Elementary students in the Douglas County (CO) School District are not only eating their veggies but doing it with enthusiasm.
What?
That’s right, these youngsters are not only downing kid-suspicious items like broccoli but encouraging peers to do the same. The reason: competition.
The nutrition team at Douglas County Schools is using a software program to pit teams of kids against each other to see which can eat the most of the day’s selected vegetable. As students take and consume the vegetables, they score points for their team. These are displayed on big screens in real time for all to see. Hence the excitement. (See video)
“The students react really well to the technology,” says Nutrition Services Director Brent Craig. “It’s something they intuitively understand. When we put the proverbial carrot in front of these kids and create a positive, enjoyable experience, they have no inhibitions about eating healthy. What more can I ask for?”
“The goal is to build interactive technology that encourages better food choices and increases the consumption of healthy foods,” adds Mike Craig (no relation) director of business development for NutriSlice.
The product, currently used in 15 districts, contains other modules besides the compeition scoreboard that so jazzed the Douglas County kids. These include digital signage and educational videos that vividly show and describe different healthy foods, interactive polls that tabulate and post results in real time from texted responses and a platform to publish menus to different channels.
Mike Craig says the platform has also worked with older kids—including a pair of rival high schools who went against each other in a healthy eating contest that resulted in a 33-percent participation increase.
