SUNY Oswego - Oswego Reading Initiative: Classroom Applications: SUNY Oswego

Classroom Applications: SUNY Oswego

How are you using Fast Food Nation in your course? Please share your plans with your colleagues by submitting them to this website. You may send your comments to Gary Klatsky.
Thank You!

OLS Summer Program 2003
OLS students participating in the Summer Program 2003 used Fast Food Nation during a library instruction session. The students learned how to use a variety of library resources and then used the resources to retrieve materials listed in the bibliography of FFN. The session also required the students to evaluate the materials they found.
John Thomas, Penfield Library

Gateway to Business (MGT 110)
The Gateway freshman are required to read Fast Food Nation. Some will be writing industry reports on the fast food industry. Paula Bobrowski is giving a Fast Food Nation presentation to all the Gateway students. There will probably also be some discussion in class.
Pam Cox, Gateway to Business (MGT 110) Coordinator

Introduction to Social Science (Honors 200)
Students were assigned Fast Food Nation as a reading assignment. We read 1-2 chapters for each class and discussed them, with a student leading the discussion. The students responded very positively to the book. On the evaluation sheet I handed out on the last day, students consistently rated it as Excellent.
Ranjit Dighe

Intellectual Traditions in the West (Honors 141)
I required the students to attend at least 3 events related to ORI and write them up, in addition to a paper solely on Fast Food Nation.
Gwen Kay

American Medical Issues (History 368)
This spring we're spending 3 weeks on some issues (food, nutrition, and occupational health) from Fast Food Nation and I've assigned a different book that's related (Greg Crister, Fat Land). Last spring, I had the class make up their versions of the reading packet for Fast Food Nation and some of them were very clever! (I'd brought in the packets for Haven as an example.)
Gwen Kay

Teaching Science and Technology (CED 340)
Fat Facts - Students were asked to: "Use the nutrition information sheets and the scales to measure out amounts of Crisco equal to the mass of fat contained in common fast food meals. Pick a main course, side dish, drink and desert. Identify on the card what the "menu" is for each lump of fat. Construct a "fatty" meal, a "diet" meal, your favorite (or typical) meal for each group member.
Eric Olson