Eat Right, Future Bright!
Authors: Mary Artman, Mallori Wickard, Allie Garab, Lorraine Gowan, & Gracin Sapp
Faculty Supervisor: Lydia Watkins, DNP, MSN, RN, CPNP
Abstract:
One of the main issues of today’s society is obesity in the younger generations, especially with access to healthier options for food getting more difficult each day. Our group decided to provide education as a primary prevention to obesity and to lead to a healthier lifestyle starting at a young age. One thing that we all know is that a healthy lifestyle should begin earlier rather than later to get lifelong lasting healthier effects. Our target group was a fifth-grade class at a local elementary school. We chose this age group due to this population’s stage in Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development. This age is mature in their learning and able to know the difference between healthy versus unhealthy options, and having the ability to choose a healthier style of life if the options were put in front of them. How we implemented this was through interactive games that were introduced through the “MyPlate” method. We concluded with a group interactive quiz to enhance class learning. The goal was to educate the children so they could identify healthy and unhealthy options, and that they would want to take what they learned home and involve their families in this healthier lifestyle as well.
