Shaping Up My Choices
Third grade students learn about nutrition and healthy eating
Overview
The elementary school environment presents an opportunity to provide students with an age-appropriate set of nutrition and physical activity lessons. Dairy Council of California’s Grade Shaping Up My Choices program is a nutrition education curriculum for 3rd graders. The program consists of 10 nutrition lessons delivered by classroom teachers. A teacher guide, student workbook, and family homework were distributed to each teacher. The goal of Shaping Up My Choices (SMC) is for students to learn about healthy eating and physical activity choices, while reaching out to families so that the classroom learning can be supported in the home environment.
Starting in the Fall 2009, the curriculum was developed, tested through a series of classroom observations, student and teacher focus groups, and surveys and then revised based on teacher implementation feedback and preliminary student knowledge and behavior changes. To evaluate the effectiveness of Shaping Up My Choices, the evaluation team conducted summative evaluation activities in the 2010-2011 school year using a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures.
Evaluation
This research study evaluated if the program objectives in the Shaping Up My Choices nutrition education lessons were achieved with third grade students. Fifty California elementary third grade classrooms agreed to be randomly assigned to either teach the 10-lesson program or to serve as the control group by not teaching any nutrition until the project concluded. The goal was to identify if students who complete the nutrition curriculum obtain enough knowledge and suggestions to improve their food choices.
Overall, results from the Shaping Up My Choices student surveys revealed effects of the intervention on dietary intake, attitudes such as outcome expectancies and self-efficacy, and knowledge. As expected, the consumption of several types of extras (i.e., cookies, candy, and total extra foods) decreased significantly more in students receiving the nutrition lessons compared to the control group and this difference remained at the 3-month follow-up survey indicating long term positive changes. Self-reported vegetable intake stayed the same and 100% fruit juice intake increased in the intervention group, while students who did not receive nutrition education decreased the vegetables they reported eating and their 100% fruit juice intake. Students’ had a greater appreciation of the benefits of consuming healthy food and more confidence that they could eat healthy food after learning about nutrition and this remained higher in the intervention students at follow-up. Lastly, students’ knowledge significantly increased to greater extent for the intervention group in all of the categories that were assessed and they retained this knowledge at the 3-month follow-up survey.
Teacher Comments on Shaping Up My Choices
- "It really got the students thinking about what they were eating at snack time. It was hands-on and practical. Kids were talking to each other about good nutrition."
- "I liked that it was a good pace for all lessons and I liked the different terminology and vocabulary that was used. It exposed children to things they have heard but didn’t know what they meant."
- "Loved how pictures were real food and having the families involved. I got a lot [of] comments at parent conferences of what they learned at home."
- "I liked the family homework; was a double benefit because it reinforced in students mind and the parents learned something new."
- "It’s all there for you. I liked the Teacher Guide and the Student Workbooks- everything was available and goes to the standards and [the Teacher Guide has] all the steps of the lessons."
For a complete report on the evaluation of Shaping Up My Choices with third grade California students, read the results here.
View Shaping Up My Choices program materials, including an online training video.