Service Learning

I worked with BCLC Beverly Children Learning Center. They are currently in the process of creating a more nutritional program.

This picture is all about what you put into your body and how it should balance you out. This was the ultimate goal of the nutritional talks. They were hoping to create a healthier meal plan for the students in hope of promoting a healthier environment.

Healthy Choices

I really enjoyed working with this group. Nutrition is a huge part of becoming a healthy adult and it is important that young people are offered the change to be knowledgeable about their own health. It is important that students are provided with snacks that are healthy and appropriate for growing children. BCLC does a wonderful job in providing food that satisfies all needs.

I would love to work on a program that is int eh process of revamping their meal plan. It was interesting to see the different ideas and insights on what foods and snacks are healthy and appropriate for children to be eating. I would love to be involved more activity with plans for nutrition and creating a healthier America. I fell this is a step in the right direction for changing the obesity epidemic.

As a future teacher I would love the possibly of having a class create and do their own service learning project. It really allows the students to be involved int heir community and see what is happening outside their school lives. I think this is an excellent idea to get kids involved.

Positive Role Models

Healthy nutrition comes from setting good examples. Many children lack the parental supervision and guidance at home. The children who lack this guidance not only suffer academically and mentally but physically as well. Students who do not have appropriate care at home are often at risk for eating unhealthy meals and snacks.These unhealthy meals and snacks could be lack of parental understanding of nutritious meals, lack of money, or lack of overall care for the child's well being. It is important that the child has a positive role model in his or her life in order to ensure she is getting the best possible life.

(http://www.alamogordolive.net/files/tiny_mce/image_manager/organizations/brother_sister-logo.jpg)

Big Brother Big Sister is a program designed to give needy kids a mentor. These kids deserve a mentor to look up to and take guidance from. These mentors help the students to grow and become beneficial members of society. Students are assigned a big brother or sister that is compatible with his her personality. After the child has been assigned the mentor and his or her little brother or sister meet once a month to do fun activities or just to see each other and talk. This is an extremely positive volunteer organization that helps the youth of America to grow up healthy, educated, strong, and with feelings of love and support. These mentors can proved a positive role model in nutrition and help the children to make positive life decisions.

I recently contacted this organization and inquired about becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister. The program is very selective and ensure that the matches are good ones. Each person has a trial period and the volunteer must ensure they will volunteer at least one year to the organization. The commitment is important because the children depend on their volunteer every month.

I am very interested in this organization and plan on becoming a Big Sister in the near future. I think this institution provides a great community for kids who are less fortunate and need a positive influence in their lives.

Please Visit the site and see if it would be something you would be into. The volunteering can be directed to all levels of commitment.


Big Brother Big Sister

Childhood Obesity Statistics

The critical attributes are significant characteristics of a certain topics these are the parts of a topic that are most important to acknowledge.

The critical attributes of childhood health in the US are:

·       - 52.5% of the US population was classified as overweight or obese.

·       - 25% of boys and 23.3% of girls in the US were either overweight or obese.

·       -Childhood obesity is a serious concern because obese children have a greatly increased likelihood of becoming obese adults.

·       -Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years

·       -The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%.

·       -Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem

Informational knowledge is the statistics that goes along with the statements about obesity and seeing and processing the information.

Procedural knowledge is seeing the evidence in public as well as being able to tell if you or your child is obese. A person could find out if they or someone the know is obese by using the BMI (the body mass index)

I would teach this by allowing everyone to figure out his or her own BMI secretly and figuring out for themselves how they compare to the statistics. After I would have maps and graphs showing the growth in obesity and the poor health effects obesity has on humans. Lastly, at the end of the lesson I would provide helpful tools for creating a healthier environment.

Processed Food Connected to Lower IQ in Developing Children

A study was done with children between ages 3 and 8 in order to determine if lower IQ could be linked to the nutritional value in food they are consuming. It was reported that children who ate a substantially less nutritious meal would have a slightly lower IQ by age 8. The findings also go the other way too, children who received very nutritious meals starting at three years age had a slightly higher IQ. The tests were based on in depth parental questioners in order to connect IQ. The tests haven't scientifically proved that children with lower IQ's didn't have a nutritious first years of life, it is simply speculation. The doctors researching this topic still insist that a healthy brain is caused by healthy food, healthy amounts of exercise, and reading to your child as he or she develops. 


I personally think that this study should be evaluated and taken into consideration. If scientists could definitely prove that processed food was hurting the minds of our youngest individuals maybe someone would create a strict regulation for monitoring foods in elementary cafeterias. Processed and unhealthy foods are not only hurting individual physical body health it is now being linked to mental health as well. I think it is extremely important to step back and look at what we are feeding todays youth and reevaluate what they are consuming. Abstaining from high amounts of processed foods will proved to ensure a healthier physical and mental body.

CNN Links Food to IQ

First post

Hi everyone! My name is Noelle and I am a block student in the social studies course. My topic of interest is the obesity epidemic in the United States as well as healthy nutrition and exercise tips.
My first topic of discussion is involving the unhealthy choices within each school system. Every day children are given choices at lunch and snack time on what to eat. In many schools today their are snack and soda machines where children have the opportunity to make unhealthy snack choices. It is up to the schools to take initiative and make it impossible for students to make unhealthy choice at lunch and help to promote a healthier lifestyle while they are at school. Hopefully these new eating habits would help them become more health conscious youth.


Food in the school systems