UNIT TITLE: The Fabulous Fast Food Business

Author: Gina Stokes
E-Mail Address: gstokes@district146.org
School: Central Middle School : Tinley Park, Illinois
School Home Page URL: http://www.district146.org/schools/central/


Fries
Running Guy with Food 

THEME : Opening a fast food restaurant

BROAD CONCEPT: Healthy Lifestyle, Money Management, Real World Situations,

GRADES: 6-8

INTEGRATED SUBJECTS: Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts, Health


UNIT GOALS AND PURPOSE:

The ultimate goal of this unit is to allow students to utilize many skills and subject areas within a recognizable theme.  By integrating technology, students will be able to explore real world information in order to make decisions.  By working in small groups, students will develop and strengthen cooperative learning skills and  problem solving abilities.
 

TIME FRAME: The entire unit will take approximately 15-20 days (30-45 minutes each) depending on the amount of class time spent on each activity.
  

OBJECTIVES:

In this lesson, students will:

MATERIALS:
Desktop Publishing -- PrintShop, MS Publisher, Print Artist
Word Processing -- MS Word
CD-ROM Encyclopedia -- Encarta & Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac
Multimedia -- PowerPoint, Kidpix
Brainstorming -- Kidspiration or Inspiration
Spreadsheet -- MS Excel
Database -- MS Works

 

 STATE STANDARDS ADDRESSED BY THIS UNIT:

English Language Arts
1.B.3a  Preview reading materials, make predictions and relate reading to information from other sources.
1.B.3d  Read age-appropriate material with fluency and accuracy.
1.C.3a  Use information to form, explain and support questions and predictions.
1.C.3c  Compare, contrast and evaluate ideas and information from various sources and genres.
1.C.3d  Summarize and make generalizations from content and relate them to the purpose of the material.
3.C.3b  Using available technology, produce compositions and multimedia works for specified audiences.
4.B.3a  Deliver planned oral presentations, using language and vocabulary appropriate to the purpose, message and audience; provide details and supporting information that clarify main ideas; and use visual aids and contemporary technology as support.
4.B.3b  Design and produce reports and multi-media compositions that represent group projects.
5.A.3a  Identify appropriate resources to solve problems or answer questions through research.
5.A.3b  Design a project related to contemporary issues (e.g., real-world math, career development, community service) using multiple sources.
5.B.3a  Choose and analyze information sources for individual, academic and functional purposes.

Mathematics
6.B.3a  Solve practical computation problems involving whole numbers, integers and rational numbers.
6.C.3a  Select computational procedures and solve problems with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents and proportions.
6.C.3b  Show evidence that computational results using whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents and proportions are correct and/or that estimates are reasonable.
6.D.3  Apply ratios and proportions to solve practical problems.
7.A.3b  Apply the concepts and attributes of length, capacity, weight/mass, perimeter, area, volume, time, temperature and angle measures in practical situations.
7.B.3  Select and apply instruments including rulers and protractors and units of measure to the degree of accuracy required.
8.C.3  Apply the properties of numbers and operations including inverses in algebraic settings derived from economics, business and the sciences.
8.D.3b  Propose and solve problems using proportions, formulas and linear functions.
9.C.3b  Develop and solve problems using geometric relationships and models, with and without the use of technology.
10.A.3a   Construct, read and interpret tables, graphs (including circle graphs) and charts to organize and represent data.
10.A.3c   Test the reasonableness of an argument based on data and communicate their findings.
10.B.3  Formulate questions (e.g., relationships between car age and mileage, average incomes and years of schooling), devise and conduct experiments or simulations, gather data, draw conclusions and communicate results to an audience using traditional methods and contemporary technologies.

Social Science
15.A.3c  Describe the relationship between consumer purchases and businesses paying for productive resources.
15.B.3b  Explain the effects of choice and competition on individuals and the economy as a whole.
16.A.3b  Make inferences about historical events and eras using historical maps and other historical sources.
16.A.3c  Identify the differences between historical fact and interpretation.
17.C.3b  Explain how patterns of resources are used  throughout the world.
17.D.3b   Explain how interactions of geographic factors have shaped present conditions.

Health
22.A.3b  Identify how positive health practices and relevant health care can help reduce health risks (e.g., proper diet and exercise reduce risks of cancer and heart disease).
N.C.T.M. STANDARDS ADDRESSED BY THIS UNIT:

Number and Operations Standard

• work flexibly with fractions, decimals, and percents to solve problems
• understand and use ratios and proportions to represent quantitative relationships
• develop meaning for integers and represent and compare quantities with them
• understand the meaning and effects of arithmetic operations with fractions, decimals, and integers
• develop, analyze, and explain methods for solving problems involving proportions, such as scaling and finding equivalent ratios

Algebra Standard

• represent, analyze, and generalize a variety of patterns with tables, graphs, words, and, when possible, symbolic rules
• model and solve contextualized problems using various representations, such as graphs, tables, and equations
• use graphs to analyze the nature of changes in quantities in linear relationships

Data Analysis and Probability Standard

• formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations or different characteristics within one population
• select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations of data, including histograms, box plots, and scatterplots
• discuss and understand the correspondence between data sets and their graphical representations, especially histograms, stem-and-leaf plots, box plots, and scatterplots
• use observations about differences between two or more samples to make conjectures about the populations from which the samples were taken

Problem Solving Standard Connections Standard
Representation Standard

STUDENT ACTIVITIES WHICH WILL PROMOTE ENGAGED LEARNING:

Lesson 1:  Brainstorming Restaurant Ideas
Students will begin to get the unit underway by brainstorming various types of fast food restaurants.  Each group will use the program, Kidspiration or Inspiration, in order to organize thoughts and ideas.  The students may need suggestions in order to get started.  For example, it may be helpful to begin general with types of fast food restaurants and then get more specific with fast food restaurant names.
Lesson 2:  Make a Restaurant Choice
Part 1:  In the first part of this lesson, the groups are going to narrow down their brainstorming ideas from lesson 1 in order to determine which fast food restaurant is going to be their subject for the unit.  The students will use the internet to research franchise information.  Some helpful franchising websites are Franchise.com, World Franchising.com, or the individual restaurant sites.  Because a specific budget is not assigned, the students should compare various companies in terms of start up costs and success rates so that the group can make an educated business choice.

Part 2:  Once the groups have narrowed down their choices, they will want to make a final restaurant decision based upon location.  By once again using the internet, the students will explore strategic geographic locations.  Some helpful websites to use are directory sites or map sites such as Yahoo! Yellow Pages or Mapquest. Students will print out a map, plot similar restaurants on the map, and use scale and measurement in order to make an educated decision.

Lesson Differentiation Note:  This lesson can be easily adjusted for various learning abilities.  For students with slower learners, the restaurant choices can be slim lined by the teacher before they begin researching.  For advanced students or as an extension, the concept of demographics can be introduced into the decision making process.
Lesson 3:  Creating a Food Budget
Now that the groups have made their restaurant choices, they will create a food budget.  They will use Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet of these information.  Some questions they will need to answer will be:  What type of food to buy?  How much food to buy?   Where to buy it?  The information necessary for this spreadsheet can be obtained through both brainstorming among the group as well as research on the internet.  It is important that the students work with formulas to create an understanding of the relationships between quantities and prices.  They should also take time to manipulate and experiment with the data.  This spreadsheet information  will be used later on in the unit.

  Lesson Differentiation Note:  For the sake of time, it is best to keep the items in the budget to the main ingredients that are necessary for this restaurant's chief products.  For advanced students, however, more in-depth research can be done into real-life specifics of various restaurant chains.
Lesson 4:  Planning for Employees
The first step for this lesson will be to explore various ways to find out fast food employee salary information.  The students will participate in a whole group discussion in order to come up with various ideas.  During this discussion, the teacher will use either a multimedia projector or television that is connected to a computer and Kidspiration or Inspiration to record these ideas.  Once the discussion is complete, each group can then receive a printed copy of the outline/map.  The groups will then need to investigate this information and determine what their restaurant will pay its employees.  For simplicity sake, it would be best to keep a straight employee salary instead of managerial levels. However, it is important to take into consideration the competition aspect of salaries among businesses.

The next step is to determine how many employees will be necessary to run the business on a daily basis.  Once this is determined, the students will need to return to the spreadsheet from the lesson three and add these costs to their budget.  Formulating budget totals is vital to this activity.  Next, they can create charts/graphs that will be used in the final presentation of this unit.  These charts/graphs should break down the company's budget visually.

The final step for this lesson will be to create an employee database by using MS Works.  They will need to record pertinent information such as the employees' names, addresses, and phone numbers.    
Lesson 5:  New Menu Ideas
Each group will generate two new menu products.  It would be best to allow the students the ability to create any type of item they would like, whether it is real or fake.  This will help evoke their creativity.  Next, the groups will create a flyer or pamphlet of these items using a desktop publishing program such as PrintShop, MS Publisher, or PrintArtist.
Lesson 6:  Nutritional Information
It is important that students understand what nutritional value fast food menu items offer.  Therefore, each group will take some time to discuss and research this information. An extremely helpful websites for nutritional information is the USDA's Food Pyramid site at Mypyramid.gov. Students need to ultimately determine the percentages to which certain fast food products fit into the daily recommendations.

Once the nutritional information is gathered, each groups will generate an illustration that relays this information.  This illustration can be created by using their choice of either a desktop publishing program (i.e. PrintShop, MS Publisher, or PrintArtist) or a word processing program (i.e. MS Word).  Once completed, the illustrations can be copied or printed onto transparencies to be used in a whole class discussion of nutrition.  

As an individual activity, each student will use MS Word to describe his/her reaction to the lessons learned about nutrition and fast food.
Lesson 7:  Advertising
Most students are familiar with fast food advertisements.  This will be their chance to create their own.  Each group will need to create two commercials.  One commercial will be used to advertise the restaurant to potential customers, while the other will be used to search for employees.  These commercials will be generated using  multimedia software such as PowerPoint or Kidpix
Lesson 8:  Stock Comparisons
Each group will examine its company's stock value by either visiting Yahoo! Finance or MSN Money.  Comparisons  should be made between the stock's current value, its yearly range, as well as any trends or drastic changes.  Once the students have had time to explore this information, they will need to record a current value for the stock that will be shared with the entire class. Each student will work individually on MS Excel.  First, the stock information needs to be entered.  Next, the students will spend some time sorting and manipulating the data.  Finally, each student will summarize the conclusion he/she has derived from this data using MS Word.
Lesson 9:  Company History
Each student will investigate the history of his/her group's compnay using both a hard copy encyclopedia as well as a CD-ROM encyclopedia such as Encarta or Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac.  This information will be compiled using MS Word and saved to some sort of portable media (i.e. diskette, CD, or flash drive).  

Next, the groups will reconvene to compare and combine the historical information.  This will be done by opening each student's saved document, reviewing the information, and utilizing the cut, copy, and paste tools to create one combined group document.
Lesson 10: Company's Future
Students will now explore expanding and growing their companies in other areas of the world.  Each group will investigate and determine another country in which their restaurant may succeed.  For this lesson, the groups are free to generate this information any way they choose.  However, they are responsible for creating a Business Plan that justifies their decision.  This Business Plan will be part of the final presentation.


 


SHARE YOUR IDEAS:

As a culminating project, each group will compile the work generated throughout the unit.  Each piece will be assembled into on presentation using ether KidPix or PowerPoint .  This presentation will be presented to the rest of the students and assessed by the following rubric:

Student's Name(s): 



Description of Project Component
 Total Possible Points
 Your Points
Budget (lessons 3 &4)  - includes information on food, employees, and charts/graphs
 30
New Menu Items (lesson 5) - Two flyers of pamphlets accurately depicting new items
 20
Advertising (lesson 7) - One customer commercial & one employee commercial
 40
Company History (lesson 9)
 10
Business Plan (lesson 10)
 15
Effectively presented the project using multimedia software
 35
Cumulative total for The Fabulous Fast Food Business Unit
 150

 

STUDENT AND TEACHER ROLES: (Give specifics about the roles teachers and students will play in this unit. Use the indicators of engaged learning to help you here.)
 
 Students:  Throughout the entire unit, students are working in small groups and cooperating with one another in order to complete activities that incorporate the use of technology.  Along the way, each student is responsible for completing some individual work as well as participating in whole class discussions.  As a final culminating piece, the students will present many of their findings directly to the class via a multimedia presentation.

Teacher:  Quite often, the students will be working in small group settings, and the teacher will need to act only as a facilitator to keep progress moving.  At times, some of the research will need to be collected and reorganized into whole class discussions.  In addition, the teacher will be actively participating along with the students throughout the entire unit in order to adjust the amount of time each lesson will need.. 

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE PRINT RESOURCES STUDENTS MAY USE :


THE FOLLOWING BOOKS CONTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT THIS TOPIC:

These books are for much younger children, but are  nice, topical  read-alouds:


 

FOR ADDITIONAL ONLINE INFORMATION AND MEDIA PERTAINING TO THIS UNIT, TEACHERS MAY WANT TO USE THE FOLLOWING INTERNET ARTICLES:  (minimum 6 sites)

Title1: Serving up Economics

URL1:  http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/econindex.htm

Description1:  Helpful article that offers a rationale for this unit
 
 

Title2:  Nutritional Value of Fast Food

URL2:   http://www.challenge.state.la.us/edres/lessons/HighSchool/lesson7.htm

Description2: A helpful piece for lesson 6-Nutritional Information
 
 

Title3:  Trade is interactive

URL3:http://www.wcit.org/tradeis/lessons/lesson7.htm

Description3:  This lesson is helpful background information for lesson 8--stock comparisons
 
 
 

Title4:  National Geographic--Fast Food Around the World

URL4:  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/10/g68/fastfood.html

Description4:  Very helpful lesson plan to help with lesson 10--Company's Future
 
 
 

Title5:  Nutrition and Health      

URL5:  http://www.nelliemuller.com/Nutrition_WebQuest.lessonplan.htm

Description5:   Very helpful lesson plan for a nutrition webquest
 

Title6:  Problem solving lesson plan:  Opening a restaurant

URL6:  http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/lessons/problem%20solving/pr13bw.htm

Description6:  Helpful lesson to pick up ideas on guiding students in this unit
 
 
 

 RELEVANT INFORMATION, STUDENTS WILL VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEB SITES: (minimum 6 sites) Title1:  My Pyramid.gov

URL1:  http://www.mypyramid.gov/

Purpose of Use1:  Lesson 6-Nutritional Information

Description1:  Very thorough site for nutritional information and graphics
 
 

Title2: The food guide pyramid for young children

URL2: http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/KidsPyra/

Purpose of Use2:  Lesson 6-Nutritional Information

Description2: Students will find information regarding nutrition, the food pyramid, and links to other helpful sites regarding nutrition
 
 

Title3:  Franchise.com

URL3:  http://www.franchise.com/

Purpose of Use3: Lesson 2-Making a Restaurant Choice

Description3: This site contains a wealth of franchise information
 
 
 

Title4:  World Franchising    

URL4:  http://www.worldfranchising.com/

Purpose of Use4:  Lesson 2-Making a Restaurant Choice

Description4: This site is a good cross-reference for Lesson number 2
 
 
 

Title5:  National Geographic--Globalization        

URL5:  http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/2000/culture/global/main.html

Purpose of Use5:  Lesson 10--Company's Future

Description5:  Offers some insight into Americanization  in other areas of the world
 
 
 

Title6:  Financial websites

URL6: http://finance.yahoo.com/  or  http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp

Purpose of Use6: Lesson 8--Stock Comparisons

Description6: These sites will help students research the current and past stock information on any corporation