MS Excel - Eating Healthier with Excel
How many calories are you eating from this "Value Meal"?
Objective
Students will conduct research on fast food meals and will determine if it's possible to eat healthier in fast food restaurants. Using MS Excel, students will graph their results and answer questions about their findings. The goal of this project is to inform the public and to make better choices even if they visit fast food places.
Did you know? Since 2008 NYC Department of Health has forced restaurants to post the calories on menus along with the prices. According to Judge Richard Howell of the Southern District of New York, “It seems reasonable to expect that some consumers will use the information disclosed … to select lower calorie meals when eating at the covered restaurants and that these choices will lead to a lower incidence of obesity,”
Source: Wall Street Journal Health Blog
Students will conduct research on fast food meals and will determine if it's possible to eat healthier in fast food restaurants. Using MS Excel, students will graph their results and answer questions about their findings. The goal of this project is to inform the public and to make better choices even if they visit fast food places.
- NYC becomes the first city to ban large soda drinks
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- The New (Ab)Normal Poster. A poster which shows how food portions have grown over the years
Did you know? Since 2008 NYC Department of Health has forced restaurants to post the calories on menus along with the prices. According to Judge Richard Howell of the Southern District of New York, “It seems reasonable to expect that some consumers will use the information disclosed … to select lower calorie meals when eating at the covered restaurants and that these choices will lead to a lower incidence of obesity,”
Source: Wall Street Journal Health Blog
"What's the big deal with eating fast food?"
According to the Center for Young Women's Health, "There is no such thing as a "bad" food, but there are some foods you should try not to have on a regular basis. Because fast food is high in sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol, eating too much over a long period of time can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity. Fast food also lacks many of the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals our bodies need. It's helpful to remember that with fast food, moderation is important."
Here are the links for your research:
Recommended Calorie Intake by age and body type
Fast Food Nutritional Information
How much carbs should you eat?
What is more addictive? Illegal drug or sugar?
Video: Cancer-Causing Processed Meats Largely Affect Low Income Neighborhoods (6 min - correlation of food and poverty/crime/health)
Fast Food Nutritional Information
How much carbs should you eat?
What is more addictive? Illegal drug or sugar?
Video: Cancer-Causing Processed Meats Largely Affect Low Income Neighborhoods (6 min - correlation of food and poverty/crime/health)
Calories is your body's fuel
A calorie is a measure of energy, just as inches is a measure of distance, and miles per hour is a measure of speed, calories is a measure of energy. In reality, calories aren't bad for you. Your body needs calories for energy. But eating too many calories — and not burning enough of them off through activity (like running, playing, dancing) — can lead to weight gain. The body stores calories in specific cells called Fat Cells.
The body needs energy (“calories”) to do anything. Just how much depends on many factors including what you do during a day (sleep all day, exercising, whatever). The average adult male needs between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day. So if he eats this amount of energy a day he would neither gain nor lose weight. He would be consuming as much he uses. Of course the amount of calories needed per day varies from person to person and day to day.
As for kids, they come in all sizes and each person's body burns energy (calories) at different rates, so there isn't one perfect number of calories that a kid should eat. But there is a recommended range for most school-age kids: 1,600 to 2,500 per day.
If you eat more calories than your body needs, the leftover calories are stored in the body as lipids (fat). Too many calories can lead to health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and others. And yes - skinny kids can suffer from the same problems.
Source: http://teenshealth.org/teen/
Source: http://www.roth.net/Articles/Misc/Calories/
The body needs energy (“calories”) to do anything. Just how much depends on many factors including what you do during a day (sleep all day, exercising, whatever). The average adult male needs between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day. So if he eats this amount of energy a day he would neither gain nor lose weight. He would be consuming as much he uses. Of course the amount of calories needed per day varies from person to person and day to day.
As for kids, they come in all sizes and each person's body burns energy (calories) at different rates, so there isn't one perfect number of calories that a kid should eat. But there is a recommended range for most school-age kids: 1,600 to 2,500 per day.
If you eat more calories than your body needs, the leftover calories are stored in the body as lipids (fat). Too many calories can lead to health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and others. And yes - skinny kids can suffer from the same problems.
Source: http://teenshealth.org/teen/
Source: http://www.roth.net/Articles/Misc/Calories/
Your research, if you choose to help your community and yourself...
Why do this project?
Aside from achieving a great score, you are helping the public make better choices on the foods they eat. In other words, if people knew the calories of most foods, would they still eat them? It depends...
If you're a kid, maybe not. If you're an adult, at least you can make an educated choice.
Did you know?
About 3,500 calories is almost 1 pound of body weight. You would need to run 35 miles to burn this off!
These are the restaurants you will be researching. (MS Word)
Aside from achieving a great score, you are helping the public make better choices on the foods they eat. In other words, if people knew the calories of most foods, would they still eat them? It depends...
If you're a kid, maybe not. If you're an adult, at least you can make an educated choice.
Did you know?
About 3,500 calories is almost 1 pound of body weight. You would need to run 35 miles to burn this off!
These are the restaurants you will be researching. (MS Word)
How are you collecting the data?
Your Excel document should like the image above. |
Keep track of your researchUse the following data to create a sample comparison chart. Place the data in the appropriate cells which were gathered from a calorie website.
Cell A1: McDonald's Sandwiches Cell A3: Sandwiches Cell B3: Calories Cell A4: Big Mac Cell A5: McChicken Cell B4: McChicken Cell B5: McChicken |
What will you do with the data:
Sample graph of a comparison.
The next step is to graph the table.
Highlight cells A4 to B5 and graph the comparison of the two items into a Column Graph. Fill in the appropriate labels according to the data.
Copy the graph unto a MS Word document.
Your final product will have FOUR Comparisons, in other words, you are creating FOUR Graphs - one graph for each type of category: 2 Desserts, 2 meals, 2 drinks, 2 side orders, 2 snacks, etc.
Highlight cells A4 to B5 and graph the comparison of the two items into a Column Graph. Fill in the appropriate labels according to the data.
Copy the graph unto a MS Word document.
Your final product will have FOUR Comparisons, in other words, you are creating FOUR Graphs - one graph for each type of category: 2 Desserts, 2 meals, 2 drinks, 2 side orders, 2 snacks, etc.
Research Questions - answer these question, it's part of your grade
What are First Choice and Second Choice Foods?
Look at the pictures to the left. It demonstrates what is First and Second Choice Foods. Then, in your MS Word document, place the following questions under your graph and answer them.
- If you ordered ALL First Choice Foods only, how many calories would you be eating?
- If you ordered ALL Second Choice Foods only, how many calories would you be consuming?
- After analyzing the fast food data, what did you find most surprising?
- According to your four graphs, which graph had the biggest difference between the First Choice and Second Choice? What was the difference?
- Will your research change your eating habits? Why or why not?
What are you going to submit?
Student sample of Wendy's Research
You will create FOUR GRAPHS. Each graph compares two items under the same category. You will then place the four graphs on a Microsoft Word document followed by FIVE questions provided by Mr. Munoz. Click to download student example by Jenny L
Your project must have the following to receive the best score:
Your entire project (graphs and questions) must fit in ONE WORD DOCUMENT PAGE.
Click on any of the thumbnail posters to see the student work:
Your project must have the following to receive the best score:
- Name of the restaurant (top-center of the document)
- Your name and class (under the restaurant name, top-center of the document)
- Four Graphs (each graph is a comparison of two foods under the same category)
- Place and answer the Five Research Questions under the graphs (complete answers are preferred)
- The source of the information (copy and paste the website address of the calories under the Q&A)
- A decorative border around the page (the border serves two purposes: anything outside the border will get cut-off when your document is printed, and it makes your work look nice!)
Your entire project (graphs and questions) must fit in ONE WORD DOCUMENT PAGE.
Click on any of the thumbnail posters to see the student work:
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Fast Food Project Video TutorialI've created this video tutorial to explain the process of the project.
Don't worry, it's not long (about 4 minutes long) and it explains the step-by-step process of the online research, creating the graphs, and presenting the final document for final grading. Enjoy :-) |
Scoring Rubric
Use the following rubric to reach the best score for your project. Mr. Muñoz will use the same rubric to grade your document: Scoring Rubric
| Fast Food Project | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Visibility of Graphs | All four graphs were done correctly, each clearly demonstrate the data | Three of the graphs clearly show the data | Two of the graphs clearly show the data | None of the graphs clearly present the data |
| abeling of the Graph | The title correctly correlates to the graph, the axes labels clearly describe each Axis | The title correctly relates to the graph, but the labels are incorrect | The title is not present, but the labels correctly describe each Axis | The title and axes labels are missing |
| Layout of document | All four graphs are present, document has the restaurant name, student’ name and class, a page border, and source of information, | One of the required elements is missing | Two required elements are missing | Three or more elements are missing |
| Questions about the research | All five questions were answered thoroughly and accurately with no misspellings | Four of the questions were answered thoroughly and accurately with no misspellings | Three or fewer questions were answered and accurately with some misspellings | None of the questions were answered |
| Overall Project | The overall layout of the document exceeds Tech National Standards. Artistic, and elegant | The overall layout meets the Tech National Standards. Clear, and concise | The overall project has some missing elements but it is acceptable | It is suggested the project be redone for reevaluation |