Conference - Working in Partnerships
DR JANET REYNOLDS
Principal Education Officer
Education Queensland
Nutrition—The inside story is the name of the text published by the Home Economics Institute of Australia Inc. (HEIA). A second edition of the text has just been released, prompted by developments such as the Nutrient Reference Values, new research related to, for example, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and local and global commitments to sustainable food futures. However, once the review was under way it became clear that there was a need to re-examine most chapters. The main theme of this workshop will be to identify those chapters that have been heavily revised—for example, the chapters related to Nutrient Reference Values, Sustainable Food Futures, and nutrition-related diseases, and discuss these developments in the context of what that means for teaching high school students. Other major themes in the book will be identified and considered in the context of how these can be incorporated into school-based programs that adopt action-oriented empowerment approaches that are fundamental to students being motivated and empowered to adopt healthy eating behaviours and challenge societal influences that run counter to the premise that ‘healthy choices should be easy choices’.
Food Choices the IT Way is a curriculum resource designed to encourage students to use IT to make healthy food choices by quickly and accurately making in-depth dietary analyses. The resource comprises a nutritional analysis computer program, copies of the Student Workbook, and a Teacher’s Manual with 11 units of work and 49 supporting student resource sheets. It is suitable for use with students from Years 7 to 12 in those curriculum areas with a nutrition component, in particular Home Economics, Food & Nutrition, and Health . The workshop includes a demonstration of the software program and an introduction to the many ways that it can be used in the classroom. The resource is currently being updated with the release of the second edition due later in the year. As such the workshop will include a demonstration and discussion of the new features, including the Nutrient Reference Values now included in the resource, and the facility to search for foods rich (or low) in a particular nutrient. The Nutrition Panel Calculator, currently purchased as a separate resource will be built into the revised edition, and as such this will also be demonstrated. The workshop will also cover the transition of Food Choices becoming a web-based resource accessible by students from home. Delegates will have the opportunity for hands-on computer use of the software program.
Updated in May 2008
