Lunchlog.

org:
An Online Photographic Food Diary
for Middle Childhood
Digital Media Master’s Project Design Document
Submitted April 15, 2009
by Jisun An

Demo website available at:

http://lunchlog.org
Demo video available at:
http://www.vimeo.com/3857897

Welcome to
Lunch Log

Committee Members
Carl DiSalvo, Chair
Fox Harrell
Janet Murray
Table of Contents
1. Abstract 1

2. Introduction 2
2.1. Understanding Users
2.2. The Problem
2.3 Proposed Solution

3. Related Works 5
3.1. myca Nutrition
3.2. Learn to be Healthy for Kids
3.3. flickr
3.4. Imbee
3.5. handipoints
3.6. Food Pyramids
3.6.1. Food Guide Pyramid ; old USA food pyramid
3.6.2. MyPyramid ; current USA food pyramid
3.6.3. MyPyramid for Kids
3.6.4. Other food Pyramids
3.6.5. Healthy Eating Pyramid

4. Research Approach 11
4.1. Food Diaries as Intervention Tools
4.2. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
4.3. Technology in Childhood
4.4. Visual Communication for Children
4.5. Food pyramid
4.6. Usability for Children

5. Design Description 14
5.1. Basic Activities
5.2. Requirements
5.3. Example Questions for “Analyze Lunch” Page

6. System Design 19
6.1. System Diagram
6.2. Data Model
6.3. Technical Description

7. Scenarios 22

8. Evaluation/Assessment 27

9. Conclusion 29

10. Appendix 1: Wireframe 30

11. Appendix 2: Screenshots 42

12. References 54
1. Abstract
As the childhood obesity rate grows dramatically, we need to help children gain
a greater awareness of their eating habits and its nutritional context. In this paper,
I propose Lunchlog.org, an online food diary that helps children between the ages of
nine and eleven years old visualize their personal eating habits and learn about the
nutritional value of the food they consume for lunch. Lunchlog.org adopts a photo-
graphic food diary method inspired by Lydia Zepeda’s research. Her research finds that
photographic food diaries are more likely to raise personal awareness and change
eating behavior than written diaries.

Unlike other food diaries, Lunchlog.org takes a visual approach to data entry, navigation,
and review in a social context. It allows children to post photos of the lunches they
consume and review their eating habits by collectively categorizing their lunch photos.
Teachers post several categorization questions. Children answer these categorization
questions by selecting the lunch photos that fit the criteria.

Lunchlog.org deploys a graphical user interface for data entry, navigation, and review
that exploits design conventions familiar and appealing to children.

1
2. Introduction
One of the world’s most pressing health problems is obesity. In the U.S., obesity
accounts for nearly 65 percent of the population between the ages of 20 and 74, and
half of that group are overweight (1). Unfortunately, a large percentage of obese
individuals are children, and it is growing at an alarming rate. Currently, about one-
third of all children in the U.S. are either overweight or obese (2), and the percentage is
expected to increase to nearly half by 2010. Obese children ten years old or older tend
to become overweight adults whether or not their parents are overweight (3). This
suggests that health education for children will have a great influence on their future
life. To help children gain a greater awareness of their eating habits and its nutritional
context, I propose Lunchlog.org.

2.1. Understanding Users

Lunchlog.org is designed for children between the ages nine and eleven years old. This
age group is defined as “Middle childhood” by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC, children in this age group expand a sense of
responsibility, develop stronger relationships with their friends and “experience more
peer pressure.” On the other hand, when they feel positive about themselves, they are
able to resist negative peer pressure and make better choices (4).

While children in middle childhood can develop bad eating habits from friends and
family, they still have the cognitive ability to improve their eating habits. According to
Bruckman’s interpretation of Piaget, children aged between seven to eleven years old,
those in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, can group and cat-
egorize items. This suggests that children can learn to group food items into nutritional
categories (5).

Furthermore, Bruckman claims that “concrete operational children are old enough to
use relatively sophisticated software, but young enough to appreciate a playful ap-
proach” (5). This suggests that nutritional information with a playful approach would
still be appreciated by children in middle childhood.

2.2. The Problem

Lydia Zepeda identifies a major problem with promoting healthier dietary behaviors.
Although scientists have developed “the greatest advances in nutrition knowledge”,
Lydia Zepeda argues that our current nutritional information is not effective at
changing our diet behaviors because many people do not see a personal connection
between health knowledge and their own eating behavior (6).

To build personal awareness of eating habits, doctors and nutritionists ask their
patients to document what they eat everyday and recommend a new diet style to im-

2
prove patients’ eating habits. Tracking patients’ eating habits, doctors and
nutritionists ask patients to use food diaries. Food diaries provide a scientific way to
record and compare food consumption (6). It helps people track what they are eating
and allows people to see their eating habits. Food diaries have been used as self-aware-
ness tools to monitor people’s eating habits.

While food diaries can increase personal awareness of eating habits, they often do not
do this. In order to keep a food diary, people often engage in the cumbersome task of
entering numerical nutritional data with paper-based food diaries or online diet plan-
ning tools, such as nutritiondata.com and sparkpeople.com.

Even if data entry is not a problem, food diaries can be difficult to review. For example,
physicians rarely review nutritional data entered by the their diabetic patients either
in notebooks or in a computer database because they have difficulty navigating and
analyzing the data (7).

My project focuses on how to design food diaries for children so that they can become
more personally aware of their eating habits. My design must address problems with
data entry, navigation, and review for users who are children. Dealing with children
also requires an aesthetic that is simple to understand and can visually capture their
attention.

3
2.3. Proposed Solution

To promote healthier dietary behaviors in children, I propose Lunchlog.org, an online

food diary that helps children visualize their personal eating habits and learn about
the nutritional value of the food they consume for lunch. For data entry, children post
photos of lunch meals they consume. To review their eating habits and input data on
them, children collectively categorize their lunch photos. Teachers post several catego-
rization questions, like “Which lunches have at least 1 cup from the Vegetable Group?”
and “Which lunches have food that helps your blood carry oxygen to body cells? Then
each child answers every categorization question by selecting the lunch photos that fit
the criteria. The lunch photos are the photos of the children’s lunches. Children visually
categorize lunch photos based on nutrition questions designed by their teacher. Unlike
many food diaries, Lunchlog.org takes a visual approach to data entry and review.

Lunchlog.org’s visual approach is inspired by Lydia Zepeda’s research, which suggests

that “photographic food diaries can perform the basic ‘awareness raising’ function of
a food diary and that in some instances, it can go a step further and actually affect
behavior” (Please refer to 4.1. Food Diaries as Intervention Tools) (6).

Lunchlog.org goes beyond Zepeda’s research and attempts to reconfigure photograph

food diaries for children. To this end, it focuses on making the graphic user interface
simple to understand and capture the attention and imagination of children.

The basic activities of Lunchlog.org are divided into the following three categories.

(1) Input
Children post their lunch photos based on their lunch assignment
received from their teacher.

(2) Analysis/Review
Children categorize their food into food groups or nutrition topics given in
the teacher’s assignment.

(3) Feedback/Review
Lunchlog.org determines a winning lunch. For example, when children have
“the most nutritiously balanced lunch” assignment, Lunchlog.org determines
the most nutritiously balanced lunch based on the teacher’s and our
choices.

Children receive a message about the lunches from their teacher and email
the winning lunch to their parents.

4
3. Related Works
The following online tools help children and adults understand their diets and the
nutritional value. These tools were selected based on health related information — not
because they only target children. The strengths and weaknesses of each tool helped to
influence the features of Lunchlog.org.

3.1. myca Nutrition (www.mycanutrition.com)

myca Nutrition is a web and mobile video communications platform for registered
nutrition professionals. Nutrition analysts counsel their clients on how to change their
eating habits in order to reach their health goals. Clients send food photos to their nu-
tritional analysts through a camera phone or digital camera. Clients ultimately build an
online food journal for their nutrition counselors. The site provides practical informa-
tion and personal encouragement through one-on-one video chat. However, children
cannot use this site because it requires complex dialogue with adults. Furthermore,
there are no kid friendly graphics that communicate nutritional information.

3.2. Learn to be Healthy for Kids

(www. learntobehealthy.org/kids)

Learn to be Healthy for Kids is a Flash web site for children that provides health informa-
tion. The site mainly organizes health and science educational games. The site also of-
fers educational tools, which can be defined as “Computer as Tutor”; these tools mainly
quiz children on their health knowledge. (8)

In this site, the Eating Healthy tab has a variety of sub links where children can play
games, view videos, and eventually answer quizzes. Another distinctive feature is
the Health Log which is more of a diary than a game. This Health Log does not allow
children to record detailed information about what they ate. Each day, children are
required to enter only the number of items that they ate from each food group. Food
groups include grains, veggies, fruits, milk, meats + beans, oils, and water. The children
can only record the food category and not the specific food they ate. Also, since most of
the food groups are nutritious, children cannot record many of the unhealthy foods they
eat. For example, there is no sugar food group, so children cannot record eating candy
bars.

5
3.3. flickr (www.flickr.com)

“Flickr is an image and video hosting web site, web services suite, and online commu-
nity platform”(9). This is a great photo-sharing tool for post-event networking. Flickr
Flickr provides a way to tag photos collaboratively.

Flickr allows users to post photos of what they eat but it was not designed to raise
awareness of nutritious eating habits. Users can add comments about the nutrition,
but it does not require users to enter nutrition information about the photos.

Teachers have posted pictures of school lunches. Many other users, including the owner
of picture, tagged and left comments about the photos. For example, users offered com-
ments like, “Steak fingers? That sounds awful.”, “Prison Food?”, “And they wonder why
our kids eat junk food and are overweight. Questions, questions, questions.”, and “That’s
what we call ‘mystery meat’”. These examples suggest that people are willing to post
and tag school lunch photos. By posting and tagging school lunch photos, people were
able to talk and raise awareness about how children eat school lunches. These school
lunch food photos helped people talk about unhealthy eating habits.

Flickr enables users to add notes to specific food items in an image, but these notes do
not contain standardized nutrition information.

6
3.4. Imbee (www.imbee.com)

Imbee is a free social network for kids, teachers, and parents. Children are the
primary users for this site. Children can create blogs, upload pictures, and form groups.
Parents also have access to a control panel which lets them set limitations on what
their children can do on the site. Every time children use the site, parents receive email
reports about the activities of their children.

Each group discusses a specific topic created for children. There are 21 different groups.
Some of the topics are Animals, Art, Fashion, Movies, and Food. The site contains more
than 180 sub groups related to food. Although a few groups are related to cooking and
healthy eating, many of them are connected with what children would like to eat, such
as Flavor Tasters, Cookies or Cake, Cotton Candy Yum Yum, and KFC. Children can cre-
ate as many groups as they would like to create. This causes the site to have too many
groups and too few members per group. Thus many groups are not active and lack dis-
cussion between members. Specifically, discussion about nutritious food is missing.

3.5. handipoints (www.handipoints.com)

handipoints is a web site for children allowing them to manage their goals and tasks.
Parents build task charts and goals with their children. Then parents grade their
children’s tasks. “Kids save points to buy rewards from Parents.” (10)

With points they’ve earned, children can play games, purchase reward items through
an e-commerce site, give money to a charity group, and buy a leisure activity. The task
chart contains six categories of tasks: Happy Tasks, Healthy Tasks, Smart Tasks, Most
Popular Tasks, and Demerits.

Healthy Tasks has another six sub-categories and one of them is Eat Healthy. Eat
Healthy has more than 20 tasks, such as, “Don’t eat too many sweets” and “Don’t over-
eat.” Each of these sub-tasks has points. The tasks do not explain why each particular
food item is nutritious or not nutritious.

7
3.6. Food Pyramids

Pyramid diagrams are often used to illustrate healthy eating plans. Traditionally, food
pyramids organize types of food into sub-regions of an isosceles triangle. Foods that
belong to smaller regions should be eaten less than foods that belong to larger regions.
However, it is difficult to know how much one should eat from each sub-region because
the sub-regions have similar sizes.

3.6.1. Food Guide Pyramid ; old USA food pyramid

The original USDA food pyramid was subdivided into six regions. “The original USDA
pyramid has been criticized for not differentiating between refined grains and whole
grains, between saturated fats and unsaturated fats, and for not putting enough em-
phasis on exercise and weight control” (11). Also, “Some of the recommended quantities
for the different types of food in the old pyramid have also come under criticism for
lack of clarity. For instance, the pyramid recommends two to three servings from the
protein-rich group, but this is intended to be a maximum. The pyramid recommends
two to four fruit servings, but this is intended to be the minimum” (12).

3.6.2. MyPyramid ; current USA food pyramid

MyPyramid is the current USA Food Pyramid offers personalized eating plans with the
regions of the old food pyramid rearranged. It was replaced in April 2005 by the new
USDA advisory program (11). MyPyramid offers a more interactive food guidance system
(13) (14). Critics of the food industry said that MyPyramid is a marketing tool for food
manufacturers rather than an education tool. The colorful vertical strips represent food
groups. Food groups are Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, Milk, and Meat & Beans. 80 percents
of Americans recognize the MyPyramid but only about two to four percent of American
people eat according to it (1).

8
3.6.3. MyPyramid for Kids
Two versions of MyPyramid for Kids are provided in a PDF format for posters. “For
younger children, the pyramid highlights a simplified MyPyramid for Kids graphic.
For advanced elementary students, it features both the MyPyramid for Kids graphic and
healthy eating and physical activity messages” (15).

3.6.4. Other food pyramids

There are several different food pyramids among other cultures, even within the USA.
These include the Mediterranean diet pyramid, the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyra-
mid, the Healthy Eating Pyramid by Harvard School of Public Health (Hsph), the Korean
Food Pyramid, and the Vegetarian Diet Pyramid. Different food pyramids among other
cultures reflect dietary preferences, food availability and cultural eating patterns (13).

Mayo clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid

9
 Mediterranean diet pyramid

3.6.5. Healthy Eating Pyramid

Among these different food pyramids, many observers believe that the Healthy Eat-
ing Pyramid by the Harvard School of Public Health is “based on the latest science, and
unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in its messages” as a standard
food pyramid (12) (16).

Mediterranean diet pyramid

10
4. Research Approach
4.1. “Food Diaries as Intervention Tools”

According to Lydia Zepeda, our current nutritional information is not effective at chang-
ing our diet behaviors although scientists have developed “the greatest advances in
nutrition knowledge” (6). For example, many people do not see a personal connection
between health knowledge and their own eating behavior. In other words, although
they understand the concept for others, they may not see the relevance of their own
eating habits on their health (6).

Food diaries provide a scientific way to record and compare food consumption (6).
Comparative surveys show that photo diaries of food are better at raising dietary
awareness than written diaries of food. Specifically, users of photo diaries track their
diets by taking photos of the foods they eat. “For many, this visual form of self-mon-
itoring result[s] in the recognition of unhealthy aspects of their diet and changes in
their behavior” (6).

The act of taking a photo changes the behavior of some participants because it forces
them to think about their food decisions. Moreover, “the timing of the recording
method serve[s] to raise awareness of behavior.” On the other hand, many participants
say that they skip a snack or a candy treat because it is inconvenient to take photos of
them. However, in the end, the inconvenience of such an activity forces them to rethink
their choice and help them realize that the snack or candy was not a good idea.
The result of the photos is the diary, but the process teaches participants where and
when they make poor dietary decisions (6).

Based on Lydia Zepeda’s research, I adopted the photo diary method for lunchlog.org.
I believe that if children record their own lunch, the imagery will help children become
aware of their eating habits in the real word. By doing this, children might see
a personal connection between health knowledge and their own behavior.

4.2. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

Jeana Frost and Brian Smith point out that physicians and diabetic patients rarely
review nutritional data entered by the physician’s patients either in notebooks or on a
computer database because people have difficulty navigating and analyzing data (7). In
addition, online diet planning tools designed for adults such as nutritiondata.com and
sparkpeople.com require the cumbersome task of entering numerical data. As I previ-
ously mentioned, lunchlog.org uses a food diary method of documenting meals, which
this study hypothesizes will work with children. That is, while neither existing paper-
based food diaries nor online diet planning tools are effective, this system is designed
to motivate students use it.

11
“Researchers in human-computer interaction and computer-supported collaborative
work have described the use of ‘video as data’ as a means to facilitate and organize
activity vs. simply presenting factual information.” Jeana Frost and Brian Smith
discovered that collaborative critique among young patients in a hospital while they
observed and shared meal photographs established a new understanding of patients’
behaviors as well as refined beliefs. The research suggests that “social support is impor-
tant when dealing with diabetes and other behavioral ailments” (7).

Likewise, previous research examined the effectiveness of social support in individu-

als understand the meaning of activities. Ackerman claimed that “human-centerend
information systems” require features that provide“fundamental understanding of how
people work in groups and organization.” If not, systems will not produce effective col-
laboration and social activity (25). A number of features of CSCW suggested by Acker-
man are contained in lunchlog.org. These features are as follows:

• Children share “meanings or histories” by sending and receiving a note from a teacher,
emailing and sharing a lunch photo with parents, and reviewing past winning lunches
of friends (25).

• Children deal with multiple goals. A child may want to know what lunches friends ate,
who is getting a prize, who is earning the most peas, or which lunch meals appeared as
a top lunch.

• In human-centered information systems, users prefer to know who is presence while

they use the system. Although children do not see who are currently online, they can
see who else are using lunchlog.org

• “Visibility of communication exchanges and of information enables learning and

greater efficiencies.” Information of teacher’s choice is always visible to children (25).

• “Incentives are critical.” Peas or pea pods can be earned in two ways, and having a win-
ning lunch. Children trade peas and pea pods to buy snacks and furniture to decorate
their kitchens. A child whose lunch is chosen by a teacher also receives a prize (25).

According to Walker, “the goal of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is often

to establish some common ground and to facilitate understanding and interaction” (17).
lunchlog.org shares children’s lunch photos and allows children to understand nutri-
tional knowledge in a social context.

12
4.3. Technology in Childhood

When technology focused on children is used properly, computer and software can be
used “as catalysts for social interaction and conversations related to children’s work”
(18).

According to the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, novel technology gener-

ates an education environment in which students can learn by doing. Technologies can
also aid students with visualizing hard concepts so that they understand (19).

As an example of new technology for children, recent research examined “efficacy of

mobile phone short message service (SMS; text messaging) for monitoring healthful be-
haviors in children.” The research found that children prefer a “technological, tailored,
interactive program” opposed to a paper diary because “SMS is a feasible and accept-
able method for communicating with individuals.” The results of research suggest that
use of a novel intervention tool might be an effective way of self-monitoring in children
(20).

4.4. Visual Communication for Children

For Lunchlog.org to be desirable and interesting to children, it needs aesthetically pleas-

ing and clear visuals. Design for children requires simple, fun, colorful graphics that
captivate young users (21).

Carolyn Miller, a game designer points out that one of the biggest mistakes of game
design for children is over-explanation. Children are good at figuring things out. She
suggests that games for children use as few words as possible and use spoken and
visual communication as much as possible (8).

4.5. Food Pyramid

As described above in related works, different versions of food pyramids, which use the
conventional shape of the pyramid to provide nutrition knowledge by illustrating differ-
ent food groups. My initial design concept (please refer to wireframe design in design
proposal document) started from using the Harvard Food Pyramid, which is considered
the most scientifically designed (12). I explored how this food pyramid might help
children compare food photos and understand their nutritional value. I realized that a
child using one specific food pyramid would not provide interactions to motivate
a child. Nutrition knowledge can also be somewhat subjective.

13
4.6. Usability for Children

If children cannot use a technology tool then they will never be able to learn from
using it (10). In this project, usability is defined by three major areas (22).
4.6.1. Ease of Learning
Ease of learning is the most important aspect of usability for children. The proposed
system is designed to help children learn about their eating habits and understand
the nutritional value of the foods they eat.
4.6.2. Flexibility
The system should support multiple ways of doing tasks. Children will be learning by
uploading photos and reading nutritional information. Children receive points by up-
loading food photos and answering nutrition quizzes.
4.5.3. Robustness
Children have a short attention span, so they are likely to leave the site if the content
and interaction do not capture and hold their attention. The content that is entertain-
ing, funny, and colorful, and that uses multimedia effects hold children’s attention (23).
Nevertheless, for homepage design and navigation systems, the user interface should
be unobtrusive and let kids get to the content as simply as possible” (23).

14
5. Design Description
Lunchlog.org raises children’s awareness of their own eating habits for lunch. Lunch
assignment is designed to use in a classroom environment. Children between nine and
eleven years old are the primary users. In addition, multiple users can participate on
Lunchlog.org (Please refer to 7. System Diagram). A teacher consults with a nutritionist
to create a lunch assignment. Children earn peas by posting a lunch photo and answer-
ing nutritional quizzes. A Child whose lunch is chosen by a teacher receives a prize.

5.1. Basic Activities

Basic activities of Lunchlog.org for a child can be divided into three categories:
(1) Input
Children post their lunch photos based on their lunch assignment
received from their teacher.

(2) Analysis/Review
Children categorize their food into food groups or nutrition topics given in
the teacher’s Assignment.

(3) Feedback/Review
Lunchlog.org determines a winning lunch. For example, when children have
“the most nutritiously balanced lunch” assignment, Lunchlog.org determines
the most nutritiously balanced lunch based on the teacher’s and friends’
choices.

Children receive a message about the lunches from their teacher and email
the winning lunch to their parents.

Basic activities of a teacher be divided into four categories:

1) The teacher forms a group.
2) The teacher creates a lunch assignment activity.
3) The teacher analyzes students’ lunches in order to select a winning lunch.
4) The teacher leaves comments about children’s lunches.

15
5.2. Requirements

“My Page” page

Objective “My Page” delivers a new assignment and mes-
sages from a teacher to a child. A child sees
the “My Page” page after logging into the site.
It also has a personalized “Kitchen” that a child
can decorate by spending their peas and pea
pods which they earned from completing the
lunch assignment and winning the activity.
The user needs Receiving a message
1. A child receives a new assignment message
from a teacher and reads it.
2. An assignment message tells the child about
the new assignment.
3. After a teacher chooses a winning lunch, a
child clicks “View the Winning Lunch” from the
previous assignment.
Decorating a Kitchen
1. A child trades peas and pea pods to buy
snacks and furniture.
2. A child buys snacks and furniture to decorate
avatar and home.
3. A child trades his or her clothes and furniture
with friends or gives gifts.
4. A child visits “Pea Pod World” and meets/adds
friends to their friends’ lists.
Reviewing friend’s activities
A child receives updates about friends’ activities
such as earning peas and pea pods, decorating a
“Kitchen”, or trading items between friends.
Upon registration, children can choose their preferred food pyramid. For example, vnch,
home made lunch, re
“Post Lunch Photo” page
Objective “Post Lunch Photo” page allows a child to up-
load a lunch photo. A lunch photo is catego-
rized into “Before I Ate” and “After I Ate.” The
page collects all the lunch photos that the user
posted.
The user needs 1. A child posts a lunch photo.
2. A child checks whether a lunch photo belongs
to “Before I Ate” or “After I Ate.”
3. A child leaves a note.
4. A child reviews all the lunches he or she has
posted.
5. Upon clicking a lunch photo, the child views a
larger size version of the photo in order to see
it in detail.
Upon registration, children can choose their preferred food pyramid staurant lunch,
from a vending machine food.
The child is also required to rate the nutritional value and tastiness of the food.
a lunch photo / labeling a food item

16
 “Analyze Lunch” page
Objective The page displays a set of questions generated
by a teacher. Based on a set of questions in a
sequence, the page asks a child to find the right
pictures. The pictures are anonymous.
The user needs Answering questions
1. A child clicks a desirable lunch photo and
drags it to the drop box. She can drag as many
photos as he or she wants.
2. A child reads a “Hint” section if a child does
not know how to find the right photos or does
not understand the question.
3. A child clicks the “Next” button or the “Previ-
ous” button in order to read the next question
or a previous question.
4. If a child goes back to the previous question,
she or he will see the previous selection saved
in the drop box and can change the selection.
5. Upon clicking a lunch photo, the child views a
larger size version of the photo in order to see
it in detail.
Reviewing the results of the lunch analysis
1. Upon answering the last question, a child
clicks the “Finish” button in order to see the re-
sults of the Analyze Lunch activity. If everyone
has not completed the Analyze Lunch activity,
a child sees a message saying “Come back after
oo-oo-oooo. We will show who’s lunch won the
prize.”
2. After answering a set of questions, a child
views the lunch choices of the teacher and the
friends along with the child’s lunch. The child
has two options: “View Teacher’s” and “View
Friends’ Choice”, each with a corresponding but-
ton that generates a picture with a note from
the teacher.
3. A child views the Lunch Choice results of the
“Analyze Lunch” activity.

17
 “Report Card” Page
Objective The page summarizes all of the lunches
selected by a teacher in the past. The page
categorizes the previous winning lunches by
into two lists: the child’s winning lunches and
friends’ winning lunches.

The “Report Card” page also shows accumu-

lated peas and pea pods. These balances are
displayed by rank according to the number of
peas and pea pods, earned from highest to low-
est. The ranking system is anonymous.
The user needs 1. A child receives one pea upon finishing an
“Analyze Lunch” assignment. A child can also
receive one pea pod, which equals seven peas,
when a teacher picks the child’s lunch. A
child uses peas when they purchase items to
decorate their virtual “Kitchen” in the “My Page”
section.
2. A child views the “Pea Records” section, which
displays the ranks of those who have earned
peas.
4. A child views two different sections of lunch-
es selected by a teacher. One is “My Winning
Lunches” and the other is “Friends’ Winning
Lunches.”
5. Upon clicking a lunch photo, a child views a
bigger size of photo in order to see the details.
6. A child reads a note posted by a teacher for
each meal.
7. A child emails a picture of the winning lunch
to parents.

18
5.3. Example Questions for “Analyze Lunch” Page

The Lunchlog.org concept lends itself to a variety of lessons for educators. The topics
and questions seen in this project were developed as examples from my research of nu-
trition education books for children. The questions were designed to promote children’s
awareness about their lunches. In an ideally situation, an educator consults with
a nutritionist to create and customize questions.

Lesson Topics Category to measure Questions Source

Local and seasonal vegetables The most seasonal 1. Which lunches have vegetables Welander,
grown during the spring in lunch that grow during the spring? Suzanne.
Georgia 2. Which lunches have vegetables 2009-2010 Local
that grow in Georgia? Food Guide, 6.
Balanced nutrition Most Nutritiously 1: Which lunches have at least 1 Miller, Edward.
Well-balanced cup from the Vegetable Group? The Monster
2: Which lunches have at least 1/2 Health Book,
cup from the Fruit Group? 6-15.
3: Which lunches have at least 1
ounce from the Meat and Bean
Group?
4: Which lunches have at least
1 ounce from the Whole Grain
Group?
5: Which lunches have at least 1
cup from the Milk Group?
Vegetarianism The most vegetarian
(The most vegetarian freindly friendly lunch
lunch)
Ethnic food The most ethnically
diverse lunch
How your body uses food The most important 1. Which lunches have food that Evers, Connie. Eat
vitamins keeps your eyes, skin and hair Your Vegetables!
and minerals healthy? Drink Your Milk!,
2. Which lunches have food that is 20-21.
good for your brain and nerves?
3. Which lunches have food that
helps hold body cells together?
4. Which lunches have food that
helps your blood carry oxygen to
body cells?
Allergies The most likely to 1. Which lunches have pea nuts?
cause allergic 2. Which lunches have shellfish?
reaction 3. Which lunches have wheat?
Cavities The most likely to 1. Which lunches have food that
cause cavities provide quick boosts of energy but
will cause cavities?
2. Which lunches have corn syrup?

19
 !DDSEVERAL
DEFAULTSWITH
DIFFERENTGOALS
!DDKEYMESSAGE

#ONSULTWITH.UTRITIONIST(EALTH3CIENTIST &OOD.UTRITION
3PECIALIST
.OTE
(EALTH3CIENTIST )MPLEMENTATION
4EACHER
#REATE
&ORM ALUNCHACTIVITY
ASMALLGROUP
!SSIGN
ASSIGNMENT
ALUNCH
ACTIVITY

2EVIEWSTUDENTS
BYDIETSTYLEALLERGY 3ETUPFORREQUIRING
ANDCULTURALEATINGSTYLES TOPOST"EFORE!FTER,UNCH
OR"EFORE,UNCH/NLY

3ETUP
MEASUREMENTS
0OINTSFORDIFFERENTCATEGORIZATION
0OINTSFORREWARDING
!TEACHERNOTIFIESTOPARENTS
3ETUP WHATASSIGNMENTWASRELEASED
ANASSIGNMENTSCHEDULE
EXONCEAWEEK
6.1. System Diagram

$ECIDE !NALYZE,UNCHES
REWARDING
ITEM

$ATABASE
2EVIEWCHILDREN´SANALYSIS
,EAVECOMMENTS
6. System Design

#HILDREN
3CHOOL
"EFORE !FTER !NALYZE,UNCHES -ENU
3ITE
!NONYMOUS
)NTERACTION

4AKEALUNCHPHOTO 0OSTALUNCHPHOTO

"EFORE !FTER
#OLLECTION )MAGES
This diagram illustrates overall design system of Lunchlog.org

$ATABASE
4AKEALUNCHPHOTO

,UNCHLOGORG ,OCAL
"EFORE !FTER

4AKEALUNCHPHOTO 0OSTALUNCHPHOTO #REATING 0ROFILES

SOCIALLINKS
"EFORE !FTER

4AKEALUNCHPHOTO 2EVIEWTHEIRCHILDREN´SLUNCHES

%MAILAWINNINGLUNCH
TOTHEIRPARENTS

0ARENTS

20
6.2. Data Model

I created a paper prototype to show how the data model works in

Lunchlog.org. This paper prototype shows how the scoring
algorithm works.

A teacher created two questions under the category, “Most Nutritiously

Well-balanced Lunch”

The first question that the teacher created is, “Which lunches have at
least 1 cup from the Vegetable group”. The teacher made this question
worth 3 points. Then second question that a teacher created is, “Which
lunches have at least 1 ounce from the Meat and Bean Group?”. For the
second question, the teacher made it worth 2 points.

Photo 1 belongs to Sora. Sora had chicken and spinach. Photo 2 is

Austin’s lunch which contains sprouts. Photo 3 is Avery’s lunch which
includes beef, lettuce, and asparagus. Photo 4 is Connor’s lunch which
involves salmon and cucumber.

In order to analyze these lunches, each student answers Question 1 and

Question 2 by reviewing all of the photos for that lunch and selecting
one or more photos that answer the question. For example, Avery
answers Question 1, by selecting Sora’s lunch and Avery’s lunch.
Since Avery selected Sora’s and Avery’s lunches, these lunches each
receive 3 points.

Connor, Sora, and Austin goes through the same process as Avery by
answering Question 1 and Question 2. Also, the teacher answers
Question 1 and Question 2.

The student’s average points for Sora’s lunch is 3.5, which is the sum
of the points from all 4 students divided by 4.

In the end, this paper prototype indicates that the children chose Sora’s
lunch (Photo 1) and the teacher chose Avery’s lunch (Photo 3) as the most
nutritiously well-balanced lunch.

21
#ATEGORY -OSTNUTRITIOUSLYWELL BALANCEDLUNCH #ATEGORY -OSTNUTRITIOUSLYWELL BALANCEDLUNCH
7HICHLUNCHESHAVEATLEASTCUPFROM 7HICHLUNCHESHAVEATLEASTOUNCEFROM
1UESTION THE6EGETABLE'ROUP 1UESTION THE-EATAND"EAN'ROUP

0OINT6ALUE  0OINT6ALUE 

0HOTO 0HOTO 0HOTO 0HOTO

3TUDENT 3ORA 3TUDENT !USTIN 3TUDENT !VERY 3TUDENT #ONNOR

$ATE    $ATE    $ATE    $ATE   
,UNCH #HICKENSPINACH ,UNCH 3PROUT ,UNCH "EEFLETTUCEASPARAGUS ,UNCH 3ALMONCUCUMBER

,UNCH
0HOTO 0HOTO 0HOTO 0HOTO
3TUDENT 3ORA´S,UNCH !USTIN´S,UNCH !VERY´S,UNCH #ONNOR´S,UNCH

1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION

!VERY        

   

1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION

#ONNOR        

   

1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION

3ORA        

   

1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION

!USTIN        

   

1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION 1UESTION

4EACHER        

   

3TUDENTS´        

!VERAGE     22
6.3. Technical Description

The final version of Lunchlog.org will be built in Flash, Action Script 3, PHP, MySQL, Im-
ageMagick, CSS, and HTML.

PHP will be used to manage the web site content. This program is an easy scripting
language that creates data driven web pages. PHP also connects to a MySQL database,
which stores user input, and creates HTML pages that embed a Flash movie clip.

Flash and Action Script 3 will be used to create vector and bitmap based graphics with
animated motions. Flash works on most web browsers.

MySQL will be used as the database to store nutritional information, user profiles, and
photos. It is often used in conjunction with PHP.

ImageMagick will be used to frame and juxtapose lunch photos because Lunchlog.org
illustrates actual lunch photos with children-friendly graphics. This program “creates,
edits, and composes bitmap images” (24).

HTML will be used to frame and embed a Flash movie.

CSS will be used to style the HTML pages.

While the final version of Lunchlog.org will be built in Flash, PHP, MySQL, ImageMagick,
CSS and, HTML, in my working prototype, I used Flash, Action Script 3, and HTML to dem-
onstrate the following:

• Logging in Lunchlog.org
• Reviewing a new lunch assignment
• Walk-through of answering a nutrition questions and receiving points
• Reading a message from teacher
• Sending an email to a parent

23
7. Scenarios
Scenario 1
User System
Avery is nine years old. She attends Morningside Elementary School
in Atlanta. She brought her PowerShot SD100 digital camera to
school to take some pictures. Yesterday, her teacher, Ms. Smith, re-
minded the class that everyone has to post a lunch photo by today
at www.Lunchlog.org. Avery goes to the school cafeteria for lunch
with her friends. The menu for the day was a corn dog, potato chips,
macaroni and cheese, sweet peas, and chocolate milk.

When she returns home, Avery talks to her Mom about her day.
They also talk about her lunch. Mom asks about the topic of the
lunch assignment. Avery explains that she has to take a photo of
her lunch, post it, and then answer questions about it.
Avery logs into the site on her dad’s laptop. She uploads a photo of
the meal at school.
After she posts the picture, she gets a “Start” button on the screen.
She sees six different lunch photos with her lunch photo. The first
question was “Which lunches have at least 1 cup from the Vegetable
Group?” She wasn’t sure what 1 cup of vegetables looks like. She
clicks a Hint button. Then the hint says, “A cup is about the size of
a baseball.” She clicks and drags the two photos from the photo
boxes that have 1 cup of vegetables.
She clicks the “Next” button to go to the next question. She an-
swers the second question by clicking and dragging photos. She
clicks the “Previous” button to see that she selected the correct
pictures.
User finishes the remaining questions. Then she sees a text mes-
sage saying, “You’ve completed analyzing lunches. You’ve received
1 pea. Please come back on Thursday, July 23 to see the winning
lunch. We will discuss the results in class on Friday!”
She logs into the system right before she goes to bed. She has a
note from her teacher. The note says, “Hi Avery! Good job! You
posted your picture on time!” User clicks “View the Winning Lunch.”
User notices that the winning lunch had a lot of fruit. Then she
clicks the note icon to read the teacher’s message: “Hi everyone,
this week Starskey has the winning lunch and is going to receive a
cookbook. This meal has five food groups from the food pyramid.
Starskey’s meal contained chicken, tofu fried rice, asparagus, broc-
coli, melon slices and strawberries, green salad, and milk. We will
talk more about the food groups this Friday in class.”
She clicks a “My Page” tab to check her virtual “Kitchen” space. User
has earned 4 peas and 1 pea pod. A pea is worth five peas.
Last month, Avery’s teacher chose her lunch for which she received
1 pea pod. She hasn’t spent the 1 pea pod yet. She clicks “My Page”
then checks her “Kitchen” to decorate her “Kitchen” space. She buys
for furniture to see if there is any new furniture.
The system checks the database of a user’s as-
signment. The system stores a picture of the
user’s lunch.
The system allows a user to start “Analyze
Lunch.” The system outputs a set of questions
and hint information. Questions and Hint were
stored in the database of a user that was writ-
ten by a teacher. The system stores the user’s
answers to each question.
The system reads the database to generate the
second question. It stores the user’s answers.
The system talks to the database to get the pre-
vious choices to generate pictures in the previous
question.
The system gives one point (one pea) to the user
and stores it in her profile. The system checks
whether the remaining users completed the
“Analyze Lunch” activity. If someone finishes
his or her homework, the system generates a
message telling the student to check back at a
certain time to see which lunch was chosen as
the winning lunch.
The system stores the teacher’s choice. The sys-
tem also stores the scores from all the students
and presents one meal as the top choice among
the students. The system reads the database of
teacher notes and sends them to the students.
The system reads the user’s “Kitchen” database.
24
 Scenario 2
User
Mrs. Smith teaches 11-year-old children at Cliff Valley School in
Atlanta, Georgia. She wants to teach about local and seasonal
fruits during the late spring in Georgia. She’s been enjoying using
Lunchlog.org as one of her teaching tools in a classroom.
She spoke with a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention for information to create a lunch assignment. She
plans to ask her students to take photos of before-dish and after-
dish.
She designs a set of questions for her students to answer. The topic
of this assignment is Fruits.
Mrs. Smith wants her students to research and consume lunches
that contain local and seasonal fruits produced during the late
spring in Georgia.
She logs into Lunchlog.org and opens her students’ profiles. The
students are categorized by dietary styles, allergies, ethnic back-
grounds, and other characteristics. She clicks on four names of
students to make one group. She creates a “New Lunch Assignment
Message” with details of the deadline of the assignment and prize.
She decides not to enter any hints at this time.
The teacher forms three more groups by copying the existing
groups and changes the students’ names.
In class, she tells her students about a new lunch assignment. This
time, she tells the student to take a before and after lunch photo of
a meal that includes fruits.
A student, Austin, asks what local and seasonal vegetables and
fruits are grown during the late spring in Georgia. She smiles and
says this time she is not giving any hints. She suggests asking
parents or older sisters/brothers for the information. She says,
“Make sure to take before and after pictures of your meal. The top
lunch will be the student who eats fruit, not the one who takes the
photo”
A few days later, Mrs. Smith receives an email from Lunchlog.org
that one of the groups has completed posting their photos. She
logs into the site and starts answering questions. After selecting
photos from the sets of questions, she sees Avery’s lunch is her
choice lunch. She approves the result.
She clicks on Avery’s profile and writes a message to the group. “Hi,
everyone, Avery2000 had blueberries, peaches, and strawberries.
These are seasonal fruits grown in Georgia during late spring. Good
job! Also, you guys guessed it right! We will talk more about local
vegetables and fruits in class.”
Mrs. Smith starts viewing the lunch photos of the groups. She sees
that two children posted their salad dishes. Avery posted a fruit
bowl picture filled with blueberries, peaches, and strawberries.
Another student posted only a before-dish photo.
System
The system checks the database of a user’s as-
signment. The system stores a picture of the
user’s lunch.
The system shows the students’ user profiles by
accessing database. It stores the groups and the
lunch assignment.
The system stores a point value for each ques-
tion.
The system gives one point (one pea) to the user
and stores it in her profile. The system checks
whether the remaining users completed the
“Analyze Lunch” activity. If someone finishes
his or her homework, the system generates a
message telling the student to check back at a
certain time to see which lunch was chosen as
the winning lunch.
The database stores images on each student’s
database. When a group of users posts photos,
the system allows the teacher to start analyzing
the pictures. The database stores points for each
of the photos selected based on the questions.
Then it totals the points from given questions for
each photo. The system will determine the one
with the highest number of points, which will
be the winning photo. The system requires the
teacher to confirm the winning lunch.
The system reads the user’s “Kitchen” database.
The database stores a message from the teacher
to the message database. The system adds one
point (one pea) to Avery’s database. Also, stu-
dents who guessed the right lunch receive one
point (one pea).
25
 Scenario 3
User System
Melissa and Susan work together. Both are full-time working
mothers. Susan has been talking with her friends and other
family members about wanting to adopt a healthy diet for her
children. Susan says she would like to know what her children
eat at school for lunch, but she sometimes forgets to ask them.

Melissa tells Susan about Lunchlog.org that her children are

using at school. Melissa suggests that Susan and her family try
it. After Annie has seen photos of her son’s lunches at school
through the site, she sometimes makes a meal based on lessons
that her son learned from school.
Melissa comes back to her desk and shows Susan the mes-
sages she’s been receiving from Lunchlog.org. Melissa says she
receives photos of her child’s lunches, new assignment details
from the teacher, and winning lunch of every assignment.
Melissa receives a new email from Lunchlog.org. She opens the The system collects an image of Austin’s lunch
email, a message from her son, Austin. and the top lunch photo of the week from the
database. The system gets the email address
“From: Austin’s message from Lunch Log–Ethnic food. Hi, Mom. of Austin’s mom and sends her Austin’s mes-
I want to try Bibimbap, a traditional Korean dish. It’s a multicol- sage.
ored assortment of vegetables, rice, and beef.”
She views what picture Austin posted for this week’s assign-
ment. He posted a Masala Dosa dish the family had at Desi
Spice, an Indian cuisine restaurant, three weeks ago.

26
8. Evaluation/Assessment
8.1 Method

I am currently waiting for the IRB protocol to be approved. After the IRB protocol is ap-
proved, I plan to run evaluation sessions of Lunchlog.org. This evaluation is for finding
whether the initial interface and representation of nutrition information is understand-
able to the users. A website prototype will be presented to children to test whether or
not they understand the nutrition information from their lunch photos. I plan to run
the evaluation session of the Lunchlog.org with five children. Each child participant will
be between the ages of nine and eleven years old.

I aim to evaluate the visual nutrition information of the Lunch Log site. After the evalu-
ation, I plan to improve the graphical user interface and its content based on partici-
pants’ feedback.

27
8.2 Protocol

Survey for Children

1. Age ( )

2. Gender:
[ ] Female
[ ] Male

3. Have you heard of a food pyramid?

4. If yes, what food groups are in the food pyramid? (Check all apply)
[ ] Fruits
[ ] Milk
[ ] Meat & Beans
[ ] Grains
[ ] Vegetables
[ ] Chocolate
[ ] Exercise

5. Do you remember what you ate for lunch last (Thursday)?

6. Did you like the lunch?

[ ] Didn’t like it
[ ] Liked it just a little
[ ] Liked it
[ ] Liked it a lot

7. Did you think the lunch was healthy?

[ ] Not healthy
[ ] Ok
[ ] Healthy
[ ] Don’t know

8. How much did you like learning about the ingredients from your lunch photo?
[ ] Didn’t like it
[ ] Liked it just a little
[ ] Liked it
[ ] Liked it a lot

9. How easy was it to use the food pyramids to find out about the ingredients in your
lunch?
[ ] Not easy
[ ] Ok
[ ] Easy
[ ] Don’t know

10. What web sites are you currently using (Check all apply)
[ ] Club Penguin
[ ] Dress Up Girl
[ ] Gaia Online
[ ] Webkinz
[ ] Other
28
9. Conclusion
Lunchlog.org deploys a graphical user interface for data entry, navigation, and review
that exploits design conventions familiar and appealing to children in the context of
nutritional knowledge. Although Lunchlog.org focuses on how children understand
their nutrition, the concept of documenting and sharing photos can be developed and
used in other contexts. For example, NYTimes.com recently launched an Interactive
photo album, “Picturing the Recession” that allows online users to document and share
photos about the effects of the recession in the world. The goal of the album is to
show how creative individuals see the recession playing out in their communities in
different ways. Similarly, the goal of Lunchlog.org is to show how children understand
the food around them (26).

In terms of future development, my next goal for Lunchlog.org are

1. to create a prototype for teachers that demonstrates how they would create
questions, form a group, and leave an educational messages to children.

2. to run a usability testing after IRB is approved

3. to show the detailed scoring for photos

29
8. Appendix 1: Wireframe

Main navigation tabs for Home Page Key Message from a teacher

Login Join for Free

Home How It Works Teachers Parents Tell a Friend

Welcome to the Online Lunch Log

Highlights a particular
What are the 5 Food winning lunch
1. Take a picture of your lunch and post it Winning Lunch Featured
Groups?
2. Analyze friends' lunches

3. Win a lunch assignment activity

4. Receive a prize

Eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day! Drink 10 cups of water a day Move more, aim for at least 60 minutes everyday, or most days. Rotating dynamic text
related to food and
Home Teachers Children Parents Nutritionists Contact Us Join for Free nutrition
©2009 onlinelunchlog.com All Rights Reserved.

30
 Personalized Kitchen A child decorates the Home Space by spending their After a teacher chooses a lunch,
Space pea-coins. A child receives pea-coins by earning peas a child clicks View the lunch results
and pea pods. The number of peas are equivalent with from the previous assignment.
the pea-coins. The peas and pea pods were earned from
completing the lunch assignment and winning the activity.

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

A new lunch View the View

activity assigned lunch results all my lunches A child views all
the posted lunches

A child receives updates about

Princess Snow White visited Wiskerfat's home and gave it 5 stars. their friends! activities.
aymen and fluffy 124 are now friends.
fluffy 124 and aymen are now friends.
BRC won 1 pea pod.
BEAUTY QUEEN 1 traded Long White Dress for a Icicle King Background.
You have 8 coins PeeledPotato won 1 Pea.
starskey is now friends with Obicat, Fluffy173, and Julie9.
Decorate Home Shop for Clothes
pink 123 traded a One piece swim suit for a London Big Ben Bookshelf.
starskey played Basketball at the bball court.
Visit Pea Pod World Shop for Furniture
starskey won a movie ticket. Check starskey's lunch.
TidyPuff traded a Tin Man Face for a Cheshire Grin.

31
 A child receives a new assignment message Prize for the lunch assignment.
from a teacher and reads it. A teacher offers or does not offer a prize
for each assignment.

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Hello Avery, I am going to give you one lunch

assignment for the coming week. Here are the
instructions.

What picture am I posting?

Post one picture of any lunch you are going to eat
this week.

When do I zhave to post by?

Post it by next Monday (7-20-2009)

When is the deadline for analyzing my friends'

lunches?
Analyze lunches by next Wednesday (7-22-2009)

What kinds of lunch are we trying to find after

everyone posts pictures?
You have 8 Pea-coins Lunch has five different food groups
based on the food pyramid.
Decorate Home Visit Pea Pod World
What is the prize?
A cookbook, Everything Kids' Cookbook.
Shop Clothes Shop Furniture

32
 A child view all the lunches
that he/she posted

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Before Lunch After Lunch My Pea Records

A child did not add an After

Lunch Photo. Therefore,
Note
0 Pea a child did not receive one
Photo Missing Pea

z
A teacher did not require to
post a After Lunch Photo for
Note
1 Pea this assignment

You have 8 Pea-coins Note

1 Pea

Decorate Home Visit Pea Pod World

Shop Clothes Shop Furniture

33
 A child leaves a note for teacher and parents

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Note:

z
Picture: Browse

Preview Submit

34
 Set of nutrition or
food-related questions
from a teacher
A teacher consults with
a Food & Nutrition specialist/ Inform a child about Textual information that slides
Enlarge picture size 6 children are participating Food health scientist how many questions from the top of the screen
about creating questions. the child has to answer when a child clicks the Hint button

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Question 1 of 5
Which lunches have
at least 1 cup from the Vegetable Group?
Hint
Choose as many pictures as you want
What is the Vegetable Group?
and drag here.
Vegetables are plants with
edible parts. They have many The Hint section provides
z nutrients in them that are in-depth information
good for you. You should get related to the questions
2 to 3 cups of vegetables a when a child needs help.
day. It's important to eat a mix
of vegetables, including green
and orange ones.

How do I measure 1 cup?

A cup is about the size of a
baseball.

Next

35
Decrease
picture size

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Which lunches have
at least 1/2 cup from the Fruit Group?
Choose as many pictures as you want
and drag here
z have many nutrients that
Question 2 of 5
Hint
What is the Fruit Group?
Fruits are food that comes
from trees and vines. They
make your body healthy.
You should have 1-1/2 to 2
cups of fruit a day. It's good
to eat a variety of fruits so
that you get all the important
nutrients your body needs.

How do I measure 1/2 cup?

A small apple is about 1/2
cup.
Previous Next

36
 Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Which lunches have
at least 1 ounce from the Meat and Bean Group?
Choose as many pictures as you want
and drag here.
z are in the same group
Question 3 of 5
Hint
What is the Meat and
Bean Group?
Meats, beans, nuts, and fish
because they have many of
the same nutrients. You should
have 4 to 6 ounces of items
from the food. It's best to boil,
grill, or roast meat instead of
frying it in fatty cooking oil.

How do I measure 1 ounce?

An egg is about 1 ounce.
A hamburger is about 3
ounces.

Previous Next

37
 Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Which lunches have
at least 1 ounce from the Whole Grain Group?
Choose as many pictures as you want
and drag here.
z Your body needs the fiber and
Question 4 of 5
Hint
What is the Whole Grain
Group?
Grains are seeds from plants.
nutrients found in grains to
stay healthy. It's important to
eat foods that are made from
whole seeds, so choose food
that say "whole grain" on the
package. It's good to eat 3 to 3
1/2 ounces from the whole
grain group a day.

How do I measure 1 ounce?

One slice of bread is about 1
ounce. A 1/2 cup of cooked
Previous Next rice or noodles is also about 1
ounce.

38
 Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Which lunches have
at least 1 cup from the Milk Group?
Choose as many pictures as you want
and drag here.
z vitamins and minerals that
Question 2 of 5
Hint
What is the Milk Group?
Milk products are food made
from cow's milk. Milk has
help build strong teeth and
bones. Low-fat and fat-free
milk products are the best
choices. You should have 2 to
3 cups from the milk group a
day.

Previous Finish

39
If not all members finished analyzing the
lunch assignment, a child receives "Come
back on ( ) to see the winning lunch. We
will discuss the results in class on ( )."
Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch
You've completed analyzing lunches.
You've received 1 pea.
Let's find which lunch
is the teacher's choice !
My Lunch
Note
A child receives one Pea (equaling one Pea coin) A child can compare Teacher's meal selection—
after completing one lunch assignment. his/her own lunch with The student that posted this
The more peas a child earns the more the teacher!s choice. meal receives the prize.
items a child can purchase to decorate
his or her personalized home space.
Report Card My Page
Note from Mrs. Davis A note from the teacher to
Mrs. Smith's Choice Proin tortor diam, suscipit everyone who joined the lunch
sed, malesuada vel, assignment. The note explains
elementum at, lectus. Proin
why this particular lunch has
eget mi. In ut quam.
Teacher's Choice Suscipit sed, malesuada been chosen.
z vel, elementum at, lectus.
Proin eget mi. In ut quam.
A child clicks Note icon
Friends' Choice and receives a note from
the teacher.
Friends' Choice Note
Selected lunch from
children!s choice.
This lunch does
not necessarily
receive a prize.
40
 The Pea Records chart Selected lunches are
shows who currently has chosen by a teacher
the most peas.

Logout

Post Lunch Photo Analyze Lunch Report Card My Page

Pea Records My Winning Friends' Winning

You have Lunches Lunches

1. Ruby2 22
3 peas
1 pea pod 2. SpongeBob00 20
Total of 8 Peas Enlarge picture size
3. LadyAvery 15
z
4. FitBean 14

5. Snowbug 11
A child receives one Five different food groups
pea after completing
one lunch assignment
and one pea pod when
their lunch is chosen
by the teacher.

The number of peas Click to view a note from

are equivalent with the the teacher. The note explains
coins. A child spends why this particular lunch
coins for decorating a has been chosen.
home space in the My
Page section.
Email to parents

Decrease picture size

41
11. Appendix 2: Screenshots

42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
12. References
(1) Severson, Kim. (2005, April 24). The Government’s Pyramid Scheme. The New
York Times, Retrieved October 7, 2008 from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/
weekinreview/24seve.html?pagewanted=all&position=

(2) Gavin, Mary. (2008, June). Overweight and Obesity. October 7, 2008
from http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/overweight_obesity.html

(3) Berger, Kathleen. The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, Sixth
Edition, Worth Publishers

(4) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Child Development (Last Updated Sep-
tember 20th, 2005) Accessed September 7th, 2008 from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/
child/middlechildhood9-11.htm

(5) Bruckman, Amy. & Bandlow, Alisa. (2002) HCI for Kids. The Human-Computer Interac-
tion Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging
Applications.

(6) Zepeda , Lydia. & Deal, David. (2008). Think before you eat: photographic food
diaries as intervention tools to change dietary decision making and attitudes.
International Journal of Consumer Studies, 32, 692 - 698.

(7) Frost, Jeana.& Smith, Brian. (2003) Visualizing Health: Imagery in Diabetes
Education, 8.

(8) Bruckman, Amy. & Bandlow, Alisa. (2002) HCI for Kids. The Human-Computer Interac-
tion Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging
Applications.

(9) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia—Flickr. Retrieved Ocotober 3, 2008

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr

(10) Handipoints: How Handipoints Works. Retrieved October 7, 2008,

from http://handipoints.com/howitworks.php

(11) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia—Healthy Eating Pyramid. Retrieved

Ocotober 27, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_eating_pyramid

(12) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia—Food Guide Pyramid. Retrieved

Ocotober 12, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_guide_pyramid

(13) Mayo Clinic. (2006, January 11). CNN: Healthy diet basics: Using a food pyramid. Re-
trieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/NU/00190.html

(14) Harvard School of Public Health. The Nutrition Source

Food Pyramids: What Should You Really Eat? Retrieved September 17, 2008,
from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/
pyramid-full-story/index.html

54
(15) USDA (2005). MyPyramid for Kids Poster. Retrieved October 14, 2008,
from http://www.fns.usda.gov/TN/Resources/mypyramidforkidsposter.html

(16) Harvard School of Public Health. The Nutrition Source

Healthy Eating Pyramid. Retrieved September 17, 2008, from
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/

(17) Walker, Bruce. Handouts: CSCW, 4

Walker, Bruce. (2008, November). CSCW: Facilitating work by more than
one person. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from sonify.psych.gatech.edu/~walkerb/classes/
hci/pdf/23-cscw.ppt.pdf

(18) Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Retrieved Technology in Early Child-

hood Education. March 3, 2009 from http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html

(19) Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Retrieved Technology in Early Childhood

Education. March 3, 2009 from http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/background.html

(20) Jennifer R. Shapiro, et al. Use of Text Messaging for Monitoring Sugar-sweetened
Beverages, Physical Activity, and Screen Time in
Children: A Pilot Study, 2008

(21) An, Jisun., Baumer, Allan., DeVries, Matthew., Radu, Iulian., Engaging Children in
Environmental Activities
Phase 1: Understanding Conservation in America. 2008

(22) Dix, Alan., Finlay, Janet (2003) Human-Computer Interaction (3rd ed.).
England:Harlow. 261.

(23) Nielsen, Jakob. (2002, April 14). Kids’ Corner: Website Usability for Children.
Retrieved September 10, 2008, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html

(24) ImageMagick Studio LLC. (1999-2009) ImageMagick. Retrieved October 21, 2008,s
from http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php#books

(25) Ackerman, Mark. (1997, January). COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

FROM A CSCW PERSPECTIVE. Retrieved March 27, 2009, from http://www-cse.ucsd.
edu/~goguen/courses/171sp02/ackerman.html

(26) Huang. Jon, et al. (April 2, 2009 ). Picturing the Recession. Retrieved April 07, 2009,
from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/02/business/economy/economy-
user-photos.html

55