Introduction
Τeenagers appear to ignore the importance and value of nutrient-rich foods and exhibit eating habits with the following characteristics: major omission of meals, consumption of ready-to-eat food outside home, preference for low nutritional snacks, frequent and unhealthy diets for weight loss,alcohol abuse,etc.
Task
The participation in this activity will benefit the involved participants as its topic is related to their ages and interests.
Some of the benefits of using WebQuests and its activities: increase of critical thinking, foster cooperative learning, increase creativity, increase students’ competency with technology, learn how to deal with conflict within the group, etc.
On the other hand they will understand that the mental picture they have of their body includes attitudes and feelings about how they look & how they think other people see them. Maybe they will develop that they had a wrong picture for themselves.
By challenging stereotypes they will recognize that there is no ideal body type but tactics used by the advertisers. In this way they will move in the direction of accepting their own body type or/and look critically at the messages of the ads on magazines.
Maybe some will look inside and gain their self-esteem or understand how personal goals, peer and social pressures, cultural beliefs, etc can influence their decisions about health practices and behaviors. In this way they will avoid practices that are bad for their health (e.g tobacco and alcohol use, diets that can cause harm to their health).
All the activities will integrate new concepts into established knowledge structures.
Process
Day 1: Introduction to nutrition in adolescence: There will be a general content presentation and then students will focus on parameters that influence their eating behavior and will create comics presenting these.
Day 2: Body image: There will be ice-breaking and brainstorming interactive activities having as aim to provide information about self-image and how it can influence lifestyle choices, and promote the development of a healthy body image. There we also focus on tactics used by advertisers, stereotypes, accepting others and ourselves and being the best that we can be, including maintaining our health. Final product will be in form of posters with meaningful messages for their peers.
Day 3: Eating disorders: In this webquest we'll use case studies in order for the students to develop the characteristics of eating disorder and develop that personal choice concerning fitness and health involves multiple factors. On the other hand, here they will analyse, classify, synthesize, evaluate information, and integrate new concepts into the "chapter": DIETS.
Day 4: Healthy eating: healthy meal planning combined with a cooking session of 3 course meal. Final product will be a recorded video
Day 5: Students inform their peers and exhibit their products: live event on twinspace, Firewall, CVs.