Body weight as a health index: A minicourse in nutrition

Summary A high school minicourse entitled “Body Weight as a Health Index,” developed at M.I.T., demonstrates how the science of nutrition can be taught in an interesting, interdisciplinary manner by teaching the principles of energy metabolism as they relate to the daily experiences of each student. The minicourse materials comprise a Student's Guide and a Teacher's Guide. The Student's Guide includes: a pre-post test, simple laboratory experiments, “take home” projects and a reading assignment. The Teacher's Guide contains: course objectives, outlines for lectures and discussions, and selected reading matter. The feasibility of teaching the minicourse in the regular high school classroom was demonstrated by: successive teaching trials of the minicourse at five high schools in the Boston area; formative evaluation of the learning outcomes; evaluation of students' and teachers' attitudes; and classroom observations. The following is a summary account of the rationale, objectives, concepts and content of one of a series of minicourses on nutrition designed for use in an average U.S. high school. The 20-hour minicourse was developed at the Education Research Center in collaboration with the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Energy metabolism and its health consequences is the subject of the minicourse. An account of another minicourse was previously published in this Journal (1).