Husky Byte is a 3 credit service learning course for upper level undergraduate students, run in collaboration with a large USDA-funded research project. The main emphasis of the course is on a community experience involving interaction with parents of preschoolers at day care sites. Students, in pairs or trios, present brief healthy nutrition messages to parents twice per week. The entire curriculum has been previously developed and tested. It includes a display board, hand-outs, and a brief interactive game. Students can choose to participate in the experiential (or lab) portion of the class on Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. The preschool sites are located in urban areas and transportation is provided.
On Friday of each week students gather for a one hour discussion class. As a group, we review the experiences of the prior week, the nutrition messages and how they are relevant to the parents, and influences on health status as related to culture and urban, low-income families. The readings for each week are primarily from local papers, to emphasize the current influences on the families students are working with.
Students have 4 assignments due on Fridays:
- to identify the readings one week and lead the discussion,
- an ethnic recipe assignment,
- an urban market survey/project in conjunction with the Healthy Market program, and
- a guided series of reflection papers.
In addition to the experience of working with parents, students gain familiarity with the implementation and organization of a large research project. The project is examining the influence of the outreach education on the dietary patterns of the preschoolers.
For more information, you may contact the program coordinator, Michelle Pierce, Ph.D., R.D. at mpierce@uchc.edu. |
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