Progress 07/15/11 to 03/14/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: KidsCook Productions created, tested and launched "KickinKitchen.TV" - an innovative multimedia digital nutrition education program that consists of a series of digital webisodes and online content that teaches nutrition/wellness concepts and food preparation skills to pre-teens (ages 8-12), along with companion lesson plans that extend the learning through hands-on activities and healthy challenges in a classroom or group setting. The products that were output include: 6 educational, musical comedy webisodes and 5 cooking episodes were filmed, edited and uploaded to the website [http://kickinkitchen.tv/]; and 3 of the webisodes were evaluated using a quasi-experimental study design to demonstrate proof of concept for a marketable component product item. The KKTV nutrition education program was delivered to students in the Cambridge Public School District (CPSD) in ten specific classrooms and within five schools; implementing the program to students in grades 4 and 5, reaching approximately 160. The findings from our Phase I research provides overwhelming evidence of feasibility, substantial evidence of program impact, insights to guide ongoing curriculum development and webisode development and, ample rationale for ongoing work to commercialize KickinKitchen.TV. As part of on-going relationship building with NGOs focused on obesity prevention and nutrition/wellness education, KCP also met with afterschool organizations, such as: the Boys & Girls Club of MA and local YMCAs to discuss use of KKTV in afterschool programs. KCP continues to build on-going partnerships with other non-profits focused on child nutrition, including Share Our Strength, The American Heart Association, Michelle Obama's "Let's Move," GenYouth Foundation, the NFL's "Fuel Up To Play60," Girlshealth.gov, Common Sense, President Clinton's Alliance for a Healthier Generation and community farmers market organizations. In addition to research conducted, the KickinKitchen.TV website was launched nationally in January 2012 and through a partnership with the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, KKTV episodes are currently airing on NYC Life (Channel 25) reaching 1.5 million people and in 13,000 NYC taxi cabs. In addition KickinKitchen.TV was screened in New York at the Kids Food Festival in January 2012. KCP attended the Digital Kids Conference in CA. KCP also created a sophisticated web platform that is available to the public via the Internet and created two fully integrated interactive campaigns and contests with NFL superstar, Greg Jennings of the Greg Bay Packers and celebrity Chef Daniel Boulud that promote healthy choice and active lifestyles. Commercial partnerships and multi-media campaigns already implemented in 2011 and 2012 are reflective of the marketing strategies that will be further developed and implemented by KCP in Phases II and III to promote product sales and generate revenues as part of commercializing the KickinKitchen.TV brand. PARTICIPANTS: KidsCOOK Productions Key Personnel included one PD and one PI: Natasha Lance Rogoff and Dr. Paula Quatromoni the PI serving as the Researcher/Evaluator in the capacity as a subcontractor. PD: Ms Rogoff committed herself 100% to the project @ 60+ hours per week, serving as Executive Producer, Project Manager and Director of the multimedia TV and web property, KickinKitchen.TV. Ms. Rogoff served as primary manager for an office staff of 3 and over 40 individual production team members engaged in scriptwriting, music composition, set design, curriculum content development for the web, as well as directing actors in order to create the video and web content that is currently airing on TV and also streaming online. Ms. Rogoff also developed corporate, NGO and broadcast partnerships in order to further commercialization of KickinKitchen.TV. PI: Paula Quatromoni, DSc, RD, served as the PI of the BU subcontract. Dr. Quatromoni devoted 35% FTE to this project during the summer months (June-Aug 2011) and 15% FTE during the academic year (May 2011 and Sept-Dec 2011). She was responsible for developing the nutrition education curriculum materials for use in the classroom and for directing the program evaluation research component. Dr. Quatromoni also developed collaborative relationships with public schools in the greater Boston area where the KickinKitchen.TV research took place. Under PI management, a Statistical Analyst was hired to perform the analytical work on this project to work at 30% FTE during the final two months of the funding period (Nov-Dec 2011). In addition, a Graduate Research Assistant (RA) served as the liaison with our partnering schools. KidsCOOK Productions office personnel include the following key staff: Natasha Miller, Director of Communications in charge of partner and collaborative relationships who worked 30 hours per week, Kristelle Lavallee, Educational Content Developer who worked 15 hours per week and Tara Greco, Director of Business Relations who worked 25 hours per week. KidsCOOK Productions developed collaborative relationships with the following organizations: AOL's Huffington Post Media Group and Arianna Huffington. In January 2012 KCP signed a licensing agreement for the broadcast episodes of KickinKitchen.TV on NYC life (Channel 25), the flagship station of the official network of the City of New York that reaches 28 million homes and streams in 13,000 NYC taxicabs. KCP also developed a partnership with the City of Boston's health and educational organizations and with the Boston Public School System. KCP provided opportunities professional development for six graduate students. These individuals were included in meetings with the Boston Mayor's office, Cambridge Public School and NGO nutrition and wellness organizations. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for KidsCOOK Productions is children ages, 8-14. KickinKitchen.TV is unique compared to its competitors because it addresses the fact that the way in which children currently communicate, acquire knowledge and share information with their peers has changed dramatically in the past five years. The benefit of a digital technology-based curriculum is, as opposed to a traditional "flat" learning-based curriculum is that both in school and out of school, children are growing up with digital media as a pervasive part of their lives. Media use has increased significantly in the lives of adolescents and their parents, with the average youth now spending almost 8 hours a day interacting with media for informal purposes. In addition, media ownership has increased, even among the most disadvantaged subgroups of the population. These realities highlight the value of having a digital presence in schools and capitalizing on the potential to reach a young target audience using multi-media educational tools in the classroom. The problems of childhood obesity and poor diet have become leading public health concerns in the U.S., and pose significant economic, health and social costs to our target audience. Since 1980, the percentage of children who are overweight has more than doubled, while rates among adolescents have more than tripled. In 2002, 16 percent of 6-19- year-olds were overweight. Rates of overweight were higher among Mexican American boys (25.5%), non-Hispanic black girls (23.2%) and American Indian youths. Non-Hispanic white adolescents from lower-income families are more likely to be overweight than their counterparts from higher income families. In recent years, several weight-related conditions that were observed KidsCOOK Productions, primarily among adults have been increasingly diagnosed in young people (5,6). For example, 10 years ago type 2 diabetes was almost unknown among young people, but in some communities it now accounts for nearly 50 percent of new cases of diabetes among children or adolescents. An estimated 61% of overweight young people have at least one additional risk factor for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Childhood overweight is also associated with social and psychological problems, such as discrimination and poor self-esteem. Given that many overweight children will eventually suffer from diabetes, the future costs of weight-related health care could be staggering. New technology offers an exciting opportunity to address the escalating problem KickinKitchen.TV will capitalize on the interests of kids who enjoy the Food Network (30% of viewers are under age, watch videos and play games online (82% of kids), use social media (65% use social networks) and seek health solutions online (80% seek health info online). In addition, KCP is also is targeting the 49,000+ middle schools and teachers who need an engaging digital educational media program on nutrition and wellness. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Our Phase I initiative clearly demonstrated both the feasibility and effectiveness of KKTV as a vehicle for nutrition education in the classroom. KKTV fills a niche, addresses an unmet need, and is embraced by students and teachers alike. Several teachers and administrators told us that they would use KKTV in their wellness curriculum, confirming a place for digital resources in their program and acknowledging KKTV as a solution to many of the common obstacles that limit nutrition education efforts in school. KKTV has widespread dissemination potential. Our curriculum implementation took place in fall of 2011. Lessons were taught once a week over four consecutive weeks. Focus groups and qualitative surveys were implemented in close proximity to the completion of the classroom component of the project. Student surveys were finalized, comprising a baseline survey and a follow-up survey that assessed nutrition knowledge, readiness to change, and self-efficacy concerning diet-related behaviors. Demographic information was collected, and in digital classrooms, feedback on the KKTV show was collected in the follow-up survey. More in-depth feedback from students and teachers in the digital classrooms was obtained using focus group interviews and qualitative open-ended surveys. Discussion guides for the focus groups (separate versions for students and teachers) were developed and approved by the IRB. Informed consent for the student surveys was waived by the IRB, considered as an educational exemption. Outcomes/Impacts from Phase I Research: The findings from our Phase I research provide overwhelming evidence of feasibility, substantial evidence of program impact, tremendous insight to guide ongoing curriculum, website and webisode development, and ample rationale for our ongoing work as proposed in Phase II. Demographics: Students who participated in Phase I were 9-11 years old, comprising a mix of students in grades 4 and 5 in the Intervention (KKTV) classrooms; whereas all students in the three control classrooms were in Grade 4. This age range is consistent with our Phase I plan but slightly at the lower end of our target age range; it was a pure coincidence related to the specific teachers within the CPSD who were willing to partner with us in Phase I. Because of the younger age range in our study sample, we made one modification to our research plan which was to delete the Eating Competence assessment. When the younger age and the short duration of both our educational intervention and the average class period required us to shorten our student assessments, this was the candidate survey we chose to omit. Students in the KKTV classrooms answered at program completion. Students reported that KKTV empowered them to change some of their personal behaviors, most commonly to change what they eat for snack (34% of students), what they choose to drink (26%), what they order in a restaurant (24%), and what they eat at meals (23%). More than one-quarter of students (29%) reported that they made one or more of the KKTV recipes that were given out in class; with more 5th graders (32%) than 4th graders (26%) reporting that they tried a recipe at home.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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