The development, implementation, and evaluation of a garden -enhanced nutrition education program for elementary school children

The objective of this dissertation was to develop a comprehensive nutrition curriculum designed to improve the nutrition knowledge and vegetable preferences of school-aged children. I hypothesized that planting and harvesting a vegetable garden would have a greater effect on children's vegetable preferences than in-class nutrition lessons alone.;A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the initial feasibility of implementing and evaluating a garden-enhanced nutrition education program within a school setting. This study was conducted with first graders from both a control and intervention site (n = 98). Results showed a significant improvement in the intervention site students' willingness to taste vegetables. It was concluded that it is possible to implement and evaluate such a program within school-year constraints.;The second objective was to develop a comprehensive curriculum and appropriate assessment tools. The curriculum was developed around the Social Cognitive Theory and consisted of nine nutrition lessons with complementary gardening activities. It was repeatedly field-tested in several upper-elementary grade classrooms and revised until no further changes were necessary. A nutrition knowledge questionnaire and a vegetable preference survey were also developed. The knowledge questionnaire had a reliability coefficient of 0.81, and the preference survey was determined to be age-appropriate.;The final objective was to formally evaluate the curriculum using the tested assessment tools. Students from three schools in nine fourth grade classrooms participated in this study (n = 215). One school was designated as the control site and received no formal nutrition or gardening education. Another school was designated as the classroom-based nutrition education site (CBNE) and received only the in-class nutrition lessons. The third school was designated as the garden-based nutrition education site (GBNE) and received both the in-class nutrition lessons and the garden activities. Results showed a significant improvement in nutrition knowledge of students at the CBNE and GBNE sites. CBNE students improved their preferences for carrots and broccoli, while GBNE students improved their preferences for carrots, broccoli, zucchini, and snow peas. Most improvements were retained at the six-month follow-up.;In conclusion, this garden-enhanced nutrition education curriculum is an effective tool for improving the nutrition knowledge and vegetable preferences of elementary school-aged children.