My Amazing Body (MAB)–Evidence Based Summary

(Practice-tested)

Summary of Evaluation Methods

My Amazing Body (MAB) has 5 lessons: 1) Keeping My Amazing Body Healthy, 2) Feeding My Amazing Body, 3) Keeping My Amazing Body Active, 4) Keeping My Amazing Body Rested, 5) Keeping My Amazing Body Clean. Each lesson has a featured book, interactive activity that builds on the book reading, classroom enhancements, a tasting activity, a family flyer, and a recipe. MAB 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) and EFNEP’s Eat Well + Move student survey 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 Student items use a five-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree”; while teacher questions use a four-point Likert scale with response options for “A lot more often”, “Somewhat more often”, “About the same as before”, and “Not sure/unable to respond”. The self-administered, pre/post Eat Well + Move survey assesses students’ ability to correctly identify images of kids engaged in healthy behaviors, as well as healthy food/drinks. The survey includes six questions with four images per question targeting being active, healthy snacks, vegetables, fruits, and hand washing.

Evaluation Audience

Teacher evaluation data come from the 17 teachers who completed the retrospective. In total, 338 students from first to third grade were observed across seven counties (Fresno, Imperial, Placer, Santa Clara, Shasta, Tehama, and Trinity). Student evaluation data come from 161 matched pre and post Eat Well + Move student surveys collected from eight kindergarten to second grade classrooms in Santa Clara County.

Curriculum Audience

MAB is a nutrition curriculum that teaches students to learn about the amazing things their body can do and explore how they can keep their bodies healthy through eating nutrient-rich foods, getting plenty of exercise and sleep, and practicing good hygiene. It was designed for use with Kindergarten- through first-grade-aged students in the school settings. The MAB 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 MAB reported agreeing or strongly agreeing that compared to the beginning of the school year more students: can identify healthy food choices (94%), are willing to try new foods offered at school (100%), bring fruit and/or veggies as a snack (88%), choose fruits/veggies in the cafeteria or at class parties (71%), and wash hands before handling food (100%). 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. Student survey findings provide complementary evidence. Paired t-tests comparing the mean scores for correct responses on the Eat Well + Move survey showed significant improvements (p<.001) from pre to post in student’s ability to identify healthy snacks (3.22 to 3.58), dairy foods (1.98 to 2.93), fruits (3.36 to 3.64) vegetables (3.14 to 3.47), kids being active (3.24 to 3.59), and kids who need to wash their hands (2.16 to 2.78).

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.