Media has a huge influence on the youth of today. Through television commercials, ads on the computer, movies and celebrities, our youth is being influenced almost every minute to eat certain items, drink certain drinks and act a certain way. While researching, I came upon a nutrition curriculum and found a very interesting website that outlines a program designed to target youth and educate them on how they are being influenced by media and how this could influence their food choices and what they can do to make sure they do not fall for their tricks.
Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active is an after-school education program that was designed for kids 11-13. The curriculum was designed to be interactive through a 10 lesson program that is guided by an adult in their school or community.
Some of the lessons discussed in this curriculum include:
– Hurray for Whole Grains– an activity that begins with a discussion about grains and whole grains and their importance to our health. The students get to learn about the grain milling process to demonstrate the difference between whole grains and enriched/refined grains.
– Fruit and Krunch Kebab Snack Break– an activity where the students make their own kebabs by dipping fruits in fat-free yogurt and rolling the fruit in whole-grain breakfast cereal.
– Cutting back on Solid Fats and Added Sugars Activity– students talk about the importance of choosing foods without much solid fat and added sugar. They learn ways to decrease their consumption of these types of foods and discuss some hidden locations of these foods.
– A Cool Wind Blows Action Break– an activity similar to musical chairs where the students answer questions related to media, food, and physical activity through switching chairs. This is both fun because physical activity is involved and gets the students asking questions instead of only the facilitator
–Creating a Nutrition Fan Page for a Social Networking Site– the students design a mock page for other students that incorporates what they have learned about food snap nutrition so far in addition to encouraging an increasing in vegetable, fruit, and whole grain food consumption.
This program is designed and goaled towards empowering young people to become aware of the medias role and influence on their nutritional choices, building skills about making healthy decisions, establishing healthy eating habits and finally to educate other students on what they have learned through creating their own media projects including public service announcements.
This curriculum has four key areas that they target for students to learn
1. Media Awareness
2. Media Production
3. Nutrition
4. Physical Activity
I think that this nutrition curriculum is really interesting because it both educates students through a set step by step program in addition to getting them involved by creating their own project which will really help them fully understand and enjoy the program. Media really does have such a large influence and I feel this curriculum would do really well with pre-teens since this is such an easily influenced and developing age.
To learn more, please visit their website:http://www.nichd.nih.gov/msy/about/Pages/default.aspx
