For a 6-week Collaborative Study Project, my classmate and I chose to address the childhood obesity epidemic through an innovative approach to nutrition education. We successfully secured funding from RISD's Health and Wellness Fund by developing a comprehensive application, budget and timeline proposal, and project management guide with guidance from our advisor.
Recognizing gaps in the current nutrition education curriculum—such as insufficient content, lack of engagement for younger students, and its failure to promote lifelong healthy habits—we focused on creating an interactive and impactful solution to empower students with lasting knowledge.
Context
Class - Unfolding Nature and Form
September - December 2023
6 Weeks
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Skills
User Research, Product Fabrication, Pattern Creation, Sewing and Construction
Skills
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The U.S. nutrition education is outdated and influenced by food industry lobbying, offering only basic messages but lacking practical and sustainable guidance.
The traditional food pyramid has faced criticism for inaccurately depicting food groups, overemphasizing grains, and neglecting healthy fats and vegetables, influenced by grain and dairy producers. In 2011, MyPlate replaced it, offering a more balanced and proportionate approach to healthy meals.
Peer Research
We conducted peer research to gather insights on individuals' experiences with nutrition education, assessing its effectiveness and their suggestions for improvement.
Who?
24 college students from Brown and RISD Campuses.
How?
We distributed nutrition education surveys and used the feedback to guide our work.
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Key Insights
- Nutrition education needs to be made fun for students to properly engage.
- Nutrition education isn't taken seriously, and students slack off during class time.
- There’s a cultural disconnect between what was taught in school vs. at home.
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Educator Research
We conducted educator research to gather insights on teaching methods and challenges, helping us create resources that address gaps in nutrition education.
Who?
5 Elementary Educators from Powtomack Elementary School
How?
We distributed surveys with many questions about how nutrition education is taught currently.
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Key Insights
- Nutrition education is a supplemental class taught periodically throughout elementary school.
- There is a strict curriculum that educators can't deviate from.
- Educators prefer group and hand's on activities
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After our initial research, we compiled our main concerns that we want to address, along with the methods we will employ to use. They are as follows:
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Need for Fun
To enhance student engagement, we believe nutrition education should incorporate fun elements to enhance the learning process.
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Hands-on Learning
Noting that educators preferred hands-on learning, we made sure to incorporate it when designing the project.
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Cultural Disconnect
We found a gap between school teachings and home learning, highlighting the need for a more diverse nutrition curriculum.
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Habit Creation
We recognized a need for habit creation in nutrition education, helping students sustain healthy eating practices.
To apply for the RISD Health and Wellness Fund, we needed to create a project related anything health and wellness. Using Figjam for brainstorming, we explored various ideas before deciding on nutrition education. With a focus on engaging children, we chose to design a game format.
We utilized existing games as reference for game rules and interactions. By utilizing simple game mechanics that children are already used to, we can ensure that the games will be easy to learn and play.
Persona Palooza
- Individual game boards to keep track of
- Pieces added/branched off of pre-existing ones
Shop 'n Swap
- Use of “judge” player
- Utilization of a debate aspect in order to promote better understanding of knowledge
Food Frenzy
- Advantageous and disadvantageous cards
- Game board to keep track of placement
- Use of money to “Buy” foods
- Familiar game mechanisms
Mix 'n Match
- Timed element
- Multiple ways to play the simple game
- Recognizable and existing format
- Tests user knowledge and critical thinking
We made our own modifications to make the games kid-friendly and nutrition themed. By testing the game mechanics in low-fidelity prototypes, we were able to work out some issues players had in understanding the game.
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Similar to Monopoly, Food Frenzy is an adaptable and customizable game where players fill their different grocery cart cards with various foods to win.
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Persona Palooza allows players to learn many different diets and lifestyles and create diets for various personas.
Moderated by teachers, Shop n' Swap allows players to substitute foods in a set "meal" and choose healthy alternatives to replace unhealthy options.
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Based on the existing matching game, Mix n' Match tests players' critical thinking skills to match nutrition labels to their designated foods.
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In collaboration of the Providence Public Library
A group of 15 children aged 5-14 played all 4 games loosely facilitated by us as moderators.
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Questioning the students about their knowledge of nutrition.
Key Insights
- Understanding of game-play relied on some knowledge of existing games we based them on
- Rules are very flexible, we had to adjust many times during testing to account for problems and players’ understanding
- Each game had different difficulty levels so some were better for older children and some were better suited for younger children
- Moderation was loose, so some children decided to make their own rules to foster friendly competition
- The kids were much smarter than we thought they would be, but not too knowledgeable of nutrition
Problem 1
For the game Mix n’ Match, the main identifier of nutrition matching is the ingredients instead of major nutrients. This way, the players weren't able to properly engage and learn how to read nutrition labels.
Potential Solution
Put more basic ingredients as to not give the card matches away or add a timed element. When conducting user testing, we timed rounds and decreased times as the rounds went on, this was successful in making the game harder, but did not make the information more engaging.
Problem 2
Unconscious Bias: While we tried to be conscious of many cultures, there is still an overcompensation of American and East Asian foods in our games.
Potential Solution
Expansion packs that individuals or schools can purchase to cater to certain demographics or groups. Different cultures, diets, and restrictions can be included to diversify nutritional learning.
Problem 3
For the game Persona Palooza, it was difficult for players to keep track of game tiles and meal set for personas.
Potential Solution
Originally, user testing only had the hexagonal game tiles, but finding it was too hard to keep track of meals plans, we made meal plan cards for players to better organize their food pieces.
How it will be used
Intended for use in elementary school classrooms that already teach the standardized nutrition curriculum
-Purchased by school, facilitated by teacher
Alternative uses
- Purchased by parents for play at home
Modularity within game-play
- Multiple ways to play each game that increases in difficulty
- Expansion packs to diversify foods and diets and to keep the game refreshing to play
Games align with USDA MyPlate and Harvard Healthy Eating Plate
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User Testing is KEY
Direct feedback from the kids really helped us identify what they enjoyed and what could be improved.
Incorporating Fun
We found that incorporating humor and playful themes increased motivation and excitement, making the experience more enjoyable.
Simplicity Matters
We learned that simpler mechanics and clear instructions were essential for the kids' understanding of the gameplay.
