SBIR-STTR Award

The vast majority of the nation's children and adolescents eat too much fat, saturated fat, and sodium, and not enough fruits, vegetables, and calcium. Only one of five children eat the recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Unhealthy eating habits contribute to increased childhood obesity, diabetes, iron deficiency anemia, tooth decay, and increase children's risk for osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer in adulthood. The goal of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of successfully developing interactive, multimedia nutrition education materials for classroom use that improve children's nutritional knowledge and promote healthy eating habits. The project objectives are to (1) select appropriate nutrition education content, (2) design nutrition education instructional materials for classroom use, (3) develop a prototype nutrition education CD-ROM, and (4) conduct a pilot test of the prototype. The approach used in this project employs CD-ROM and Internet technologies to provide teachers with interactive, multimedia nutrition-education materials that can be easily integrated into classroom instruction in the following core subjects: science, math, language arts and social studies. The growing use of computers in schools and the explosive growth of the Internet create an opportunity for a new approach to nutrition education for tomorrow's digital classrooms.

Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:
Successful development of a new generation of nutrition education materials for classroom use will provide teachers with better instructional tools to plan, deliver, and assess student learning of nutrition- related lessons. Their use will significantly increase the presence of nutrition content in the nation's classrooms. The demand for interactive, multimedia tools that are authoritative, easy to use, and increase student learning will increase exponentially as teachers become increasingly computer literate. Innovative and well-designed interactive, multimedia nutrition education materials that increase student knowledge about nutrition and promote healthy diets will be in great demand. The commercial potential for such materials is considerable.

An estimated 88% of children ages 6-12 and 94% of children age 13-18 have a poor diet that needs improvement. Only 1% of the nation's children meet all the Food Guide Pyramid nutritional recommendations. Fifty-one percent of the nation's children meet all the Food Guide Pyramid nutritional recommendations. Fifty-one percent of children and adolescents eat less than one serving of fruit a day, and 29% eat less than one serving a day of vegetables that are not fried. Diet is a known risk factor for the three leading causes of death -- heart disease, cancer, and stroke -- as well as for diabetes, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis. The objective of this study is to develop and field test a full-scale interactive, multimedia nutrition education resource that combines CD-ROM and Internet technologies to provide teachers lessons in four subjects -- science, math, language arts and social studies -- that can be integrated into existing fourth grade curriculum. The project will develop 50 lessons and related instructional resources and field test them with a sample of 480 students in 24 classrooms in ten different schools. The study employs a pre-test/post-test experimental research design to determine the extent to which the nutrition education CD-ROM increases students nutritional knowledge and improves the food choices of students toward a healthier diet. ANTICIPATED RESULTS & POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH The anticipated results of this study will increase in the presence of nutrition content in classrooms, and confirm that teachers will use the instructional resources in the CD-ROM to integrate nutrition education lessons into their core subjects. The field test is expected to confirm that these nutrition education materials will increase student nutritional knowledge and promote healthier eating habits. The resulting commercial product allows teachers to integrate nutrition-based lessons in their core subjects. The increasing use of computers and the Internet in schools and increasing computer literacy by teachers create a significant potential market for this product.