WebQuest
Fast Food Ghetto:
A
Teenage Health Crisis in the
Mr. Greer
Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation gives new meaning to the old saying, “You are what
you eat.”
Since the dawn of the fast food industry in the 1950’s patriotic Americans have
been scarfing down Happy Meals, Big Macs, Double Pounders with Cheese, Supersize
Fries, and Big Gulp Pepsi Colas. As a result, we’ve become a proud nation of toxic,
lethargic, overstuffed cows.
Hey, don’t laugh: the Bronx has recently
earned the distinction as “
Fast food may be tasty, it may be
convenient, it may be cheap, but it isn’t healthy. The bottom line for
multinational fast food corporations like McDonalds is profit--their goal is to make money. Nothing
wrong with that, right? But what are the hidden costs of
You have been assigned to a taskforce to
raise public awareness at
Task:
Public Awareness Campaign (PAC)—your team will produce a multimedia Public
Awareness Campaign to raise awareness at DeWitt Clinton High School and within
the Bronx community of the health risks of a fast food diet and propose and
effective solutions to alleviate the problem. Your PAC will include:
a poster, a one-page
informational leaflet, and a 10 page (minimum) 8 ½ x 5 ½ booklet
Process:
1. You
will be assigned to teams of four or five; each teammate will be responsible
for a fair share of the work and will be graded equally for the quality of the
2. You
will use the various steps of the Public Policy Analyst worksheets to do the
following:
i.
Define the Problem and Worksheet #1
ii. Gather Evidence and Worksheet #2
iii. Identify Causes and Worksheet#3
iv. Evaluate Existing Public Policies and Worksheet #4
v. Develop Your Own Solutions and Worksheet #5
vi. Choose the Best Solution(s) and Worksheet #6
NOTE: Steps ii, iii, and iv
of the PPA worksheets will require extensive and varied research, and should
not be limited to internet research; steps v, and vi require original and
collaborative thinking on the part of all team members. Again, all team members
are responsible for the quality of the research and the responses for these
worksheets—this is a collaborative project!
3. You will use the information from the PPA
worksheets from to produce the three components of your PAC (poster, leaflet,
and booklet); in addition to the above descriptions, your PAC should do the
following:
-address a specific audience
-appeal
to your audience’s, values, interests, and emotions
-establish
a credible ethos appropriate to your subject and audience
-support
claims with logical arguments and convincing evidence
-be
thoroughly edited, proofread, and entirely free of spelling errors
4. PACs
will be assessed using the rubric below.
5. Final
PACs will be presented and distributed to target audiences at
Resources:
Some Search
Engines
Some Websites
. Evaluation (see rubric)
|
Beginning 1 |
Developing 2 |
Accomplished 3 |
Exemplary 4 |
Score |
|
Ideas/organization (Logos) |
Extremely superficial knowledge or confused articulation
of the problem and related issues; extremely uneven, illogical sequence of
ideas |
Superficial knowledge or confused articulation of the
problem and related issues; uneven logic and/or sequence of ideas |
Solid knowledge and detailed articulation of the problem
and related issues; intelligent, logical sequence of ideas |
In depth knowledge and clear articulation of the problem
and related issues; intelligent,
logical, and engaging sequence of ideas |
|
|
Research/evidence |
Poor research; evidence irrelevant and lacking in detail.
Did nt use PPA |
Inadequate research; evidence may be irrelevant or lacking
in detail. Only minor reference to PPA |
Solid research from a variety of sources; relevant and
detailed evidence supporting claims using PPA |
Thorough and thoughtful research from a variety of
sources; relevant, detailed, and illuminating evidence supporting claims
using PPA |
|
|
Ethos |
Fails to establish credible ethos; inappropriate to
audience and/or subject |
Establishes ethos but may be inconsistent or occasionally
inappropriate to audience and/or subject |
Establishes credible, trustworthy ethos appropriate to
target audience and subject |
Establishes compelling, credible, and trustworthy ethos
appropriate to target audience and subject |
|
|
Pathos |
Fails to appeal to specific audience’s emotions, values,
and concerns to achieve rhetorical purposes |
Insufficient or inconsistent appeals to audience’s
emotions, values, and concerns to achieve rhetorical purposes |
Appeals to specific audience’s emotions, values, and
concerns to achieve rhetorical purposes |
Successfully appeals to specific audience’s emotions,
values, and concerns to achieve desired rhetorical purposes |
|
|
Editing/Presentation |
MLA format
seriously inconsistent; immature and ineffective writing; lapses in
conventions, grammar, |
MLA format inconsistent; lapses in conventions, grammar, and
spelling occasionally hinder under-standing
|
MLA format;
writing is mature and effective; occasional lapses in conventions, grammar
and spelling do not hinder under-standing
|
MLA format;
writing is mature, eff-ective, and grammatical;
mastery of conventions and free of spelling errors |
|
|
Kevin Greer
Conclusion:
Upon completing
this project you and your teammates will have examined a national (and
increasingly global) social problem and how it affects young people right here
in the
STUDENTS WILL HAVE PERFORMED THE FOLLOWING STANDARDS:
English
Language Arts Standards
E1c Reads and comprehends information materials.
E2a Produce a report of information.
E3b Participate in group meetings.
E6a Critique public documents with an eye to
strategies common in public discourse.
E6b Produce public documents.
E7a Critique functional documents with an eye to
strategies common to effective functional documents.
E7b Produce functional documents appropriate to
audience and purpose.
Problem
Solving
|
a |
Design a Product, Service, or System:
Identify needs that could be met by new products, services, or systems and
create solutions for meeting them. |
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b |
Improve a System: Develop an
understanding of the way systems of people, machines, and processes work; |
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Communication
Tools and Techniques
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Information
Tools and Techniques
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