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Smart Bodies is an educational program aimed at preventing childhood obesity. A joint initiative of the LSU AgCenter and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation, Smart Bodies integrates classroom activities with hands-on learning to teach children how to build strong bodies and develop active minds.
Children across Louisiana are learning to be smart about their bodies through a nutrition, health and fitness educational program being offered in schools across the state.
Smart Bodies, as the program is known, is designed to help prevent childhood obesity through classroom activities and other strategies that teach children the importance of healthy eating habits and physical exercise.
The LSU AgCenter, in cooperation with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation, launched Smart Bodies in March 2005.
Smart Bodies consists of three components:
The Body Walk is a 35-foot by 45-foot, colorful, walk-through exhibit representing the human body. Students explore nine organs of the body, stopping at each station to participate in activities focused on the effects that different foods have on each organ. Students also receive a take-home activity book to share with their families.
The OrganWise Guys are characters that help children understand physiology and healthy behaviors. These characters – Hardy Heart, Madame Muscle, Windy the Lungs, Peri Stolic the Intestines, Sir Rebrum the Brain, Peter Pancreas, Pepto the Stomach, the Kidney Brothers, Luigi Liver and Calci M. Bone – are manifested as cartoons in books, games and videos and as dolls used in nutrition lessons. Participating schools receive a free kit with eight videos, dolls, books, games and puzzles.
Take 10! This classroom program is a grade-specific educational tool that encourages short bouts of physical activity integrated into academic learning objectives. Activities provided in all curricular materials are linked to the grade-level expectations of the Department of Education.
The goal of Smart Bodies is to reach 50 elementary schools each year for five years (2005-2009). In 2005, 64 elementary schools and 25 public events in 26 parishes received the Body Walk, and 58 elementary schools received the entire Smart Bodies program. During this time, 31,348 children experienced the Body Walk.
In 2006, the numbers were 101 elementary schools in 33 parishes implementing the Smart Bodies program. By the end of 2006, there were 37,000 children who had experienced the Body Walk. The total number of children for 2005 and 2006 reached with the program was 68,348.
As of November 2007, there were 29, 347 children that experienced the Smart Bodies program. Projections through the end of the year suggest that we will reach 36,418 for 2007. In 2007, there are 99 schools that implemented this program in 33 parishes.
Smart Bodies has been accepted by the National 4-H Headquarters as a Program of Distinction. It is the first program in Louisiana to earn this designation. Programs of Distinction are projects that reflect the high quality of 4-H youth development programs occurring in communities across the United States. These programs exhibit strong program development characteristics and contribute to the youth development body of knowledge; convey new ideas, materials or innovative methods related to positive youth development; and demonstrate evidence of effectiveness, such as demonstrated changes in knowledge, behaviors, attitudes or aspirations of youth and adults.
More than 33 4-H agents in 22 parishes are participating in the program and using Smart Bodies as part of their 4-H school enrichment program.
Local AgCenter extension agents recruit schools for the program and then conduct teacher trainings in the schools selected. Once the teachers have been trained, a school assembly is used to kick off the program and to build excitement and enthusiasm. Following the assembly, teachers begin using the Take 10! and OrganWise Guys curricular materials in the classrooms. At some point during the program, the Body Walk exhibit is taken to the school and set up by volunteers either in the gymnasium or cafeteria. After the Body Walk leaves, teachers continue to implement the program in the classroom. Smart Bodies newsletters are sent home to parents to emphasize physical activity and healthy eating.
“So far, we’ve found knowledge about fruits and vegetables, as well as willingness to consume fruits and vegetables, improved among students who participated in the program,” said Denise Holston, coordinator for Smart Bodies.
“We also studied the activity levels of students, and we found students registered higher activity counts when they were involved in the Take 10! part of the Smart Bodies program than they did while at recess, in physical education, at lunch or after school,” she said.
Research results showed:
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Students who participated in Smart Bodies were twice as willing to taste fruits and vegetables served at school when compared to students who did not experience the Smart Bodies Program.
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Smart Bodies participants from the 4th and 5th grades significantly increased self-reported fruit and fruit juice consumption.
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After receiving the BMI report, more parents (87 percent) of at-risk or overweight children were concerned about their children’s weight.
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Physical activity counts were higher among children when they were performing a Take 10! exercise. The students were 35 percent more active during a Take 10! activity than during physical education classes at school, 22 percent more active during such activities than during recess, 51 percent more active than during lunch and 47 percent more active than after school.
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Smart Bodies participants increased their knowledge of physical activity twice as much as students who did not participate in the program.
Childhood Obesity
Officials say the idea behind the program is to combat childhood obesity – which, in turn, may prevent its devastating health complications later in life.
Smart Bodies represents a public-private partnership between the state’s largest health insurance company and the LSU AgCenter – the statewide outreach arm of the LSU System.
The program was funded in large part by a five-year grant of $1.8 million from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation.
School officials who have been associated praise the program.
“Smart Bodies fits well into St. Charles Parish public schools’ newly developed wellness policy that requires schools to provide and promote nutrition education,” said Cynthia Ruffin, director of Child Nutrition Programs, St. Charles Parish Public Schools. “Nutrition education has always been included in portions of our students’ curriculum, but Smart Bodies is a more comprehensive and creative way to teach students about the importance of eating right and exercising.”
Teri Noel, principal of Orly Magnet School in LaPlace, said the Smart Bodies program meets a need.
“This event was an awesome experience for my students,” Noel said. “K-5 students thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit, and teachers were pleased with the information presented. Thanks for the opportunity.”
Similar results can be found in surveys completed by a host of school teachers and administrators whose students took part in the program. Those comments include:
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I know several of us would be interested in even going to speak to another school about how it really is a good program. The kids really did learn something from it.
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They (students) enjoyed it. Every day they would say, “Are we doing Take 10!? Are we doing Take 10!?”
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I really liked how it (Smart Bodies) brought in what they eat, because there are a few of mine (students) who wouldn’t even try some of the vegetables or the fruits that were on the tray. But whenever they knew that we had to – everybody had to try in order to get a sticker – they would try it, and a couple of them ended up liking it. So I thought that was really good.
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I am in my 30th year, and I’m going to tell you that this (Smart Bodies) has been one of the best things that I have seen in education in a long time as far as what I learned going through it, what the kids were learning, the excitement that they had going through… It really was excellent. It was one of the best.
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I did Take 10! at the beginning of every science class. So we did the jumping jacks and singing songs… They got into it… It was wonderful… They loved it so much they wanted to continue. “Do we have to stop?” (they’d say, and I’d say,) “No, we don’t. Do ya’ll want to go on?”
Chancellor begins 'healthy lifestyle' blog
The LSU AgCenter's chancellor, Bill Richardson, has decided to do his part in helping with the AgCenter's educational program on how to live a healthier lifestyle. He has started a daily blog called "Chancellor's Challenge." The AgCenter's Web site is filled with educational information relating to healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle. "Yet, how do we get people to follow the recommendations? I will put myself forward as a case study of one. Over the next year I will provide a daily blog, Monday through Friday, of my experience in making a commitment to the recommendations that the AgCenter espouses to the residents of our state," Richardson said. There are nutritionist responses to his messages providing further clarification. The blog is filled with links for more information. After one month, the blog has had 1,650 unique visitors and 2,157 hits.
The LSU AgCenter is one of 11 institutions of higher education in the Louisiana State University System. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, it provides educational services in every parish and conducts research that contributes to the economic development of the state. The LSU AgCenter does not grant degrees nor benefit from tuition increases. The LSU AgCenter plays an integral role in supporting agricultural industries, enhancing the environment, and improving the quality of life through its 4-H youth, family and community programs.
(This AgCenter Lead was updated by Frankie Gould on November 2, 2007.)