For extra credit I was planning on going to view and sign the book at the librarian's desk in the library and then visit the corresponding building in order to get credit for the extra credit.  Then, I was walking outside of Kinard one day after my physical science class and I saw the pendulum going crazy!  It was moving so fast which took me by surprise.  I whipped out my phone and decided to take a video of it for the extra credit (I know I looked like a goof ball whenever I showed my face on the camera - my bad).  It was interesting because the day that we went to visit the Pendulum the first time it was still.  It wasn't moving the slightest bit.  Then, I was casually walking across campus and boy was this thing going crazy!  It was really exciting to see the difference between one day and the next.  The whole concept of the pendulum is intriguing because it is nothing I have ever heard of before.  I think that this extra credit opportunity was an awesome opportunity because it held each student responsible to go out and do the extra credit if it really meant that much to him or her.  

My Library Adventure

While I was at Cooper I decided to find some print sources that will be beneficial to my research on childhood obesity and how it is affected by fast food advertising.  I searched on the library website to find some print sources and I came across a few books, and one government document.  The books I found include  edited by David Crawford and Robert W. Jeffery, Obesity edited by Elliott M. Blass, and Food edited by Jan Grover.  The government document is in two parts, and entitled Childhood Obesity: The Declining Healthy of America's Next Generation - Part I and Part II.  The book entitled Food does not include a lot of information in it about childhood obesity, although Chapter 3 is titled "Are Fast and Snack Foods responsible for Obesity Among Youth?".  Basically, this book will be beneficial in developing a counter argument to my belief because it has a brief section explaining why banning fast-food advertising would not reduce childhood obesity.  This book also explains how a child's mind works when it comes to food, which is really interesting.  I believe that this source will be beneficial to my overall research.  Obesity will give me a better understanding of obesity as a whole.  There is also a section in this book called "Environment Food Messages and Childhood Obesity" that provides statistics and factual information. While I was skimming this section I came across one statistic that both broke my heart and thoroughly surprised me.  It states that in the last three decades over/weight and obesity rates among United States children (ages 2 to 19) has increased from about 5% of all children in the 1970s to 35% for boys and 32% for girls in 2005.  That's insane!!  This is one of the reasons I want to write this paper - to gain a better understanding of childhood obesity and how and why it has increased so much in the past two to three decades.  In this section there is a subsection titled "The Marketing of Unhealthful Choices" which will be where I obtain information about fast food advertising, the marketing of it, and the like.  In the last print source I discovered (Obesity Prevention and Public Health) there is a brief section (pgs 237-239) about advertising and mass media and how youth are more susceptible to be influenced by the power of advertising.  This section will help me garner information about the topic, but will not be beneficial in specific information to my topic.  The government document that I found was a hearing before the Subcommittee on Children and Families.  The hearing was about examining childhood obesity, focusing on the declining health of America's next generation.  This document will be boring to read but will give me the government's standpoint on this topic and its plan of decreasing the number of obese children in the United States.  Overall, I had a very successful Coop experience today! Hoorah!

Research Freewrite

Over the past few decades the rate of obese children living in the United States has significantly increased.  This increase includes many different causes, but one that should be made note of is the advertisement of the fast food industry.  The fast food industry uses different advertising techniques to appeal to the younger audience through the use of kid's meals, toys, and mascots.  For example, McDonald's uses Ronald McDonald, while Wendy's uses Wendy, who appeals to many due to her cute freckles and kind looks.  The fact that fast food restaurants are easily accessible and even more convenient aids in childhood obesity.  Parents who work late hours, or are running errands stop by a fast food restaurants to grab a quick cheap meal, not knowing the terrible effects this meal will have on their child's body.  The actual nutritional value of the food served at fast food restaurants is detrimental to a child's body and in years after the effects of excessive eating out will begin to surface.  Even though the fast food industry is attempting to create better options to chose from, children will more than likely choose the unhealthy burgers and greasy french fries over sliced apples and yogurt.  Through this research paper I will discuss the different aspects of the fast food industry and its appeal to families and especially the younger generation.  I will examine advertisement campaigns along with the reasons why fast food is so accessible.
To research this topic I will examine government documents on childhood obesity and its increasing rate.  I also plan on using the internet to access Goggle Scholar and find scholarly articles on childhood obesity and how fast food restaurants play a vital role in its increase throughout the years.  I will compare the rate of obesity in the present with the rate of obesity in children in the past few decades.  To discover other important articles and journals I will use the Clemson Library Online Catalog which will lead me to the articles that I need.
The most difficult part of this assignment will be pulling in all aspects that I want to cover to form a cohesive paper and hypothesis.  There is a lot of information that can be covered when talking about childhood obesity and the fast food industry, therefore I will need to thoroughly research my topic in order to create a paper that is not too broad.  This paper will also require a lot of research on my part, therefore I will need to quickly begin on my research.

Timeline for Research Paper:
February 19-25: Begin research
February 26: Decide on a creative and well informed hypothesis and topic for the paper
March 4: Finish outline
March 5-9: Construct a very rough draft; make sure to have pictures to include in the research paper
March 16: Rough draft due to Mrs. Lamos
March 17-24: Spring Break
March 25-29: Make major revisions to paper; ones that are needed
March 30: Final draft due to Mrs. Lamos