Lessons on healthy eating and nutrition are nothing new for school students. Every year, health and physical education teachers provided much-needed reminders and new facts about how certain foods affect the body.
Northeast Elementary School took that lesson a step further on May 5, as it presented its students with the Body Venture exhibit, a program with 11 stations that each represents a different body system. The students represent a certain food item as they make their way through the exhibit.
“The ‘foods’ step into the mouth and are swallowed through the esophagus tunnel and move into the stomach,” said health teacher Judy Bache. “From there, they travel to the small intestine where they become nutrients, then are absorbed into the blood. They then follow the path of the nutrients to the heart, lungs, bones, muscles and skin stations.
“Students leave the body through a cut in the skin and proceed through the Power Panther’s Pathway to Life where the presenter recaps key health concepts from each of the ten previous stations,” Bache said.
The purpose of the program, Bache said, is to give students a close, first-hand look at how the body processes certain foods and how some unhealthy choices could lead to future health problems.
“Lifestyle choices made at early ages have a direct impact on a person’s health in adulthood,” she said. “Students need to learn about making healthy lifestyle choices and to avoid behaviors that have an adverse impact on adult health. Healthy eating and physical activity are important life skills that help children grow and prevent them from developing health problems, such as obesity, later in life.
“Obesity in youth often carries over into adulthood contributing to the development of many chronic diseases including heart disease and diabetes. Teachers need additional resources to increase nutrition knowledge and improve eating skills of elementary school children.”
Body Venture was formally known as the Body Walk. Bache said the program was created to address some alarming trends regarding children’s eating habits. Those trends include:
·Only 2 percent meet all recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid.
·16 percent don’t meet any of the recommendations.
·Less than 15 percent of school children eat the recommended servings of fruits, and less than 20 percent eat the recommended servings of vegetables.
·Approximately 25 percent eat the recommended serving of grains, while 30 percent consume the recommended milk group servings and about 67 percent of children eat more fat than is recommended.
Several Northeast officials played key roles in the Body Venture program, Bache said.
“Northeast would not be able to present this exhibit without the generosity of the Kansas Department of Education, Marilyn Neil, food service director who provided snacks for the students and water for the presenters; Joe Williford, maintenance, for his efforts in recruiting volunteers for set up and take down; Susan Cole and her wonderful child development class who presented the different body system stations, and all of the volunteers who participated in the event in any manner,” she said.
