Research Memo 1

Teens vs. Food

Hypothesis:

Many do not realize that the children and teen obesity is a problem in our country. According to state health facts, in the state of South Carolina we are 7^th in the nation for having the highest obesity rate. This is outrageous! That is why I am asking  if schools are responsible for these high numbers. We should be eating healthier, even in schools. Kids and teens are spending most of their day at school. Therefore, they should be eating healthier at schools. Kids and teens are given unhealthy food options.

Context:

Child and teen obesity rates are on the rise, but are school lunches to blame? My Goal is to target families and students with my survey. I want to see what parents and children see in their school lunches. With their input we can analyze what others think and will be able to support that lunches are helping the children and teen obesity rates.

Results:

Survey Questions	Children and Teenagers 10 to 18 years of age	Adults 19 to 50 years of age
Is child obesity and important topic in Horry County?	12 of 14 said that they think this is an important topic.	9 of  11 said that they think this is an important topic.
If you were to go up to a vending machine and  had the choice between a piece of fruit and a bag of chips, which would you choose?	8 of 14 said they would choose a bag of chips	8 of 11 said they would choose a bag of chips.
Schools should provide healthy school lunches.	14 of 14 said yes to the statement.	9 of 11 said yes to the statement.
Do you think that school lunches are unhealthy?	10 of 14 said that school lunches are unhealthy.	8 of 11 said that school lunches are unhealthy.
Check all that apply: What do think a healthy lunch consist of?	All said that fruit and veggies. Kids also said granola was a healthy alternative.	All said fruit and veggies. Some others also said that a sandwich on whole grain bread is would be a healthy alternative.
Should parents and schools be aware of what children are eating?	Only one student said no. All others believe that they should be aware.	Only three adults said no to this question.
On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not important and 5 being very important , where do think the child/teen obesity rates stand?	Majority of students said that it is a 4.	Also adults said that it raged on a 4.
Do you believe the government is at fault for such high rates?	Most of students said they agree with this statement.	Most adults said they strongly agree with this statement.
If students were offered other healthy alternatives, would the obesity rates decrease?	There was an equal amount of students that said yes and no.	Most adults said no to this statement.

Data Analysis:

In my data, it is proven that people know what a healthy lunch is. One hundred percent of respondents said that vegetables and fruits are an important part of a lunch. Most also said that obesity is an important topic in Horry County. However, most would rather buy chips at a vending machine instead of fruit. This is proving that schools are providing unhealthy food options for kids today.  A major trend in my data was that kids and teens said that the government is at fault. Even the adults that took my survey said they strongly agree with the statement. This really surprised me. Another trend that caught my eye was the answers if the health options were changed.  Adults said that the obesity rates would not decrease, but an equal amount of students said that it would go either way. A respondent wrote on my survey saying that eating healthy also starts at home. This was an interesting fact to me.

Conclusion:

Many have realized that obesity is a problem here in the United States. It has been proven that students are eating unhealthy in schools, and this is causing the obesity rates to increase. Parents should know what their children are eating in school. We need to stay healthy as a whole, and this is not happening. 

Follow Up:

I plan to gather further information about my topic. I really want to see what other data there is out there. I would also like to conduct more surveys so my research has been presented correctly.  I want to show that this is a problem and that it can be fixed. I think that answering the question of who is responsible will also tell me a lot about my topic. I think that I would change the question about the government involvement and maybe rephrase the question. I believe that if I can find news reports and articles about the topic, it would really help.