Go Glow Grow (GGG)–Evidence Based Summary

(Practice-tested)

Summary of Evaluation Methods

Go Glow Grow (GGG) has six lessons, focused on: grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, and handwashing, as well as physical activity. Each lesson has a featured story booklet, interactive activities that build on the booklet, classroom enhancements, a tasting activity, a family newsletter, and a recipe. GGG was originally tested and refined with expert and practitioner input, as well as pilot tested in several “real world” program settings. As the curriculum was adopted by UC CalFresh and EFNEP county programs across the state, additional outcome evaluation data became available. This summary includes outcome evaluation data from UC CalFresh’s retrospective Teacher Observation Tool (TOT) collected during FFY 2015 (October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015).1 The TOT captures teachers’ assessment of changes in their students’ behavior (5 items) and their own behaviors and practices (5 items) related to healthy food choices, trying new foods, dairy foods, fruits and vegetables, physical activity, and hand washing.2

Evaluation Audience

Teacher evaluation data come from 52 teachers who completed the retrospective TOT survey. In total, 1,303 preschool students were observed across six counties (Alameda, Imperial, Placer, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, and Shasta).

Curriculum Audience

GGG is a nutrition and physical activity curriculum based on a simplified version of MyPlate, making connections between healthy foods and their effects on the body. It was designed for use with preschool-aged students in the early care and education and school settings. The GGG classroom lessons are available in English with take-home family materials available in both English and Spanish.

Summary of Evaluation Results TOT results indicated that the majority of teachers who delivered GGG reported agreeing or strongly agreeing that compared to the beginning of the school year more students: can identify healthy food choices (90%), are willing to try new foods offered at school (81%), bring fruit and/or veggies as a snack (54%), choose fruits/veggies in the cafeteria or at class parties (67%), and wash hands before handling food (96%). In addition, over two-thirds of teachers also perceived changes in their own behaviors and practices (i.e. offer healthy food choices, remind families to bring healthy snacks, encourage students to eat breakfast/be physically active, and make healthier personal food choices) when reflecting back to the beginning of the school year. Addition evidence for the effectiveness of GGG is available from an evaluation of the Child Wellness Program, a partnership between First 5 San Joaquin and University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) San Joaquin County. 3 Results from this report were not included here, because the study evaluated two curricula, a multi-component intervention approach, and a different setting.

References

1. Keihner, A. & Egelski, E. A Summary of the Evidence-Base for Five UC ANR Curricula Commonly Used by UC CalFresh: (1) Go, Glow, Grow, (2) Happy Healthy Me, (3) My Amazing Body, (4) Good for Me and You, and (5) It’s My Choice. Available online at: http://uccalfresh.org/curriculum/uc-calfresh-curriculum/sharon-junge-curricula-evidence-report-final-8-23.pdf

2. Kaiser, L., Schneider, C., Neelon, M., Ganthavorn, C., Roche, B., Mendoza, C., & Matthiessen, T. (2013). Evaluation of Nutrition Outcomes in Youth: Challenges and Opportunities. In Trejos-Casillo, E. (Ed.), Youth: Practices, Perspectives and Challenges (pp. 3-15). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

3. Harder+Company Community Research for First 5 San Joaquin. (2013). FFY12 UC CalFresh Final Report. Available upon request from the UC CalFresh State Office.