Abstract:
Discover MyPlate, a nutrition education curriculum for kindergarten students, was
published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in June 2014. This study
measured the impact of five 30-minute nutrition education lessons from Discover MyPlate on
the nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and healthy eating behaviors of kindergarten students in a
rural, Midwestern school district. Students were given a pre-assessment survey that measured
specific constructs from Discover MyPlate. The lessons were taught in two of four kindergarten
classes (treatment group); the remaining two classes served as the control group. After the
intervention, all kindergarten students were given the post-assessment and their parents were
asked to complete a survey to measure perceived changes in their child’s eating patterns in the
previous month. Results indicated treatment group students were significantly more likely to
acknowledge what is a food group (p<0.001), state the number of food groups (p<0.001), give
the names of each food group (p<0.001), identify the MyPlate logo (p<0.001), and assign foods
to their corresponding food group (p<0.001). No significant differences were noted between the
control and treatment groups regarding the parents’ observations of any changes in their child’s
eating behaviors. Overall, Discover MyPlate was effective for teaching children about healthy
eating, but, no evidence was obtained to indicate eating behaviors were immediately affected.
