P95 (continued)

S124 Poster Abstracts Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior � Volume 42, Number 4S, 2010

community center, supermarket tours for special diets, anddelivering after-school programs.Evaluation: The Schwarzer’s General Self-Efficacy Scalewas administered to assess self-efficacy.Conclusions and Implications: Preliminary results in-dicated that some areas of self-efficacy, such as ability toattain goals, problem solving, and coping skills, were pos-itively affected by the new community nutrition educa-tional experiences, whereas other areas were not.Perceived self-efficacy encourages goal setting, effort in-vestment, persistence in the face of barriers, and recoveryfrom setbacks. Instructors must have an understanding ofdietetics students’ influencers of self-efficacy in designingcurricula.

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P96 Teaching and Learning With Fresh, LocalProduce: From University Farm to KidsHeidi Wengreen, RD, PhD, heidi.wengreen@usu.edu;Tamara Vitale, RD, MS, tamara.vitale@usu.edu, Utah StateUniversity; Stacy Bevan, RD, stacy.lyn.bevan@aggiemail.usu.edu, Utah State University, Utah State University, 750North 1200 East, Logan, UT 84322-8700

Objective: Dietetics students provided sensory-basedlearning experiences for elementary-aged children thatdemonstrated connections between growing and consum-ing vegetables.Use of Theory or Research: Social cognitive theorystates that knowledge acquisition and behavior changecan be directly related to observing others within the con-text of social interactions and experiences. This programutilized principles of social cognitive theory and providedsensory-based learning experiences designed to encouragevegetable consumption to children in large groups at a col-lege student–run organic farm.Target Audience: The target audience was second andfifth graders attending a Title I public elementary schoolin northern Utah during fall 2009.Description: Approximately 150 second and fifth graderstraveled to the Utah State University (USU) student organicfarm. USU dietetics students developed and led activities atlearning stations that included plant identification andgrowth habits, hoop houses, composting, harvesting, andvegetable preparation and tasting.Evaluation: On a pre-field-trip survey, 54% of studentsstated that they ate a vegetable during the field trip experi-ence that they had not eaten before; 25% said they triedsomething they did not think they would like but did.More students answered a question on composting cor-rectly after the field trip compared with before the fieldtrip (43% vs 90%).Conclusions and Implications: Elementary studentswere willing to try vegetables they had not eaten beforeand increased knowledge about basic farming techniques.Dietetics students gained basic farming and food prepara-tion skills and competence in promoting vegetable con-sumption by using interactive teaching methods. This

project is funded by a Carol M. White PE grant awardedto the Cache County School District, USU AgricultureExperiment Station.

P97 Vegetable Exposure and Education:Impact on Vegetable Consumption inPreschool-age ChildrenMichelle King, MS, RD, kingfamily04@msn.com;Heidi Wengreen, PhD, RD, heidi.wengreen@usu.edu;Tamara Vitale, MS, RD, tamara.vitale@usu.edu;Janet Anderson, MS, RD, janet.anderson@usu.edu, UtahState University, 750 North 1200 East, Logan, UT 84322-8700

Objective: This study assessed the effectiveness of school-based interventions to increase the intake of a previouslynovel target vegetable (jicama) among preschool-age chil-dren.Design, Setting and Participants: Fifty-two childrenaged 3 to 5 years and attending 2 privately ownedpreschools were randomly assigned to a control group (n ¼12) or one of 3 intervention groups: education (n¼ 9), expo-sure (n¼ 21), or education and exposure (n¼ 10). Interven-tions were conducted at the preschools during designatedclass and snack times.Intervention: The education intervention includedthree 15-minute sensory-based lessons about jicama. Theexposure intervention included opportunities to tastejicama every school day for 4 weeks. The education andexposure intervention included both the 15-minutelessons and the repeated tasting exposures.Outcome Measures and Analysis: A vegetable snackthat included jicama was provided to students during a des-ignated snack time pre- and postintervention, and theamount of jicama consumed was recorded. t Tests wereused to determine whether there was a significant changein the average amount of jicama consumed pre- and post-intervention.Results: The average amount of jicama consumed at thepreintervention assessment was 0.81 pieces. Average ji-cama intake was greater at the postintervention assess-ment than it was at the preintervention assessment (þ1.1pieces) among children in all intervention groups (P ¼.002). No similar increase in jicama intake was observedamong children in the control group (P ¼ .77).Conclusions and Implications: Sensory-based nutri-tion education and exposure may be an effective interven-tion aimed at increasing preschool-age children’s intake ofhealthy foods. This project is funded by the USU Agricul-ture Experiment Station.

P98 Process Evaluation of School-age ProgramDelivery for Pennsylvania SupplementalNutrition Assistance Program Education(SNAP-Ed)Judy Gromis, MS, RD, jcg11@psu.edu; Mary Montminy, BS,mem52@psu.edu; Christine Least, MS, RD, cml275@psu.