Kids' Health and Fitness

Learning Quest > Fun & Friends - Fun with Friends > I Spy

Introduction | What Do You Think? | Survey | Reflection | Discussion

Introduction

You are a spy or super sleuth for the Healthy Environment Department. You will be doing a local survey of what types of food and activity are in your community. In your role you will be suggesting ways to improve the food and activity offered in your local community.

This investigation will include: the school, school canteen, home and local areas eg. shops, malls, general stores, open areas, skate parks, sports fields, recreation centres etc.

Suggest how people and availability of facilities influence choices relating to physical activity and food.

What Do You think?

What is a Healthy Environment? How will you rate your community on how healthy the environment is?

Think about your local community and how you would rate the community for its efforts towards being a Healthy Environment. You need to do this before you start surveying and investigating. Your rating for your community must be out of 10. 1 = lowest (not much effort at all) and 10 = highest (a fantastic effort towards a Healthy Environment).

Use the rating template to score your local community.

Share your rating and reasons with one (1) other person. Your teacher will help with creating pairs. Remember to keep a copy of your rating, to see if you still agree with your original impressions of your community once you complete your mission.

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Survey

Survey your local community in groups of two. Your teacher will help with creating pairs. Discuss with your teacher what is considered to be your local community. Work out your community boundaries. Highlight this on a map.

You will be:

		Identifying different types of food and activity places
		How many food and activity places are in your community
		How well they are used

Your survey must reflect this.

Consider what you need to find out as the ‘Healthy Environment Spy’.

Step 1 – Design your survey

Start by thinking about what you need to find out:

		What type of food outlets are in your local community?
		What type of physical activity outlets are in your local community?
		How many food outlets?
		How many physical activity places?
		Are the physical activity places or facilities usable and safe?
		Are activity places/facilities accessible to everyone?
		How many people use these places each week? Day? Hour?

Step 2 – Construct survey

Construct your survey either using the computer or via hand. Remember what you need to find out from step 1.

Step 3 – Conduct survey

You need to decide on how you will gather information. Will you:

		Use a street directory
		Explore community websites
		Use a phone book or online directory
		Observe and record usage of outlets
		Interview people
		A mixture of the above

Step 4 – Collate survey

Once you have completed your survey start to collate.

Step 5 – Make recommendations

From the information you collated what recommendations can you make?

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Reflection

With your partner answer the following questions:

		What are the main food and activity places in your community?
		What are some of the good things in your local community?
		Does the situation of community places influence whether people use them? eg. closeness to public transport
		Are facilities and activity places safe and in good working condition?
		Are these places or facilities accessible to everyone?
		What opportunities/improvements could you suggest for the community to become a more Healthy Environment?
		Did you have fun with a friend doing this spy activity?
		What conclusions can you draw from the survey?

Make a summary of your discussion.

Think about the original rating (score out of 10) that you gave to your Community prior to starting the mission.

What do you think of your original rating? Were you a good spy?

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Discussion

As a class share the ideas and opportunities each of you suggested for improvements for your local community. Write these on a large sheet of paper or use the board.

Select one (1) idea that you really think is achievable and take it on as a part of your class mission to implement this change into your community. Remember the aim is to help and support your community to be a Healthy Environment. Write a letter to your local Council to share your findings and tell them what you are doing and why.

Some of the ideas you may consider could be:

		A special sporting function
		A festival
		A celebration
		A special food day
		An educational evening about what makes a Healthy Environment and invite special guest speakers
		A multicultural dance

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