INTRODUCTION

SAMUEL GOMPERS VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

PETER SPENCE

spencepc@aol.com

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE CHILDREN

ARE A MAJOR THREAT TO THE U.S.

http://www.nal.usda.gov:8001/py/pmap.htm

A. INTRODUCTION

The President of the United States, George Bush, has asked you to develop a public policy on obesity and nutrition. Mr. Bush an avid sports fan is of the belief that American youngsters are increasingly becoming overweight and this in turn this trend will negatively affect America’s performance in competitive international sports. In addition this problem threaten United States health gains, and also dramatically increase the nations health care costs. The outcome of your report, if accepted by the President, will become America’s new nutrition policy.

B. TASK

You will create and present a three page written report on “American children are obese”. For this project you will have completed the Six Steps Public Policy Approach.

Define the problem as outlined in the above introduction.
Gather evidence that American children are overweight and obese.
Identify causes of the overweight and obesity problem in America.
Evaluate a policy that already exist to deal with the problem.
Develop solutions that your group seems most promising.
Select best solution from alternatives you selected in step 5 above.

C. PROCESS:

1. You will be assigned a colleague to work with.

2. You are required to print worksheet # 1 Define the problem . You and your partner will next read and then answer the question(s) on the worksheet using information from various resources.

3. Repeat step 2, for worksheets # 2 Gather evidence, # 3 Identify causes, # 4 Evaluate a policy and # 5 Develop solutions.

4. Print worksheet # 6 Select best solution and then complete the questions to develop a policy statement and then present evidence to support your position.

5. Your final task will be to present the evidence to the class in the form of a written document and convince us that the problem exists and secondly that your public policy alternative will work.

D. EVALUATION:

Scoring Guide for the Research Paper

Report Content (70%)

1) Neat and well-organized appearance to the report 5pts

2) Logical/sequential presentation of relevant information representing all sources 5pts

3) Well balanced presentation of topic 5pts

4) Report written in the students own words 5pts

5) Substantial evidence that the problem does exist 10pts

6) Identification of the main causes of the problem 10pts

7) Identification and critique of at least one major existing public policy. 10pt

8) Proposal of at least three new/original public policy alternatives. 10pts

9) Expression of student opinions/ideas/conjectures in selecting the best public policy solution taking in mind its effectiveness and how feasible it is. 10pts

Drawings/Illustrations (20%)

1) Report Cover Illustration 10pts

2) Drawings/Illustrations with Report Text 10pts

Bibliography (10%)

1) Properly referenced sources 5pts

2) Multiple sources cited (newspapers, magazines, books, web-cites) 5pts

TOTAL POINTS= 100

Extra Credit

1) Describe how your research topic question could be changed to better relate to a more specific central question or problem?

2) Can the public policy analysis method be used to resolve other problems? Support your answer(s) with examples.

3) What "useful information" could come from your research that would be "worth" further investigation?

E. CONCLUSION:

By completing this project students will be able to provide the supporting documentation to prove that American children are becoming overweight and obese at an increasing rate. The students will also be able to suggest alternative nutrition and lifestyle proposals to reduce this problem.