The efficacy of a nutrition and physical activity curriculum in fifth graders

The purposes of this study were to determine how much knowledge fifth grade students have regarding nutrition and physical activity for a healthy lifestyle and to determine if students' knowledge on these topics would increase after instruction. The study involved 47 fifth grade elementary students who were tested before and after a six-week nutrition and physical activity curriculum were implemented. The pre-test scores were low (less than 70%), showing that students did not have knowledge about these topics before the curriculum was introduced. Using a paired t-test, the post-test scores were significantly higher (mean score was 77.28%), indicating that the students did increase their knowledge on nutrition and physical activity. The study demonstrates that this age group can in fact learn about these topics and suggests this to be an appropriate age to implement nutrition and physical activity curriculums.