Study Shows Combining Interactive
Game and Classroom Instruction Builds Good Nutrition Skills
Are children more likely to internalize, retain and use information that is
presented in a compelling, interactive game-like environment?
Since the fall of 1999, Health Media Lab, the developer of Hungry Red Planet™
has used quantitative research to test and validate the effect of the program
on the nutrition knowledge, skills and behavior of schoolchildren.
In early 2002, Health Media Lab collaborated with Wirthlin Worldwide, a strategic
opinion research and consulting firm, to study how classroom lectures on nutrition
and the interactive game Hungry Red Planet influenced the nutrition skills, knowledge
and behavior of 190 schoolchildren. The study was funded by a research grant from
the National Institutes for Health.
The project divided the children, aged 10-15, into four groups:
- Lecture only. Children participated in a 90-minute teacher-led
classroom style lecture on nutrition.
- Computer only. Children used the interactive program Hungry
Red Planet for 90 minutes with minimal instruction and limited supervision.
- Computer and Lecture. Children participated in a 90-minute
teacher-led instructional activity that included the Hungry Red Planet curriculum,
lectures and use of the interactive program.
- Control Group. Children were not exposed to any lecture on
nutrition or interactivity with Hungry Red Planet.
The children completed a written survey prior to participating in one of these
groups, and then responded to the same survey by phone three weeks following the
intervention.
The survey included three types of questions: knowledge of nutrition, skill
level with regard to making choices about nutrition, and eating behaviors. Other
questions collected demographic information on the participants.
Because of the relatively small sample sizes in this study, many of the results
were not statistically significant at a 90 percent confidence level. However,
the group that received a combination of computer exposure and teacher instruction
showed a significant, positive change in survey responses on several items. For
example, the computer and lecture group participants reported a significant improvement
in their eating habits, use of nutrition information and the nutrition pyramid,
compared with the group that received a classroom lecture only.
The results also underscored the importance of teacher involvement in a nutrition
education initiative. Both the Lecture Only and Computer and Lecture groups showed
a significant difference in their nutrition knowledge and behaviors compared with
the group of students who used the computer program with little teacher involvement.
Additionally, virtually the entire sample group reported considerable enthusiasm
about the educational software program Hungry Red Planet, were very engaged with
the program and required very little instruction.
The results of the study were presented an the Annual Conference of the American
Association for Public Opinion Research, in St. Petersburg, Florida, in May 2002,
and at the American Public Health Association’s 130th Annual Meeting and
Exposition in Philadelphia in November 2002.
Dr. Michael Anderson, President of Health Media Lab and Principal Investigator
of the NIH research, noted that the study is the first stage of more comprehensive,
in-classroom research that his organization is conducting during the fall of 2002.
“The results of this study clearly indicate the importance of maintaining
a live instructor and classroom activities in addition to an interactive educational
product like Hungry Red Planet,” he said. “While the sample size in
this study was small, we see consistency with our other research to date that
an informative and interactive program, combined with a well-organized classroom
curriculum, is the most powerful combination for reaching kids and improving life
habits like nutrition.”
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