Proper Nutrition for Middle School Students

 

Nick Cacciola

Emerson Middle School

www.nickcacc@hotmail.com

 

 

Introduction

 

Why is it that you are always tired during the day?  You are constantly getting stomach aches throughout the entire school day.  You don’t know the reasons behind these uncomfortable feelings.  Your teachers are always telling you that you cannot go to the bathroom.  They tell you that if you continue to miss class, due to frequent visits to the nurse’s office you will fail.  Indeed you do have stomach aches and feel drowsy, but you don’t understand why.

 

Task

 

Bad stomach aches, constant headaches and complete drowsiness are just some of the many effects of poor nutrition at the middle school age level.  Your task is to compose an article for The Emerson Times which addresses the following questions/problems: How does poor nutrition affect the lives of young adolescent children?  What kind of policies/procedures can we come up with/develop to help prevent or reduce these problems?  You must use the Public Policy Analyst, PPA, process to complete your article.  Remember, your data/input is extremely valuable to you and your peers.  Your awareness and new found knowledge could be the driving force that saves today’s youth from poor nutrition and all its harmful affects.    

 

Process

To complete your article, you must follow the Public Policy Analyst procedure.  The PPA process consists of the following 6 components. Use the information links to read about each step in the procedure. This will assist you in understanding your task.

 

·         Define the problem- Information on Defining the Problem

·         Gather evidence- Information on Gathering Evidence

·         Identify causes of the problem- Information on Identifying Causes

·         Evaluate existing public policies on the problem- Information on Evaluating Existing Policies

·         Develop original policy solutions- Information on Developing Solutions

·         Choose the best solution- Information on Choosing the Solution

 

 

Listed below are websites that contain worksheets for each component of the PPA procedure.  Click on the links and complete each worksheet to help you summarize and organize your findings.

 

  1. Define the problem
  2. Gather evidence
  3. Identify causes of the problem
  4. Evaluate a policy
  5. Develop solutions
  6. Select the best solution

 

Resources

If you need a little assistance along your web quest journey, listed below are some valuable resources that may be used to help you throughout the duration of your mission.

These resources are just to help you get started.  It is my expectation that you will use other web pages to gather information.  Do not restrict your research to the sites that have been provided for you.

 

 

Evaluation

 

You will be graded on your use and completion of the PPA procedures and worksheets.  Also your grade will be based on how organized and clear your thoughts are throughout your newspaper article.  I have constructed the following 4 point rubric for your use as a guide throughout your project.

 

Rubric

Proper Nutrition for Middle School Students

Emerson Times Article

 

Mr. Cacciola

Name of Student:                                                      

 

CATEGORY

4

3

2

1

 

Quality of Information

Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.

Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.

Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.

Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.

Organization

Information is very organized and follows a newspaper article format.

Information is organized and follows a newspaper article format.

Information is organized, but does not follow a newspaper article format.

The information appears to be disorganized.

Public Policy Analysis

All six steps of the PPA are addressed and all six worksheets are correctly completed.

All six steps of the PPA are addressed and most of the worksheets are completed correctly.

Almost all of the PPA steps are addressed and the worksheets need improvement.

Missing PPA steps and worksheets are incomplete.

Mechanics

No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.

Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors

A few grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.

Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors

 

New York State Standards

Science

Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design

Standard 2: Information Systems

Standard 4: Science

Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

 

Conclusion

 

Congratulations!!! You have now successfully completed your research, and therefore you web quest, on middle school nutrition!!  Your Public Policy Analyst, PPA, is now complete.  Hopefully you have learned a great deal of information on this topic.  You can now consider yourself an expert on middle school nutrition.  Your newspaper article will be published in next month’s Emerson Times.  Always remember to work hard and stay focused, everyone makes a difference!