will be submitted after your meal plan has been approved.  You will modify your original spreadsheet and include the calories, total fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates and sugars for each menu item you chose. Each meal will be subtotaled; each day will be subtotaled; and the entire week will be totaled.  You will have a column representing the percentage each item is of its calories. 

 

·        Worksheet - of nutrition/health definitions

 

·        Persuasive Letter – eating at McDonald’s vs. not eating at McDonald’s.  Your letter must discuss the foods, costs, nutrition, and any other pertinent information that you gained through your visits to McDonalds.

 

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The Process

To accomplish your task, you will need to use the knowledge that you gained on your “visit” to McDonald’s to plan a 7-day meal plan for yourself.  Remember, you have $100.00 to spend on food for the week.  Once you have decided what you are going to eat for the week, you must complete all of the following: 

  1. Using MS-Excel, you will create a spreadsheet showing the 7-days you will be “eating at McDonald’s.”  This spreadsheet must clearly show the food that you are going to consume each day, for each meal.  You will also list the costs associated with this menu.  The cost column will be subtotaled by meal and also by day.  You will also show a grand total for the week. ( If you are not familiar with Excel, you may be interested in this tutorial.   http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/excel/index.html )

 

  1. You will submit your spreadsheet, by the determined date, for approval.

 

 

  1. Using the following worksheet, you will define the terms:  Calories, Total Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbohydrates, and Sugar.

 

  1. After your meal plan is approved, you will use the following link (www.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal or www.mcdonalds.com/usa.html ) to research the following for each food item on your meal plan: Calories, Total Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbohydrates, and Sugars.  When using this link, these are the instructions you will follow:

Bag A McMeal And Get The Nutrition Facts

Create your own McDonald's meal and get the nutrition facts. McDonald's menu provides a wide range of options and serving sizes so you can create a meal to help meet your nutrition needs. See the directions below.

1.      Select a menu category from the drop down list.

2.      Select a menu item by clicking on the menu item name.

3.      Add the item to your bag by dragging the picture of the item into the bag, or click the 'Add Item' button. You may choose up to six menu items.

4.      Click on 'Get the Facts' to view the nutrition information for your McMeal. You can customize items in your bag when you view your results.

  1. Once you have obtained all of the nutrition facts for your week’s worth of food, you must update your original spreadsheet to include all of the new data.  Each meal and day must be subtotaled and the entire week must be totaled.

 

  1. Using www.google.com or www.metacrawler.com to locate information about the recommended daily allowances for each of the nutritional terms you had to define.  How do your choices compare to what you should ingest for someone your age?

 

  1. Your final task in this process is to type a 5-paragraph, persuasive letter to your health teacher, explaining your position.  Will you eat at McDonald’s exclusively… yes or no?  Why or why not.  Your letter must be persuasive in nature and must include the detailed, factual information that you found in this process as well as your research of the recommended daily allowances of each of the nutritional.  

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Resources      

 

 

 

Nutritional Terms
 

TERM

DEFINITION

 

 

1.  Calories

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Fat

 

 

 

3.  Cholesterol

 

 

 

4.  Sodium

 

 

 

5.Carbohydrates

 

 

 

6.  Sugar

 

 

 

 

Other resources include:

 

Information on McDonald’s –locations, foods, nutrition, etc. www.mcdonalds.com/usa.html

How to find the nutritional information on each meal - www.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal

Nutritional information - www.google.com

Nutritional information - www.metacrawler.com

MS-Excel Tutorial – http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/excel/index.html

 

 

 

 

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Evaluation                        

Your performance will be evaluated using the following rubric. Please be sure to keep this rubric handy when completing each task so that you can ensure that you are competing each as intended.  (Although this rubric is based on 20 points, a proportion will be created to make it equal to 100.)

 

McWebquest

Mrs. Chenail

Grade 8 - Math

Beginning

1

Developing

2

Accomplished

3

Exemplary

4

Your

Score

 

Spelling

 

Spreadsheet and/or letter have more than 4 spelling errors

Spreadsheet and/or letter have 3-4 spelling errors

Spreadsheet and/or letter have 1-2 spelling errors.

Spreadsheet and/or letter have no spelling errors.

 

 

Terms

 

 

Worksheet has less than 4 terms defined accurately

Worksheet has 4 of 6 terms defined accurately

Worksheet has 5 of 6 terms defined accurately

Worksheet has all terms defined accurately

 

 

Accuracy

 

 

Spreadsheet does not contain meal and nutritional daily subtotals, as well as the grand total for each item

Spreadsheet is missing more than one subtotal group or does not contain grand total for each item.

Spreadsheet is missing 1 subtotal group or does not contain grand total for each item.

Spreadsheet contains meal and nutritional daily subtotals, as well as the grand totals for each item

 

 

Required Elements

 

Missing more than two required elements

Missing two required elements

Missing one required element

Meal plan: submitted on time with totals

Definitions: complete

Spreadsheet:

All nutrition facts added

Letter:

Is persuasive in nature and typed

 

 

 

Recommendation

Missing more than to of the five elements

Missing two of the five elements

Missing one of the five elements
  1. Persuasive
  2. confident
  3. reflects your research
  4. min. of typed paragraphs
  5. addressed to health teacher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Conclusion           

Now that you know what comprises what you eat, ARE YOU “WHAT YOU EAT?”  Has completing this webquest changed your opinion of fast food?  Did you make good choices?  Could you have eaten better or worse?

 

 

 

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Credits & References

I would first like to thank Mr. Jeff Jakob’s from IL for creating the “Project McWorld” online project!  His project sparked this idea for me.  I created it as an extension activity for my students who participated in his online project.  (Not to mention as a final project for a course with my Master’s Degree for Lesley University – Fall 2006.)

Credit must also be given to McDonald’s Corporation.  All photos and links for McDonald’s were taken from www.mcdonalds.com

I would also like to thank my Professor, Mr. Norm Silbaugh, Lesley University, for the link to the MS-Excel Tutorial – http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/excel/index.html

 

 

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Based on a template from The WebQuest Page

Edited by P. Link,  Morris County ETTC