Vegetarian Lunches for Central High

A Web Quest by Daniel Logan

Introduction Task Process Evaluation Conclusion

Introduction

Many students at Central High would like the school’s cafeteria to add a vegetarian lunch to its regular menu. Some students are interested in the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Other students are concerned about environmental degradation due to raising livestock for food. Still other students are concerned about issues regarding animal rights, factory farming conditions for livestock, and related ethical issues of raising animals for human consumption.

Task

The Student Council has coordinated a Health class, a Science class, a Social Studies class, and a Home Economics class to research the issues raised by the students. After conducting their research, these four classes will prepare a PowerPoint slide show summarizing their findings. Students will then work under the direction of the Library Media Specialist outside of regular class hours to prepare a final composite PowerPoint presentation advocating the addition of vegetarian lunches to the regular menu. This presentation will be shown to the Cafeteria Manager and other school administrators.

The Process

Each of the four classes will review Web resources concerning their respective assignments on vegetarian food. Each class will prepare a ten-slide PowerPoint presentation with an agreed-upon uniform stylistic format (e.g. background, font, and bullet lists, etc.) Stylistic inconsistencies can be modified when the individual units are combined for the complete presentation.

Students from the Health class will research health and nutrition issues related to a vegetarian diet. They will consider the following Web resources:

        American Heart Association - Vegetarian Diets:
http://www.americanheart.org

EarthSave:  http://www.earthsave.com/

        The National Cancer Institute's 5-A-Day For Better Health Program:
http://www.5aday.gov/

National School Lunch Program:

http://www.frac.org/html/federal_food_programs/programs/nslp.html

       Planet Vegan:  http://www.planetvegan.org/health/default.asp

The Science class will investigate the environmental effects of raising animals for food. They will consider the following Web resources:

Beyond Beef Campaign:
http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/reports/beyond.html#8

EarthSave: http://www.earthsave.com/

Mad Cowboy - Environment Factoids:
http://www.madcowboy.com/01_FactsENV.000.html

        Planet Vegan: http://www.planetvegan.org/environment/default.asp

               Report - The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs, by Marlene Halverson:
http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/indextoc.html

United States Geological Survey: How Much Water Does It Take to Grow
a Hamburger? http://wwwga.usgs.gov/edu/sc1.html

Students from the Social Studies class will research animal rights issues and the ethical considerations of raising animals for human consumption. They will consider the following Web resources:

        People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA):
http://www.peta-online.org/

        Planet Vegan: http://www.planetvegan.org/ethics/default.asp

TheVegetarianSite.com - Philosophy:
http://www.thevegetariansite.com/ethics_phil.htm

The Home Economics class will find vegetarian resources to help in menu planning and meal preparation. They will consider the following Web resources:

Healthy School Lunch: 
http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/marie_healthy_lunch.htm

Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine: http://www.pcrm.org/

United Soybean Board - Food Service Recipes:
http://www.talksoy.com/FoodIndustry/FoodserviceRecps.htm

        Vegetarian Resource Group - Introduction to Vegetarian Food Service
        and Nutrition: http://www.vrg.org/berkoff/index.htm

Vegetarian Resource Group - Quantity Recipes:
http://www.vrg.org/catalog/quant.htm

Vegetarian Resource Group - Tips for Introducing Vegetarian Foods into 
        Institutions: http://www.vrg.org/fsupdate/tipsintroinstitute.htm

Vegetarian Resource Group - Vegetarian Journal's Food Service Update
        and Quantity Cooking Information: http://www.vrg.org/fsupdate/

Evaluation

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Content	Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent.	Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good.	Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors.	Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.
Organization	Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists to group related material.	Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed.	Content is logically organized for the most part.	There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts.
Mechanics	No misspellings or grammatical errors.	Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.	Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.
Presentation	Well-rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds audience attention.	Rehearsed with fairly smooth delivery that holds audience attention most of the time.	Delivery not smooth, but able to maintain interest of the audience most of the time.	Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost.
Sources	Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. All documented in desired format.	Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. Most documented in desired format.	Source information collected for graphics, facts and quotes, but not documented in desired format.	Very little or no source information was collected.
Requirements	All requirements are met. Works Cited page appears at end of slide show.	All requirements are met.	One requirement was not completely met.	More than one requirement was not completely met.

Conclusion

By the end of this project, students will have a better understanding of how their dietary choices influence their own health as well as the health of the environment. They will also have a better idea of the conditions in which animals raised for slaughter often exist. While the students may or may not persuade the administration to add a vegetarian option to the school's menu, they will be better informed to make personal dietary choices based on what they have learned. They will also have learned to work cooperatively within a large group and to integrate their efforts with those of other classes.

Introduction Task Process Evaluation Conclusion

Last updated February 2005 by Trisha Armstrong