Weighing Our Options

A WebQuery for 5th Grade

Nicole Andrews
Andrewsni@cwu.edu

weighing vegetables picture

Introduction

Many people do not think twice about what they eat. However, it is important for people to be knowledgeable about food options and their decision to eat healthy or unhealthy food. The number of Americans who are obese or unhealthy is growing at a rapid rate yet healthy and good tasting food is available. Therefore, it is especially important for students to be conscious of the foods they are eating and make a conscious effort to think about their food consumption. In this project, you will create recipes that make appropriate health modifications without compromising aesthetic or flavor qualities.

You will answer an essential question during the process of creating this project. The essential question in this project is whether the foods students eat affect their health, both positively and negatively and how to weigh their options when considering something to eat.

Task

Students will record the types of food/meals they eat for one week as well as the caloric value of each food item recorded. Students will then modify a recipe of their choice from the foods they ate during the one week duration. In addition, students will have the freedom to make any recipe modification they wish as long, as it promotes better health. The idea of the modification is to reduce one or more of the following: the total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, calories, carbohydrates, sodium, and/or gluten. Students will take three original recipes and alter/modify the ingredients to make the recipe healthier in one or more of the stated ways. Students will need to identify what the modification made was, and the reasoning behind their decision(s). Remember, it should be clear what the modification was by presenting the original recipe in addition to the altered recipe.

The task if choose to accept it:

Students will record the foods/meals consumed in a one week duration
Students must research the caloric value of the foods they are consuming in that time period and keep accurate records
Students will identify methods for reducing calories and/or fat in food
Students will modify three or more recipes, which are appropriate for weight management or other health promotions
Students must support their modifications with accurate and reliable evidence
The recipes must not compromise the aesthetic or flavor qualities of the food

The Process

Here are some great questions to get you started as you begin the process in logging your food consumption and creating your recipe modification. It is my hope that you create the best products possible; therefore I am giving some you some questions to guide you through the creation process. Some of the following questions may help you

What does good data collecting look like?
How can the information you collect be organized or displayed to make it useful?
Have you recorded enough information on food consumption?
Where should you start?
Can the task be broken down into a few smaller tasks?
What kinds of information will you need?
Where can you find it?
Are the links the teacher has given you, useful?
What can you tell about the quality of the web resources you are using to support your modification choices?
Is the information you are using facts or opinions?
What will you need to create on your own to complete the task?
Once you have all of the information you need, what is the best way to use it and complete the task?
Is your work good quality work that you will be proud of?
Have you checked the rubric and task to make sure that you have completed all aspects of the task?

Resources

A number of food resource books are available to complete this project. Some will assist you in your discovery of recipe modification. Other resources offer information on carbohydrates, fats, gluten, sodium, and other ingredients. You will find information on the effects of reducing or modifying ingredients on food quality and health promotion. Here are some web links to assist you in calorie counting and completing your recipes.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php Online Calorie Counter: Calories burned calculator, food calories & nutrition calculator, weight loss calculator, diet & weight loss tips

http://calorielab.com/index.html Calorie Lab: calorie counter, calories burned, diet reviews

http://www.kidshealth.org/ Kids site on weight issues, links to weight & diabetes, BMI, kids & eating disorders, children & dieting, learning about calories, and more

http://eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/index.html Eat right: food & nutrition information, nutrition fact sheets, good nutrition eating list

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3045790 Saturated Fats

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/carbohydrates.html Carbohydrates

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Gluten-free_alternatives?OpenDocument Gluten

http://www.abouthf.org/module2/sodium_alternatives.htm Sodium

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5543.html Ingredient modification charts

Evaluation

The performance of student's work will be evaluated based on a rubric. This will give a clear understanding of the grading criteria, which will evaluate the project. Because this project is two-fold, I will be grading based on two rubrics. One rubric will evaluate the neatness and completion of the weeklong food consumption log. The second rubric will evaluate the recipe modification project.
rubric for food log

Conclusion

After completing the assignment, I hope you have more knowledge on healthy recipes and how to modify those recipes that are unhealthy. You should have applied recipe modification to some of the meals you and possibly your family eat. After completing this project to the best of your ability, I ask you this: Is it possible to eat healthy without ruining the flavor you love? What can you do as future adults of our country with the information you learned?

I hope this project, although somewhat tedious, has been a fun learning experience. It is also my hope that the next time you stop at the local burger joint, you will weigh your options and think about healthy alternatives!

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuery, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuery. On the line after the original author's name, you may add "Modified by (your name) on (date)". If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

The picture at the top of the page was taken from overstock.com and www.drpbody.com/Sweets_ex.html.

This template is based on the original WebQuest template.

To learn more about WebQuery, visit The WebQuery Page.