Abstract
More children have access to the Internet in schools and at home than ever before. The Internet can serve as a useful tool for teaching children the knowledge and skills needed for good health. Food4Kids was developed by University of Missouri Extension to give elementary school children the knowledge and skills needed for safe food handling. The site includes several components. Two interactive games are designed to teach children safe food handling skills in various settings. When playing the Dinner Dilemma, children try to accumulate the least number of germs as they help their mom prepare a family meal. In The Family Picnic, children try to identify the unsafe food handling practices taking place at an outdoor barbecue. Children can also increase their food safety knowledge by searching a food safety database, sending questions to a food safety expert, and linking to other food safety and nutrition sites. We are currently evaluating Food4Kids to determine (1) the acceptability of the site by third grade students; (2) the impact of the site on changing knowledge and intended behaviors related to food safety; and (3) the need for formal guidance when using WWW sites to significantly improve the knowledge and skills of users. The program will be evaluated using 100 third grade students in Columbia, Missouri. A pre-test and post-test will be used to assess changes in students knowledge and intended behaviors related to food safety before and after using Food4Kids. Web tracking software will allow us to determine how much time the children spend on the site, which paths they take to find information, and what pages they liked and disliked the most. Observations of students using the site will help to assess interest level, ability to move around the WWW site, and emotions the children have while using the site. Results from the evaluation will be discussed, as well as suggestions for how to best evaluate and disseminate educational WWW sites designed to promote healthy behavior changes in children.
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