BUILD-A-MEAL

Now that you know what your assignment is, here are the steps you can take to successfully answer all of America's unanswered questions.  Remember, the more detail the better.

1.You will first be assigned to teams of two students 

2.Each student do some independent research, browsing through the websites offered and looking at the menu selections.  If you have a favorite restaurant that isn't on this list, remember, any fast food restaurant is acceptable.

3.As a team, pick two or three restaurants that you have eaten at before.  Also consider the ease of navigation of the website, some are far more user friendly than others.

4.Each team member, build a meal for yourself from one of the chosen restaurants using the website's virtual menu.  If you have a third or fourth restaurant choice, come up with a meal selection together.  Make it something that you have eaten before or could see yourself eating.  Add it to a bag or write it down so that you can remember your order exactly.  Don't be shy.  Remember the last time you went through the line at 9:30 p.m. and still hadn't eaten dinner? You probably ordered more than a side salad and a small fruit punch, huh?

5.After each partner has an individualized meal from their respective restaurant(s), go back and find the nutritional value.  Don't forget the mayo, the cheese, the pickles, the drink, the fries, the apple pies, even sometimes the bread isn't included.  Oh yea, and about that last second decision, "Can I supersize your order today?"

6.When you go to calculate your nutritional value, make sure you use more than just calories. Sometimes this can be deceiving.  Cheese may not be super high in caloric intake, but watch out for the sodium and saturated fat.

7.Put these nutritional values for your meals in some type of comparison chart/graphic organizer.  A good place to do this would be through the use of Excel or Word.  I will leave the door open here, though.  Your team can choose any means of comparison that you wish to use.  If you have any trouble here, talk with your partner and/or the teacher.

8.When your graphic organizer is complete comparing the two (or more) meals from the different restaurants, jazz them up a bit (use color and 3D and font variation).  Remember, this will be displayed right alongside your restaurant review in next months article.

9.After your team has finished the comparison chart, you will write a restaurant review.  This review can be either positive or negative.  It doesn't have to be about the meal that you built (it could give an alternative, healthier selection) but make sure to tie it in to your graphic organizer, it isn't just there to take up pages! 

10.Each member can choose a restaurant that you thought to have healthy alternatives.  You can choose the same restaurant and attack it from different angles (ex. "This restaurant should be avoided because..." and "This restaurant, although it has many unhealthy selections, can still satisfy a healthy lifestyle by ordering...").  You can choose an alternative restaurant than either of the restaurants you initially chose (although this will require a bit more nutritional value research, it would be an excellent idea to go above and beyond the requirements).  Whatever you do, don't choose to write your reviews about the same thing, we don't want to bore the magazine readers!