Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1993

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Nutrition

Major Professor

Paula Zemel

Committee Members

Michael Zemel, Pete Stevens

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to determine the extent to which nutrition education lesson plans address the objectives covered in a kindergarten curriculum that is representative of other kindergarten curricula across the United States. Incorporating nutrition education into the kindergarten curriculum can allow children to be exposed to nutrition more often without adding additional subject areas and time to teachers' busy schedules.

We recruited volunteer teachers in a metropolitan school system and provided continuing education on the Dietary Guidelines. Teachers determined that four of the Dietary Guidelines were developmentally appropriate for kindergarten students and evaluated 400 lesson plans as to appropriateness for kindergarten and the subject areas addressed. 102 lesson plans were evaluated according to content areas, including language arts, math, social studies, science, health, physical development, art, and music. Content analysis was used to compare the subjects and objectives addressed in the lesson plans to the kindergarten curriculum guide. We found that 77% of the kindergarten curriculum was covered by the nutrition lesson plans. The percent of lesson plans that addressed each content area ranged from 5% for physical development to 78% for language arts. The percent of kindergarten curriculum objectives covered, based on the number of lesson plans that addressed each content area, ranged from 17% for social studies to 65% for math. The combined efforts of a teacher and a nutrition educator could identify or develop nutrition lesson plans that address the objectives of the kindergarten curriculum.

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