PORTLAND, Ore. — The garden beds were ready, the students signed up, and the teachers on board.
Growing Healthy Kids, a garden-themed nutrition education curriculum developed by Oregon State University for second and third graders, was set to launch in spring 2020.
But when Oregon public schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was canceled.
Growing Healthy Kids is an evidence-based curriculum offered through Oregon SNAP-Ed, the nutrition education arm of OSU Extension.
“It was really disappointing,” said Rebecca Marson, a nutrition educator with the Oregon State University Extension Service in the Portland area. “We were excited and ready to go, but schools closed before we could even begin.”
Growing Healthy Kids is an evidence-based curriculum offered through Oregon SNAP-Ed, the nutrition education arm of OSU Extension. In 2020, a SNAP-Ed workgroup began adapting the curriculum for remote delivery.
“We were really motivated to figure out how we could continue our partnership with schools,” Marson said.
The result: Growing Healthy Kids returned in spring 2021 in a remote format.
Delivering garden-based learning
The adapted program included weekly video lessons, released each Thursday through May 13, 2021. Each eight- to ten-minute video introduced basic plant parts and encouraged students to explore fruits and vegetables using their senses. The videos complemented the Oregon Department of Education’s Oregon Harvest for Schools series.
To replace the hands-on gardening experience lost in the remote model, educators encouraged participation in OSU Extension’s Grow This! Oregon Garden Challenge, part of the Food Hero campaign. All materials were also made available in Spanish.
The new delivery model allowed for flexibility. In remote classrooms, SNAP-Ed educators shared links with teachers, who assigned lessons and activities through online learning platforms. In hybrid models, teachers could watch video lessons with students in class, then assign follow-up activities to complete at home.
“It’s really up to the classroom teacher to decide the best model of delivery,” Marson said. “Some teachers are juggling classrooms where half of the students are still at home.”
The program was also made available for caregivers in Oregon and beyond to use at home.
Resources and impact
All lesson materials were organized into individual Google Sites pages. Each page directed students to:
- Watch a video lesson
- Accept or report on assigned “missions”
- Learn about a featured Oregon-grown food through Oregon Harvest for Schools
- Explore additional garden-themed resources and activities
“It’s safe to say we don’t know how long we’ll be delivering the curriculum this way,” Marson said. “We’re collecting feedback from teachers on how they used the material and how students engaged. That will help us adapt other SNAP-Ed curricula for remote and hybrid use.”
Growing Healthy Kids has demonstrated its effectiveness. A 2016 outcome evaluation with third-grade students in Central Oregon showed that students who received the full curriculum increased both their fruit and vegetable consumption and their reported preference for garden vegetables — significantly more than those who received only food-tasting lessons.
Previously titled Growing Healthy Kids, featuring video lessons, returns for spring
