A Guide to Daily Food Choices - I chose to include this Website in my project as an example of a site that students should NOT use as an accurate source.  This site does not have an author included, few external links, and it has not been updated since at least 2005.  This site has the "old" version of the Food Guide Pyramid.  Hopefully, this site will get students thinking about the accuracy and authority of the information.  While the site looks professional and clearly outlines the information that my students will be looking for, it is not an appropriate site for them to use in their research.  This Webpage will challenge my students to critically think about the information presented to them on the Web.  Google found 8 Websites that link to this site.  One site that links to A Guide to Daily Food Choices states on the site that the link is to the 2002 Food Guide Pyramid, thus warning its users that the information is not current.  When searching "nutrient requirements" on Altis, A Guide to Daily Food Choices is the first result shown.  This Webpage is also linked from the University of Missouri as a link for a Foods and Nutrition class that is dated 2002.  It is clear that this site was once a valuable resource for educators; however, it is now outdated and does not convey the most current nutritional research to its viewers.

Kids' Health - This site was included in my project for several reasons.  This site is a good example of current information, as the site is updated almost daily.  The site also includes many links to activities and information for students to use. However, this site is based out of Australia.  This is not information that is easily found.  This will force my students to do an in-depth analysis of the site to find the origin of it. Google did not find any sites that link to this exact page that I am using in this project; however, 249 links to the homepage, Children and Youth Health <http://www.cyh.com/>, were found. The majority of the sites that link to Kids' Health are based in Australia or the United Kingdom.  Most are educational or medical resource sites.

Food 4 Life - I chose to include this Website for my students to evaluate because they will need to look critically at the URL and other places throughout the site to realize that this site is based in the United Kingdom.  The information in this site is presented in a kid-friendly format and clearly defines portions and menu options (exactly what my students will be looking for).  However, I am interested in my students using the current U. S. version of the Food Guide Pyramid to create their menus.  This site will encourage my students to thoroughly examine a Website before using the information presented. Google found 5 links to this site, and all of those links are from other places in the Food 4 Life site.  When I searched Google for links to just the Food 4 Life homepage, only one site was found.  Tibus is the company that created the Food 4 Life Website for the Livestock and Meat Commission of Northern Ireland.  The LMCNI is the sponsor of the Food 4 Life Website.  It seems very interesting that the Livestock and Meat Commission would create a nutritional Website.  Hopefully, this will get my students thinking about the objectivity and authority of the Internet sources that I have provided them.

International Food Information Counsel - I chose to use this site because it will take some in-depth analysis.  This site is very general and broad and will not be useful for my students when completing the activity.  This site does link to the http://www.mypyramid.gov/ site that is the one I am trying to "guide" my students to in this activity. My students will also be looking at the date, February 1998, and realize that most of them were not even born with this site was posted.  Hopefully, when evaluating the Websites, my students will see the importance of critically analyzing information before hailing it as fact.  This site has seven links to it, as found in Google.  This is the fourth result when searching "fitness" in www.dibdabdoo.com, a kid-friendly search engine.  The page is a link for additional reading and resources for most of the pages that Google found. One teacher linked to the International Food Information Counsel from her homepage.  Four of the seven sites that Google found are education related.  My students will need to do more research in order to create their menus than this site alone will allow.

Kids' Health for Kids - This is a very kid-friendly Website.  The information is presented in a way that would be easy for students to understand and to find exactly what they are looking for.  This site has a sponsor and is updated with the current version of the Food Guide Pyramid.  Google found 97 Websites that link to this page.  Most of the sites are educational or organizational in nature.  The Girl Scouts of America and Columbus, Ohio's site for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program link to this Webpage.  Several of the sites that link to Kids' Health are Webquests for students to use as resources when completing a task.  Some of the linked pages have the "old" image of the Food Guide Pyramid but have links to the current one. 

Kroger - This site has a plethora of information about a variety of Food Guide Pyramids.  This site has a high readability and could be a challenge for some students.  However, my students will really be forced to look at the information presented and find the most relevant points.  This site has the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, the Asian Diet Pyramid, and the Latin American Diet Pyramid.  This could provide valuable information to a multicultural classroom.  Also, students need to look critically at the footnote on this page.  There are two copyright dates and the information is stated to expire in December of 2005.  Google found only one link to this Website: Fred Meyer Pharmacy.  Both sites are sponsored by HealthNotes, a pharmacy marketing company.  Students will really have to dig deep to find this information. 

United States Department of Agriculture - This is the final Website that I have included for my students to use as a resource.  This is the site that I am trying to guide my students to to get the information for their project.  This site was recently updated, is sponsored by the U.S. Government, and has printer- and kid-friendly information for my students to access.  This page also has interactive games and family activities that can be used for extension.  This site also had, by far, more links to it than any of the other sites that I have included in this project with 1,370 links, as found by Google.  The sites that link to the USDA site include educational, nutritional, fitness, and corporation sites.  Olean (the olestra fat-free cooking oil) is the first site that comes up as a link to the Food Guide Pyramid.  This would make in interesting investigation for my students.  States across the country are linking to the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid.  Several of the links are from news sites because the revision of the Food Guide Pyramid was within the last year and a half.  This is the foundation site of the project that I will have my students completing after finishing the Website evaluations.