Article
Teens-as-teachers nutrition program increases interest in science among schoolchildren and fosters self-efficacy in teens
California Agriculture
(2018)
Abstract
The Healthy Living Ambassador Program brings health, teen leadership, and teamwork to California's elementary school gardens through interdisciplinary UC Cooperative Extension collaboration, community-based partnerships and teen teaching. During spring 2015, teen ambassadors trained by Extension educators and volunteers at UC Elkus Ranch in San Mateo County taught nutrition science, food cultivation and healthy living skills in an 8-week, garden-based, after-school nutrition and physical education program for elementary school children in an urban setting. We conducted a pilot study using a mixed-methods approach to measure and explore the program's impact on children's vegetable selection and consumption preferences, as well as perceived self-efficacy in teen healthy living behavior. The children trended toward an increased preference for gardening, cooking and science, and teens displayed an increase in perceived health self-efficacy.
Keywords
- Food and Human Nutrition,
- self-efficacy,
- vegetables
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
DOI
10.3733/ca.2018a0016
Publisher Statement
This article was published in California Agriculture, University of California, volume 72, number 2, pages 135-143. ©2018 The Regents of the University of California. The article can also be found online at this link.
Material published in California Agriculture, excluding photographs, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/#).
Citation Information
Virginia L.J. Bolshakova, John Gieng and C. Sheena Sidhu. "Teens-as-teachers nutrition program increases interest in science among schoolchildren and fosters self-efficacy in teens" California Agriculture Vol. 72 Iss. 2 (2018) p. 135 - 143 ISSN: 0008-0845 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/john-gieng/7/
Creative Commons license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-ND International License.