I am one of the
research assistants of the summer project CONNECT which is dedicated to
developing and implementing a series of nutrition education tools that will
support behavior change in a diverse group of elementary-school-age children
within the Fairfax area. This program provides enriching nutrition education
learning experiences, guided practice, and skill-building in a real world
setting. My interest in the science of food and nutrition and the curiosity of
how our body processes all the different nutrients got me interested in this
project. I also wanted to get involved in something where children are taught
about the importance of eating healthy and how their food reaches their tables.
Therefore, this project was best opportunity for me to educate them.
I am majoring in
public health and minoring in nutrition. My long-term goal is to become a
Registered Dietician and work with children. Children are the most vulnerable
population and I think it is very important to teach them about the science of
food so they can make healthy choices later on in life.
For this project,
our team came up with lesson plans that includes nutrition incorporated games,
hands-on cooking experiences, and lesson on a nutrition topic each week. It
also includes visits to farmer’s market, grocery stores, apiary, greenhouse,
food forest, and farm so children can see how their food reach them. Each week
we have a pre-test and a post-test to determine how much children know about a
certain topic and how much they have learned.
Throughout my
research I have discovered that children will always learn if the learning
method is made fun and easy for them. Also, children will learn better and
faster if they are given the opportunity to get involved. Another thing that I
discovered is that it is very important and beneficial to work/interact with
others that are not in the same line of profession because of the different
ideas that everyone has.
