Cool Science
A few years ago my awesome, but small high school cut it's Science Fair budget. This was a big disappointment since it had been one of my favorite annual events.
As a scheme to have more “play dates,” my best friend and I started our own after-school science fair projects at home. This “Playdate Con” soon became the big bang of my “ Food and Society” interest.
At that time, our school cafeteria was plastered with “MyPlate.gov”posters. These posters told kids where apples, kale, meat blobs, and donuts fit on their plates, but not where their pizza, tacos, Jell-O, or stir-fry fit in a person’s diet. If the advice were simpler – like “Put all fruits and veggies on one side of the plate – kids would be more likely to follow it. Research Time!
I wrote up a survey, and I asked 50 kids to use the MyPlate.gov when eating at home and 50 to use this Half-Plate rule-of-thumb. Not only did kids understand and remember this Half-Plate rule, but they also ate slightly better. I wrote what I thought was a great report and sent it to a health journal #1 where it was rejected, then to #2 where it was rejected, then #3, #4, and so on until I lost count. Each time I’d make changes, get help when I needed it, and send it to another journal so they could kick it around, call it names, and reject it.
This ended up opening up a new world to me. My first project looked at all of the MyPlate.gov signs in my lunch room and looked at whether they helped kids eat better, or whether there might be an easier way (like using a Half Plate rule of Thumb. My second data-related project was working with Cornell's Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research.
The Plant Science project is not published, but the Half Plate project was published in a medical journal in May 2022 (Curious). After that I was asked to present it at the Second Global Healthcare and Nutrition Conference in Paris in November 2022. I've included both presentations.
As a scheme to have more “play dates,” my best friend and I started our own after-school science fair projects at home. This “Playdate Con” soon became the big bang of my “ Food and Society” interest.
At that time, our school cafeteria was plastered with “MyPlate.gov”posters. These posters told kids where apples, kale, meat blobs, and donuts fit on their plates, but not where their pizza, tacos, Jell-O, or stir-fry fit in a person’s diet. If the advice were simpler – like “Put all fruits and veggies on one side of the plate – kids would be more likely to follow it. Research Time!
I wrote up a survey, and I asked 50 kids to use the MyPlate.gov when eating at home and 50 to use this Half-Plate rule-of-thumb. Not only did kids understand and remember this Half-Plate rule, but they also ate slightly better. I wrote what I thought was a great report and sent it to a health journal #1 where it was rejected, then to #2 where it was rejected, then #3, #4, and so on until I lost count. Each time I’d make changes, get help when I needed it, and send it to another journal so they could kick it around, call it names, and reject it.
This ended up opening up a new world to me. My first project looked at all of the MyPlate.gov signs in my lunch room and looked at whether they helped kids eat better, or whether there might be an easier way (like using a Half Plate rule of Thumb. My second data-related project was working with Cornell's Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research.
The Plant Science project is not published, but the Half Plate project was published in a medical journal in May 2022 (Curious). After that I was asked to present it at the Second Global Healthcare and Nutrition Conference in Paris in November 2022. I've included both presentations.
My Plate, Half Plate, and No Plate:
How Visual Plate-Related Dietary Benchmarks Influence What Food People Serve
Presented at the Global Healthcare and Nutrition Conference -- Paris, France 11-17-22
| |||||
| Half Plate & MyPlate peer-reviewed journal article 2022 |
| MyPlate.gov vs. Half Plate Presentation 11-17-22 |
Why is it Important to Study Small Molecule (drug) Protein Binders?
Presented at the Global Healthcare and Nutrition Conference -- Paris, France 11-17-22
|
|
