Final Speech Reflection

Overall, I'd say my speech was pretty well presented. As for the things I had done well on this speech I think my word pacing was well presented. I thought that the way I pronounced the words helped the audience understand the speech better. I also think my word pacing was well presented. I feel as though this was something that I had to work on throughout this semester in Public Speaking and I feel that in this speech I came through and provided the audience with a good pace in speaking. My volume was well put together which allowed the audience to be able to hear the point I was trying to get across which in this case was Childhood Obesity and how school lunches can prevent this from happening. I think a couple things I have to work on would first be the way I presented my speech, I feel like a Ted Talk with better visuals and statistics would have made it easier for the audience to understand my speech a tiny bit better. I also think i had a couple places where I lost the pace of my speech so focusing on this kind of skill while presenting a speech is an important factor for me to practice. Overall, besides these two errors I think my Final Speech in Public Speaking was well presented and I am happy with the results of it

Final Speech URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joJW5xtUclg

Final Speech

The topic of childhood obesity in the United States should not only be decreasing but however is only increasing as we speak. The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970's. Today, about one in five school-aged children (ages 6–19) has obesity. A normal child goes to school 5 days a week and develops many habits through their actions at school because they are there so frequently throughout their childhood. However, the problem with this is that the eating habits that these young children develop in school is very malnutritional. For example, "The Agriculture Department doesn’t track spending to process the food, but school authorities do. The Michigan Department of Education, for example, gets free raw chicken worth $11.40 a case and sends it for processing into nuggets at $33.45 a case. The schools in San Bernardino, Calif., spend $14.75 to make French fries out of $5.95 worth of potatoes." The problem here is that these schools are buying products like chicken and potatoes which has their health benefits to them but are processing and turning them into things like fried chicken nuggets or french fries, etc. This not only hurts the children's health but limits their choices when eating lunch provided by the school because this happens to a lot of the products sold at school lunches. Which is a major cause to why these children are becoming obese at a young age. For example, from a personal experience of attending Glastonbury Public High School in Glastonbury, CT for 3 years, I was served products like fried mozzarella sticks, fried onion rings, boxed pizza, etc. All these things are included into the main course for the "hot lunch" provided at school for these kids which means they are pretty much forced to eat it or else they don't eat. On top of this the school's fruit and vegetable products are not always up to par either. As well as the hot lunches at GHS I also had to deal with the hardship of eating a mushy apple or things like very hard cooked broccoli that was not at all appealing to me, nor my classmates that were at school with me. This limits the student's in getting their nutritional value in the lunch because if the fruits and vegetables are bad than most likely a lot of the kids are not going to take them which means all they are consuming is the horrific nutritioned "hot lunch." These students are consuming the processed food which is only gonna contribute to becoming obese more and more each and every day. To build off this idea, student's need the nutrients in their lunches to be able to focus and succeed in class throughout the rest of the school day. How is this going to happen when they are consuming an awful nutritioned lunch? The answer is it's not. These student's need the right amount of nutrients within their lunch to get them through the day as well as being able to think and analyze problems within the concepts taught in class and to be able to perform in all types of afternoon activities after school whether it is a sport like hockey or even something like ultimate frisbee. In order to burn calories while exercising you have to be able to move frequently and consistently at a specific pace but without the right nutrients in your body while doing this, it's going to be extra hard to burn calories and lose weight. Which can also be a major reason to the cause of obesity. However, all these problems are caused by the poorly adjusted fixings school's have made to their school lunches which is the reason why there is a increase in obese children across America day by day. The school lunches need to be able to change their food products to less fried and processed food to more fruits and vegetables so that these obese children can become a lot more healthy as well as be able to perform well in class and during any after school activity. However, these fruits and vegetables need to be served up to their full potential and in the best shape as possible. It's bad enough when you give a kid an option of choosing a chocolate chip cookie or an apple, he or she is most likely going to choose the cookie. Well to decrease the likeliness of this happening, schools need to cut down on providing the sweets but also need to make sure the fruits and veggies are in tip top shape because it's hard enough to get young students to eat enough fruits and veggies let alone serve them fruits that are bruised or mushy or veggies that are cooked too much or too little. The whole view on the menu served for the students at schools across America needs to be upgraded to foods with the right nutrition to help contribute to a students success as well as the right foods that help contribute to these children in making sure they aren't gaining a ton of weight. As well as becoming obese over sweets which are only going to make the likely hood of becoming obese as a child more likely to occur. 

Final Speech Research

1.) http://online.campbellsville.edu/education/healthy-body-healthy-mind-the-impact-of-school-lunch-on-student-performance/

Bibliography,

Education, Gabe Duverge in. "The Impact of School Lunch on Student Performance."Campbellsville University Online. N.p., 08 Feb. 2017. Web. 01 May 2017.

In my speech I am going to talk about the specific effects school lunches have on children performing in classes and being successful in these classes as well as effects it has on the body of these students leading to obesity 

"There are several direct effects that involve the immediate impact of nutrition on the daily performance of a student. Mental and behavioral problems can be traced back to unhealthy nutrition and poor eating habits"

"Nutritional deficiencies in zinc, B vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids and protein have been shown to affect the cognitive development of children. There is also evidence to suggest that diets with high amounts of trans and saturated fats can have a negative impact on cognition. This will harm the ability of students to learn at a pace necessary for school success"

2.) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/school-lunches-and-the-food-industry.html

Bibliography,

Komisar, Lucy. "How the Food Industry Eats Your Kid’s Lunch." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Dec. 2011. Web. 01 May 2017.

In my speech I am also going to talk about the awful nutrition values these schools provide for the students across America in their school lunches, I am going to back this point up with real life facts as well as a couple real life quotes from real life sources talking about the downgraded nutritional value in school lunches as well 

"The Agriculture Department doesn’t track spending to process the food, but school authorities do. The Michigan Department of Education, for example, gets free raw chicken worth $11.40 a case and sends it for processing into nuggets at $33.45 a case. The schools in San Bernardino, Calif., spend $14.75 to make French fries out of $5.95 worth of potatoes."


"The money is ill spent. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has warned that sending food to be processed often means lower nutritional value and noted that “many schools continue to exceed the standards for fat, saturated fat and sodium.” A 2008 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that by the time many healthier commodities reach students, “they have about the same nutritional value as junk foods.”

3.) https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/causes.html

Bibliography,

"Childhood Obesity Causes & Consequences." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Dec. 2016. Web. 01 May 2017.

In my speech I am also going to talk about the reasons why these children are obese and the main reason is eating unhealthy and consuming a high dose of calories per day. I am then going to back this up with real life quotes to support my claim

"A healthy diet follows the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans that emphasizes eating a variety of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, a variety of lean protein foods, and low-fat and fat-free dairy products. It also limits eating foods and beverages with added sugars, solid fats, or sodium."

"In contrast, consuming a healthy diet and being physically active can help children grow as well as maintain a healthy weight throughout childhood. Balancing energy or calories consumed from foods and beverages with the calories burned through activity plays a role in preventing excess weight gain. In addition, eating healthy and being physically active also has other health benefits and helps to prevent chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease."

4.) https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm

Bibliography,

"Healthy Schools." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 01 May 2017.

In my speech I am going to talk about the rate of childhood obesity and how it has increased in the United States. It has had a very drastic increase and I want to present to my audience real life facts to back up my claim 

"The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s. Today, about one in five school-aged children (ages 6–19) has obesity."

5.) https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm

Bibliography,

"Healthy Schools." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 01 May 2017.

In my speech I also want to present to the audience with some background knowledge on what you can inherit from being obese as a child such as specific deadly diseases as well as show them why it is so important to eat healthy as a child 

"In the long term, childhood obesity also is associated with having obesity as an adult, which is linked to serious conditions and diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and several types of cancer."

6.) https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-prevention/schools/school-obesity-prevention-recommendations-read-and-print/

Bibliography,

"School Obesity Prevention Recommendations: Complete List." Obesity Prevention Source. N.p., 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 01 May 2017.

In my speech I am also going to talk about what schools should do to prevent this life long condition to decrease from happening in the U.S. I am going to back my claim up with real life quotes to show the audience how important it is for the unhealthy nutrition in school lunches to be monitored fro the safety and health of their students' 


"One of the main avenues that schools can use to positively affect health is also one most directly in line with every school’s mission: educating students. Nutrition and physical activity lessons can be woven into the curriculum-in core classroom subjects, physical education, and after-school programs-to teach skills that help students choose and maintain healthy lifestyles. In addition to teaching evidence-based nutrition and activity messages, school physical education should focus on getting students engaged in high-quality and regular activity."

"Serving healthy choices in the lunch room, limiting availability and marketing of unhealthful foods and sugary drinks, and making water available to students throughout the day are some of the ways that schools can help prevent obesity. Making these types of changes in the school food environment will be no easy task, however. In the U.S., for example, the Department of Agriculture recently finalized comprehensive new school meal guidelines that will increase vegetables, fruit, and whole grains and curb sodium, saturated fat, and trans fat. But due to political pressures, the agency was not able to fully implement the meal guidelines recommended by an expert panel at the Institute of Medicine."

Final Speech Assignment Plan

Topic,
The problem of childhood obesity and how schools can help childhood obesity as well

The problem of childhood obesity is a very important problem in the USA and I am interested in this topic because I want to help the children of today's society in making the right choices as well as becoming fit and able to have a level of confidence when looking at their body. I don't want these children feeling embarrassed of their weight and in order for this too happen it starts with the school systems in the U.S making drastic changes in the way they serve their food. Schools serve school lunches with little hesitation of worrying about the nutritional value that these kids are going to be consuming. Which has a very positive effect on why some children across America are obese. As well as the "main course" of lunch being usually a type of fried food or something like pizza, etc., schools also provide a ton of chips and cookies and some type of desert which also doesn't help especially on top of the badly nutritioned main course being provided for the children. From real life experience of attending public school at Glastonbury High School, public schools however do serve fruits and vegetables. The only problem is the fruit that I was provided with at GHS was always in terrible condition wether it was a mushy apple or a bruised banana or even really chewy broccoli. It just didn't agree with my taste buds which is why I think so many of these kids do not eat the fruits and vegetables at school and decide to stick with all the unhealthy choices. In my eyes, these schools need to focus on the more nutritional type of lunches being served as well as focusing on making sure the fruits and the veggies are in the best condition possible to be served so that the kids can be healthy as well as finish the rest of their day off strong because without nutritional energy, you are not going to succeed as often in the classroom as well as in a sporting event or whatever these children do after school. This would help tremendously for these suffering children suffering with obesity. Childhood obesity is a very big problem and can easily be fixed starting with the school systems and what they serve for school lunches and even breakfast if they serve that as well. In my speech I am going to talk about the improvements that need to be made to these school lunches, the benefits of these changes towards childhood obesity, a real life experience as well as some real life facts to spice it up alittle bit. This is a major topic in today's health society and it is something that needs to be fixed

Debate Unit Reflection

Overall, on the broad scheme of things, I think my improvement as the Debate Unit progressed increased a lot. I think one of the biggest concepts when performing in a debate that I learned personally was to argue what the other person was stating. In other words, if they were to say something about M and M's containing a lot of calories, when it's my turn to speak I should argue the point about the calories instead of arguing something totally different about M and M's. This tool as well as skill helped me increase my grade in these debates throughout the time in this unit especially when it came to the point where we were doing the 1 on 1 mini debates, this was a huge skill that came into play during those sepcific debates just because it was so hard to think of information on the spot. On top of this concept, I also learned to mix in real life facts as well as a real life experience and even a quote stated by a famous person or an expert on the topic of the debate. This allows me as a speaker in the debate to provide the audience as well as the opposing team with a taste of logos and pathos which spices up what I am trying to say as well. This is a huge skill when debating because it allows the audience as well as the opposing team to really think about what I am arguing and also really allows them to paint a picture in their head's when I add the real life experience into my point. Adding real life facts is key to backing up what I am trying to say. These facts also make it easier to prove my point and more importantly for the judges to come up with a winner because you can't argue real life facts, they are what they are. Like I said before, as the unit went on I think my ability to be able to debate increased tremendously. Throughout the first 2 mini debates we did in class, it was more of a free for all. It was 2 on 2 where each team was just blerting out information. After these 2 mini debates were completed, I learned that in order to have a more formal and more organized debate we'd have to have an opening statement, followed by our rebuttals and then ending with a closing statement. As we began to perform the debates in this type of style, it allowed me to learn and improve on my debating skills because it made it easier to argue each other's points as well as getting my point across to the opposing team. The 2 formal debates allowed me to put all my knowledge into the opening or closing statement whichever one I was assigned. This allowed me to receive a good grade because I was able to follow the correct guidelines in completing a full statement. These guidelines were, add real life facts, add a real life experience and also add a quote stated by an expert on that specific topic. On top of this, if I was doing the closing statement I also had to be alert during the rest of the debate in order to hear the opposing teams points so that I could argue them in my closing statement, another key skill that I learned throughout this process. Lastly, the final mini debates we performed in class allowed me to put all the tools and skills that I learned on debates together and to just let it all out there. These quick mini debates also allowed me to think of information quickly on the spot so that I could argue my point thoroughly throughout the mini 6 minute debate (each person had a total of 3 min to talk). Overall, I think that my ability to debate increased tremendously throughout this Debate Unit and I think these skills and concepts that I picked up will help me in the real world as well as future debates in school as well. I really enjoyed this unit and I encourage Ms. Guarino to keep doing this unit with future Public Speaking Classes

2 Mini Debate Topics

1.) Coed school

2.) Guns being illegal or legal if you have a license