Keeping Awareness High 
An important feature of integrating nutrition education is the fact that behavior change takes time. The lessons and materials in “Eating Well, Living Well” are designed to encourage teachers and students to revisit topics, review progress, reward successes and address challenges and barriers. Some easy ways to keep awareness high are to:
- Revisit the Journal.
- Use the ‘additional activities’ that are suggested at the end of many lessons.
- Use the visuals that accompany the lessons for quick vocabulary review or a problem-solving lesson.
- Redo a ‘Dynamite Demo’ and discuss how it has affected choices of food items with sugar, or fat.
- After mastery of the content have students share what they learned by giving presentations in other classes, maintaining a school bulletin board, participating in community health fairs, etc.
Homework
Students are often reticent to do out-of-class assignments, and teachers are equally reticent to assign homework. Yet, particularly for these lessons, the more emphasis the teacher puts on this activity and the more follow- up the teacher does in later classes, the more likely it is that the students will actually make positive changes in their lifestyles. The ‘application’ stage of these lessons – i.e., the work done in the Journals or Journal Worksheets, will encourage students to make these changes.
Using the Supplimental Materials
Research shows that changing behavior takes time (National Academies of Science, 2004) “Eating Well, Living Well” includes supplemental activities that are designed as review and reinforcement of the nutrition lessons and serve to keep awareness high. These are available for both the Beginning and Intermediate levels. They include, for example, vocabulary games, writing activities and a variety of other simple activities to use in the classroom. See Preview Lesson to see an example, or attend a Training and access Lessons to Download to see the full set of materials.
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