The project "KickinKitchen.TV" - An interactive digital learning technology program.

The "KickinKitchen.TV" project combines: technology, education and research strategies to address the USDA challenge area of improving nutritional health and reducing childhood obesity. This study involves the following partners: racially diverse, urban public schools, KidsCOOK Productions, an independent production company committed to addressing childhood obesity risk through its digital educational programming, and university researchers with expertise in school-based nutrition research. We will create and test an innovative, digital and video streaming nutrition education curriculum called, "KickinKitchen.TV." KickinKitchen.TV will consist of digital webisodes that will be used to teach nutrition concepts and food preparation skills to pre-teens, along with companion lesson plans that extend learning through hands-on activities in the classroom. Our curriculum will be based on the principles of the USDA Dietary Guidelines and will be tested in public middle schools, integrated into an existing physical activity curriculum serving middle school students. Selected schools will receive the digital curriculum; comparison schools will receive a traditional curriculum of identical content but lacking digital media. We will assess the feasibility of the digital curriculum using focus groups and qualitative research methods, and program effectiveness using surveys, pre- and post-tests of nutrition knowledge, eating competence, and intention to change food-related behaviors. Our hypothesis that these outcomes will increase to a greater extent among students exposed to KickinKitchen.TV compared to those in comparison schools. This project supports a premise that digital-age kids who are facile users of technology will acquire and retain a higher level of nutritional literacy when interacting with digital educational content versus interacting with "flat" traditional curricula that do not use digital technology for teaching. Our research plan will demonstrate proof of concept for a marketable program that has nationwide dissemination potential given its use of engaging technology that will appeal to teachers and students.