JUNK FOOD WEBQUEST!
Northeast Elementary School: Grade 5




INTRODUCTION
driving down the road Mrs. Moss, soon-to-be school librarian, was driving home from a hard day’s research at the public library. She was tired and grumpy. Her eyes hurt, and she still had more homework to do when she got home. Suddenly, she saw some familiar yellow arches by the side of the road.

“Yummy, yum, yum,” thought Mrs. Moss. “McDonalds! What I need is a mega-size burger and a ton of french fries dripping with ketchup.”

“Wait!” yelled Mrs. Moss’ Conscience. “That’s junk food. It’s bad for you. It’ll clog your arteries with fat and wreck your appetite for healthy, wholesome food.”

“So what?” said Mrs. Moss to her Conscience, and she turned the wheel and rolled up to the drive-thru window.

“Don’t do it!” screamed her Conscience.

“Super size me!” yelled Mrs. Moss.



YOUR TASK
dream of burgers Your task is to convince Mrs. Moss not to eat that burger. While you’re at it, you might as well find out about other kinds of junk food, too, because Mrs. Moss eats candy bars, sweet breakfast cereals, and snacks like those little snack cakes with the white icing inside, and cheese-flavored chips. She drinks sports drinks and sodas, especially Dr. You-Know-Who.

Please, hurry, kids! Find out all you can before Mrs. Moss becomes so overweight, diabetic, heart-diseased, and sluggish that she can’t do any more homework . . . and flunks out of School Librarian School!



HOW YOU WILL COMPLETE THE TASK
1) Your class will be divided into teams of two. Your team will be assigned one type of junk food on which to focus your research. It will be one of the following types:



2) Your team will use the webquest to research the answer to the following questions.

  1. What makes junk food junky and healthy food healthy?

  2. Why should people eat healthy food? Why not eat junk food?

  3. What are some healthy food choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time?

  4. If junk food is bad for people, why do we still eat it?

  5. Who makes and sells junk food, and how do they sell it?

  6. What food choices should Mrs. Moss make . . . and why?



kids at computer 3) Think deeply about these webquest questions. Saying “people should eat healthy food so they can be healthy” is a big DUH! HOW do certain foods make a person healthy? WHY can’t a person eat a lot of junk food and still be healthy? And WHY worry about being healthy anyway?


If you think advertising has something to do with it, try and figure out HOW advertising influences people. After all, nobody is reaching out through the TV set to force Mrs. Moss to eat that fatty burger! Then look beyond the advertising. WHAT are the pressures on people that might push them to eat junk food? WHAT is it that makes junk food taste so yummy?




HOW TO USE THIS WEBQUEST
1) Go to the resources page by clicking this link: RESOURCES. There you will see links to many websites. The links are divided into seven sections.


2) The first section, called "Heath and Nutrition," includes websites about health and nutrition. Every student from every team should look at these sites. They will tell you about healthy food and what makes it healthy.


3) The second section, called "What's Up With Junk Food?" is about advertising and other things that influence our food choices. Every student from every team should also look at these sites.


junk food 4) The other five sections are about different kinds of junk food and will include clues to why people eat them. There will be links to some food company websites, too. You need to figure out what techniques food companies use on their websites to get consumers to buy their food. Only use the links in the section about your team’s junk food.



THE LAST PART OF YOUR TASK
After researching all about your kind of junk food, and finding the answers that Mrs. Moss so desperately needs, you will create a small poster about what you’ve learned.

On your poster, you may focus on any facts or ideas you think are most interesting. You may use examples about your team's type of junk food. You may share your opinions, as long as you can also share the reasons for your opinions. You will present your poster to the class as a team, and share what you’ve learned with the class and Mrs. Moss.


Will you be able to convince Mrs. Moss to reject, repulse, refuse,
and just plain say “NO!” to that burger and fries?
Will you succeed in stopping her junk food habit?

Or will you fail . . .
and leave her to become overweight, undernourished, and flunked out of school!


Menu
 Use this menu to get help finding information on a webpage.

RESOURCES

HOW TO GET INFORMATION FROM A WEBPAGE
This is a review of our library lesson.

WHO IS MAKING AND SELLING JUNK FOOD?
This is for help understanding food company websites.

RESEARCH NOTE TAKER
This worksheet can help you take notes.

14 FACTS AND QUESTIONS
This page gives you lots of great ideas and things to think about.

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