Monday, April 23, 2012
What is Nutrition in Education: Workshops and After-School Programs
What is Nutrition in Education: Workshops and After-School ProgramsWhen I first started this blog, I spoke of how it was my dream to have nutrition education as part of regular school curriculum. As we know, this is a long way off. For most children, nutrition education comes in the form of after-school programs and workshops. Some nationally recognized after school programs include:
A great many programs exist on the local level also, frequently funded by your states Board of Education or by Extension Agencies, as well as the private sector and non-profit sector. For example, Girl Scouts in Kentucky is currently running a short nutrition education program for little girls through the school system ( I had the pleasure of going to one of these lessons with a fellow dietetics student earlier in the semester).
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| Girl Scouts make fruit salad at a cooking class by justjorie |
After school programs are important as the National Center for Education Statistics reports that only 35% of teachers provide stand-alone nutrition lessons to their students, and even when nutrition information is incorporated into other lessons such as the science of digestion or health science, children are exposures to an average of about 13 hours a school year. Considering children spend in excess of 700 hours of school this year, this number is fairly meager.
After-school and workshop nutrition education programs tend to address both physical activity and dietary behaviors. A literary review of such interventions reveals that such programs are responsible for modest changes in behavior, particular changes in behavior that promote weight maintenance and prevent overweight. For these two reasons alone, nutrition after school or as special events should be strongly encouraged in our schools.
Resources:
Labels: What is Nutrition Education
by E Pace at 7:41 PM |
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