MONDAY, OCTOBER 1

POSTER SESSION: SCIENCE/EDUCATION/MANAGEMENT/FOODSERVICE/CULINARY/RESEARCH

Title: EVALUATION OF A HEALTHY PIZZA KITCHEN NUTRITION EDUCATION PROGRAM AT A CHILDRENS MUSEUM Author(s): D. Vecchi, M. R. Freedman; Nutrition and Food Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA Learning Outcome: To recognize the value of using a museumbased nutrition education program, in addition to classroom curriculum, for teaching nutrition basics, MyPyramid.gov, and how to choose ingredients to make pizza a healthier balanced meal. Text: Field trips offering learning environments unavailable in classroom settings can be effective tools for nutrition education. Public and private school children, grades K-12, attend eld trips at the Hall of Health Hands-on Health Museum and Science Center (HOH) in Berkeley, CA to compliment health and science classroom curriculum. Since approximately one-third of a childs daily calorie intake is through snack foods, desserts, and pizza (Van Horn et al., 2005), a new Healthy Pizza Kitchen exhibit was created to educate students about healthy eating, and encourage them to build a better pizza. Seven elementary school teachers volunteered their 5th grade classes to evaluate this exhibit. The Healthy Pizza Kitchen program, based on social cognitive theory, consisted of a 30-min presentation on nutrition basics, balanced meals, and MyPyramid.gov. What makes pizza healthy, un-healthy, and how to choose ingredients to make a healthy, balanced meal was discussed. After the presentation, students experienced the Healthy Pizza Kitchen--a mock pizzeria with menu board, assembly table, brick oven, and table for eating. They were shown basic pizza making fundamentals, and encouraged to make healthy pizzas using synthetic crusts and toppings. Nutrition knowledge was assessed using surveys conducted one-week prior and two weeks after the museum visit. This program is unique because a favorite food, pizza, was used as a nutrition education tool. Rather than instructing students to stop eating this popular food, they were encouraged to modify it to result in a more healthful, balanced meal. Funding Disclosure: None

Title: LINKING MY PYRAMID TO THE PLATE CONCEPT: A PRACTICAL TOOL FOR HEALTHY EATING Author(s): M. O. Duarte-Gardea,1 H. Balcazar2; 1University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, 2University of Texas - Houston, El Paso, TX Learning Outcome: The participant will be able to recognize a new educational tool for healthy eating Text: The purpose of the project was to develop and evaluate an educational tool linking food recommendations in My Pyramid into three meal plates. Graphic design: A one page educational handout was designed and included My Pyramid, a table of caloric and food recommendations for different age ranges and activity levels, a table of standard portions of each food group, and instructions on how to transfer the recommended portions into three meals. In addition, three pie charts representing three meals per day were displayed in the right hand side of the handout. Each pie chart was divided in proportions that represented the grains, vegetables, and meat and beans bars in My Pyramid. Milk and fruit proportions were represented separately from the pie chart. Evaluation: A total of 143 college students enrolled in a basic nutrition course evaluated the educational tool using a survey. Sixty two percent of the students indicated that the handout was easy to understand, 85% reported the material was a practical tool and that fulll the purpose of translating information from My Pyramid into a more visual approach, while 14 % of the students did not agree; 82% reported that the handout could be useful to teach healthy eating using My Pyramid as guideline. This tool represents an opportunity to introduce a simple approach that can help consumers better understand the information displayed in My Pyramid. In addition this educational material could be useful for consumers not having immediate or any access to computer systems. Funding Disclosure: None

Title: WEB-BASED ACADEMIC ROADMAPS HELP STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT DIETETICS Author(s): C. English, D. V. Handley, R. LaDuke; Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI Learning Outcome: Participants will view a new information system to recruit and retain students in Dietetics Text: The purpose of the project was to create web-based academic roadmaps for Dietetics students. Using todays technology, the academic roadmap provides an exciting way for current and prospective students to access information on course requirements, learning outcomes, dietetic registration, and careers. The eld of Dietetics comes to life by showing interactions between required courses and learning outcomes while allowing students to link to pertinent nutrition-related websites. Because the roadmap is designed for high school and college students, the roadmap can help both recruit students to the eld and retain them in the major. The roadmap is an electronic template; this allows programs to easily add institution-specic information while utilizing existing general career information. The academic roadmap system will be available to institutions free of charge after nal testing. Prior to development, 80 Dietetics students, equally divided by class year, were surveyed to determine what information was important to include. Forty-ve topics, grouped into eight categories, were tested on a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). All categories of information were rated by students as somewhat to very important (3.47-4.80). Information about dietetic internships, graduate school, and career paths were rated by students as the most important (4.55-4.80). Alumni perspectives about careers, student perspectives about courses and available university resources were rated by students as the least important (3.47-4.23). There were no signicant differences in importance of roadmap categories when compared by gender, class year, transfer status, or whether Dietetics was their rst major. Funding Disclosure: USDA, NSF, Davis Foundation

Title: DIETITIANS PROMOTING HEALTH LITERACY BY RECOMMENDING HIGH-QUALITY CONSUMER HEALTH WEBSITES Author(s): R. M. Sabo; Park Library, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI Learning Outcome: Discuss dietitians role in promoting health literacy by recommending high quality consumer health websites. Text: Eighty percent of adult Internet users search for health information online and nutrition information is the third most commonly searched health topic. There is concern, however, regarding the quality of information that consumers nd and their ability to critically evaluate that information. Low levels of health literacy in the United States have been identied as a major concern costing $50 -$73 billion per year. As experts in food and nutrition, registered dietitians can play an important role in helping the public learn to nd and critically evaluate health information on the Internet. A Checklist for Evaluating Health Internet Sites was developed considering criteria such as intended audience, authority, accuracy/veriability, currency and scope. Other resources dietitians can utilize are available from the Information Rx (Information Prescription Project) sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. Information Rx provides physicians and other health professionals with free resources such as posters, bookmarks, business cards and tear-away prescription pads directing their patients to MedlinePlus, a peerreviewed website from the National Library of Medicine. Dietitians can assist in public health efforts to improve health literacy by recommending high-quality consumer health websites. Funding Disclosure: None

Journal of the AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION / A-63