Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Ting-Wei Li (Alison)
Margaret Schekall
Brenil Soriano
Thao Tran
The specific nutrition problem we are focusing on is addressing eating a balanced diet
with 2nd grade elementary students. Our overall goal from this nutrition education is to have kids
identify the benefits of eating a balanced diet and how it can aid in their everyday growing life.
Children in the United States do not consume enough fruits and vegetables on average.
Whole fruit intake has been increasing, but vegetable intake has not (Centers for Disease
Control, 2014). The fruits and vegetables children are eating are not varied enough, with dark
green vegetables consumed by less than 15% of children on a given day and fruit juice making
up more than half of fruit intake (National Center for Health Statistics, 2014).
Research by the Journal of School Health has shown that education of children in schools
significantly improves their fruit and vegetable intake, and this difference is even more
pronounced if children are given samples of fruits or vegetables to taste (Gold, Larson, Tucker,
& Strang, 2017). Education focusing on the colors of fruits and vegetables is likely to be an
effective approach because color is cited as a reason for consuming or not consuming a fruit or
vegetable by children and/or their parents (Raggio & Gámbaro, 2018). Also, encouraging
elementary-aged children to eat more fruits and vegetables on the basis of health benefits is
significantly more effective than encouraging them on the basis of it being a social norm, as in
The day before our nutrition education lesson, we gathered all the supply that we needed,
such as the handouts and pre- and post-test worksheets. In addition, we made sure that our
PowerPoint presentation for our session was organized, fixed, and completed. Then, the morning
of our presentation, we went over our lesson plan and PowerPoint presentation and decided who
will do which part of the presentation. After that, the class started and we just waited for our turn
to present.
When it was time for us to present, we set-up our computer and began our lesson. Since
our target population was 2nd graders, we asked our classmates to pretend and imagine that they
are 8 years old and in 2nd grade by giving them some of the characteristics of second graders.
While they had their eyes closed, imaging that they are second graders, we passed out the
pre-test worksheet for them to complete before we began our lecture. After that, we introduced
ourselves and told that the piece of paper in front of them is a fun little quiz about Superfoods.
We gave them 2 minutes to answer the worksheet and collected it after they were finished. This
worksheet will help us determine their prior knowledge about the topic we are teaching. After we
collected the worksheet, we asked them if they know what Superfoods are and what they do for
our body. There were some students who raised their hands and answered the question correctly.
We, then, discussed some brief information regarding Superfoods in order for them to get an idea
After all of these introductions, we instructed students to view the powerpoint and
started our lesson. For each color of the rainbow, we discussed its health benefits and provided
them few food examples. Two of our group members went over the lecture, in which one person
talked about the benefits and examples of green, blue, purple, white, and brown foods, while the
other person did the yellow, orange, and red foods. When we finished, we summarized the
information that we went over during the lecture and proceeded to some activities we had
provided for them. We asked students to work in pairs for the activity and each pair was given a
worksheet that contained a matching questions and fill in the blanks questions. For the matching
questions, students had to match the food items to the parts of the body that it is good for. Then
for the fill in the blanks questions, we had provided them a word bank and students had to
choose from those words the right answer to the questions given. When everyone was finished,
we asked them to give us their attention again as we would be going over the answers on the
worksheet. Lastly, we concluded our nutrition education session by briefly summarizing what we
went over, asked them one last question, gave them a handout of our lesson for them to take
home.
Results
To measure the effectiveness of our nutrition education, we decided to use pre- and
post-quiz as our evaluation tools. Before we started our lesson, we wanted to see how much the
students knew about the benefits of colored fruits and vegetables. We placed the pre-quiz on
each students desk and ask them to flip it over and answer the question to the best of their
abilities. After all the pre-quiz were collected, we started our nutrition education session,
followed by a worksheet activity, and post-quiz. Towards the end of the session, we gather the
class’s attention to ask them one last final question. We wanted to see if they retained any
information from the lesson, so we asked them what food is good for the immune system and
also helps with colds. All the students answered oranges and we passed out orange cuties as a
sweet treat and a thank you gift for their participation. Presented below is the data computed
The table chart above shows the average score of the class before and after the education.
According to the results, the class average increased after the education which means that the
students retain the information that was given to them. Prior to the education the class’s average
was 73% and it increase to 78% after, with a significant 5% increase between pre and post
quizzes.
Figure 2. Pre-quiz results.
or incorrect. More students got questions incorrect on the pre-quiz compared to the post-quiz. In
general, the class had basic knowledge about the benefits of fruit and vegetable. On the contrary,
they did not know the specific benefits of the different colored vegetables. For example, the class
knew that fruits and vegetables are good for the body but did not know that each food had a
special role in the body e.g carrots are good for the eyes. Overall, the majority of the class was
Discussion
The results are not very conclusive as the questions in the pre and post survey did not
assess the same knowledge. It is not possible to know if the participants’ knowledge of green,
red, and orange foods improved as a result of our lesson because we did not assess their
knowledge of those foods before the lesson. The only question shared between the pre and post
surveys asks if carrots are good for the eyes, and the percentage of correct answers actually
decreased between the pre and post surveys. However, there was a significant increase in the
average number of questions correct after the lesson and both surveys did contain questions
regarding health benefits of different foods, so it is probable, although not confirmable, that the
participants learned something during the lesson. The results also may have been skewed by the
fact that our audience was a group of students in a college class pretending to be 2nd grade
students, not actual 2nd grade students. College students are likely to have more knowledge and
better attention spans than children, leading to different results. Unlike the education plans
reviewed in the cited articles, in which the lessons were evaluated based on a follow-up diet
recall, we were not able to conduct such a thorough follow-up and therefore could not assess our
lesson in the same way as the researched lessons. This means we don’t know whether or not the
Research shows that children in the United States do not consume enough fruits and
vegetables (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Our results suggest that the
message of focusing on colors and health benefits of fruits and vegetables may have been
effectively transmitted, but this lesson’s evaluation plan needs to be revised so that the pre-quiz
and the post-quiz are more similar to confirm this. An effectively transmitted lesson on health
benefits of fruits and vegetables is likely to produce a change in behavior (Sharps & Robinson,
2016), so this lesson may also produce a change in behavior (eating more fruits and vegetables).
This will lead to children having better health and a lower risk of chronic disease later in life.
One advantage for each person in the group is that we work together well. We discussed
ideas freely and listened to each other respectfully. However, we struggled with the timeline of
the project and waited until the last minute to finish the work. This led to work being rushed and
not of the best quality. Also, we failed to organize and delegate tasks which led to group
members getting an uneven amount of work. Overall, we think the main limitation was coming
up with age appropriate activities. We thought of many activities that could have been used, but
as a group we thought they would be too easy. In the end, we ended up doing no activity because
we could not think of one in time. In the future, with group work, we should come together
earlier to decide on a topic and finalize the assignment earlier so we do not have to finalize
details in a rush. We should also make an effort to communicate better as a group because as we
were going through the assignment, one person got motivated on the idea and got started on the
assignment. If we had come together and updated each other, we would have known who got
what done to help keep each other on track along with divided the written part better. Also we
hope to have the opportunity to work with the target audience so we can get an accurate result.
Conclusion
After spending a few weeks thinking about our topic and planning what we wanted to do
for our nutrition education, we carried out our lesson and were satisfied to say that our lesson
plan was successful. We did have minor roadblocks along the way due to communication, but
was able to resolve the issue. Throughout the process of the nutrition education, we learned that
children, especially those in elementary school, response better to interactive learning such as
hands-on activities, group work, along with making a connection with their brain, heart, and
hand.
Helping children learn by making a connection to everyday life tends to have more of an
affect on them and it is something that they will remember. In addition, having interactive
activities such as having the students participate by answering questions and doing a worksheet
activity with their partner was effective since it helped stimulate their brains while encouraging
them to practice their social skills. When working with young students, it is important to
incorporate hands-on experience and interactive learning into the lesson plan because it helps
keep the students engage. A few things that we could have done different was eliminate the
powerpoint and use food models to show the students what the fruit and vegetables actually look
like and be able to hold the different food models in their hands. We also could have made the
activity more interactive and have the students stand up and move around instead of just sitting
energy but it can also be a great experience. Young children are like sponges; they quickly
absorb information from the external stimuli surrounding them. This time in their life is a crucial
point in their development which is which is why it is important to start fostering good eating
habits in them.
Overall, nutrition education for young students needs to be interactive, hands-on, and
stimulating. Doing this will not only help the students but it will also promote other communities
to incorporate nutrition lesson into their curriculum. Teaching children early on in life will help
prepare them to make better choices during their adolescence and into their adulthood.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014, August 8). Vital Signs: Fruit and Vegetable
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6331a3.htm?s_cid=mm6331a3_w
National Center for Health Statistics. (2014, July). Fruit and Vegetable Consumption of U.S.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db156.pdf
Gold, A., Larson, M., Tucker, J., & Strang, M. (2017). Classroom nutrition education combined
with fruit and vegetable taste testing improves children's dietary intake. Journal of School
Raggio, L., & Gámbaro, A. (2018). Study of the reasons for the consumption of each type of
N.PAG. https://doi-org.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/10.1186/s12889-018-6067-4
Sharps, M. & Robinson, E. (2016). Encouraging children to eat more fruit and vegetables: Health
https://doi-org.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/10.1016/j.appet.2016.01.031
Thao Tran, Brenil Soriano, Ting-Wei Li, Margaret Schekall
DFM 655
Overall Goal: Increase the knowledge of the functions and benefits of different colored fruit and
vegetables.
Major Concept:
● Benefits of fruits and vegetables
○ Vitamins and minerals
○ Vitamin A, Carotenoids
● Eating the color of the rainbow
○ Red - tomato
○ Orange - carrots, squash
○ Yellow - bananas
○ Green - leafy greens
○ blue/purple - blue berries, purple cabbage
○ White - onions, garlic, cauliflower
1. Children will be made aware that eating healthy foods can make healthier bodies.
Generalization: Fruits and vegetables contain vitamins and minerals that are helpful for the
body.
2. Children will be able to choose colorful foods and incorporate it into their diet daily
Generalization: Colored fruits and vegetables like carrots have properties that help the eye and
also the immune system.
Generalization: A positive attitude towards consuming more colored fruits and vegetable can
contribute to increasing healthy habits
Learning Experience: A peer leader will go over the answers from the worksheet activity and
also the post-quiz. Another peer leader will recap the session and provide and example of a fruit
that helps the immune system by handing out oranges while explaining its health properties.
Summary: Superfoods are everyday foods such as vegetables and fruits, bread and cereal,
meat/protein and dairy food helps keep children strong, give them the energy and power they
need and help their minds stay healthy. Foods from each color of the rainbow provide benefits to
our body. Red foods protect hearts, mind, and memory while orange foods contains vitamin C
and Vitamin A, which protects our eyes. Yellow foods help boost immune system and green
foods are good for the whole body. Then, foods that are blue and purple help with mind,
memory, and mineral absorption. Lastly, white and brown foods protect body from diseases.