Earlier this year, students at Driftwood Middle School, a magnet academy of health and wellness in Hollywood, labored to breathe through straws, giggled through the ick-factor of molasses standing in as a disgusting example of tobacco residue in the lungs and were repulsed by “Mr. Gross Mouth,” a model of a smoker’s cancerous mouth.It was all part of the Growing Healthy Kids program at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. On this particular day, the session was part of Health Rocks!®, a curricula developed by the 4-H organization targeting young people ages 8 to 14 with hands-on activities to teach the health risks of tobacco, alcohol and drug use.
Statistics from 2011, the most recent year available, demonstrate 4-H has had tremendous success with the program:
• 96 percent of participants gained increased knowledge of the risks and consequences associated with tobacco usage
• 93 percent gained increased knowledge about other risky behaviors
• 95 percent learned social skills, and
• 96 percent said that they personally disapprove of tobacco products
Our presentation of Health Rocks was part of a 10-session program held at two schools that also included lessons on nutrition and food labeling, body image, the cycle of addiction, responding to peer pressure and more.
With the support of a grant from the Health Foundation of South Florida, Holy Cross launched the Growing Healthy Kids program in five lower-income parochial elementary schools in 2007. By 2012, the program had grown to include 113 public and parochial schools and serve more than 9,000 students.
The goal has remained constant: to improve nutrition and physical activity in K-8 students by supplementing traditional classroom lessons with experimental learning techniques. These hands-on activities engage students and may have a lasting impact on future behavior.
Hands-on certainly describes our school-based produce gardens. From 2007 to 2012, the Growing Healthy Kids program created 622 gardens at schools and involved 2,350 students in nutrition lessons and activities.
Where vegetable beds are not available, large containers are used to grow vegetables and fresh herbs that are planted, tended and harvested by students and faculty. Seeds are often started in egg cartons before being transferred to the gardens. In a lesson that clearly brought the story of healthy nutrition full circle, students at St. Bartholomew in Miramar planted and picked green beans, snapped them in class and then later were served them for lunch in the cafeteria.
Instilling better nutrition and eating habits is only one part of the battle against childhood obesity and diabetes. Another is increasing physical activity, which is why you can sometimes find me teaching middle school girls Pilates as part of our educational community outreach.
Students use flex bands to stretch muscles and learn many Pilates positions as part of the class. Just as important as the physical activity is the part of the class where students focus on their individualized fitness goals and determine step-by-step plans for accomplishing them. The Pilates program has resulted in marked improvements in Body Mass Index, decreased body fat and heightened knowledge and attitude toward personal health and wellness among the participants.
This class, as with others in the Growing Healthy Kids program, offers a pathway for students to gain self-esteem and understand they are empowered to make many choices that can lead to a healthy lifestyle.
