Websites teach kids and parents about good nutrition
"Children 'so' need the entertainment, so it's nice to have the multimedia tie-in. These kids are so multimedia-entwined since birth. They've been raised with big-screen TVs, and some of them can text message faster than I can type." says Jill Bond, a teacher at Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fla., who uses nutrition education to teach core curriculum subjects such as math, science, and language arts.
Bond uses resources gleaned from textbooks, the Internet, and Discovery Education's Health Connection to teach about food groups, carbohydrates, fats, and more.
Discovery Education content covers nine areas: alcohol and other drugs; the body; growth and development; mental health; nutrition; physical activity; safety; tobacco; and violence.
"It does provide a one-stop-shop for health and prevention content," said Mari Belalcazar, marketing manager for Discovery Education. "Educators can use it as a full curriculum, but they don't have to."
Another approach to getting students on the path to a healthier lifestyle is taking the Blue Zones Challenge. The Challenge is a web-based intervention program that encourages students and teachers to make healthier choices based on research and guidance gleaned from regions in the world where people have lived the longest.
Students record how much and what they eat, how much TV they watch, how much they exercise and how much soda they drink. At the end of the week, they enter their statistics online and try to improve on their scores. They can also compare their statistics with other students'.
"We thought it was a good way to end the school year and start the summer," Hibbard said, adding that the program really made students aware of what they were consuming - and hopefully the good habits will last throughout the summer", said Linda Hibbard, associate principal at Hopkins North Junior High School.
The online nutrition calculator is another approach that a number of school districts are using to educate students and their families. The family can access the calculator, by going to the Nutri-Cafe site and choosing their district and school from a list, followed by the date of the menu they wish to view. The viewer enters a virtual cafeteria with "drag and drop" pictures which are put on their virtual "tray." Once an item is added to the tray, the nutritional value is tallied.
"Our hope is that this technology will generate more discussion among students and their parents about meal choices, helping them to better understand the many choices available and the health benefits of their choices," said Lora Novak, interim school nutrition director for Gwinnett County Public Schools.