Research

The KickinNutrition.TV research initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its highly competitive, peer-reviewed Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program. The grant was awarded to Natasha Lance Rogoff on behalf of KidsCOOK Productions in partnership with Dr. Paula Quatromoni at Boston University. The Phase I initiative allowed the development and testing of three KickinNutrition.TV digital lessons in selected classrooms alongside comparison classrooms that got more traditional (non-digital) nutrition education lessons. The findings of our pilot study were presented by Dr. Quatromoni at the EPI/NPAM (Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism) meeting of the American Heart Association in March, 2013.
 
Click here to watch Dr. Quatromoni discuss the KickinNutrition.TV project and our initial findings as presented at that meeting!
 
The success of our Phase I initiative, including the productive collaborations we established in local public school districts, made us highly competitive to receive Phase II funding which resulted in a larger, two-year grant. In Phase II, we fully developed several additional components of the KickinNutrition.TV digital tool kit. The current curriculum includes a set of six lessons with all of the digital resources and materials teachers need to easily and effectively bring KickingNutrition.TV into their classrooms. Our interactive website allows students to replay videos and classroom lessons at home, to upload their own digital content, like videos of themselves cooking with their friends, to download Kickin’ recipes, to kick a recipe to a parent, and to apply the knowledge they learned in school while playing our on-line adventure game, StudenTopia, that features the KickinNutrition.TV characters. In Phase II, the full KickinNutrition.TV curriculum will be tested in public schools in the greater Boston area during the 2013-14 school year. With additional funding generously provided by the Heckscher Foundation for Children, we will be testing KickinNutrition.TV in public schools in New York City as well.  Check back often as we will continue to share updated findings from our ongoing research!