Running head: SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT 1

Signature Assignment First Draft

Ana Mendoza

Arizona State University

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Signature Assignment First Draft

An apple a day keeps the doctor is a famous saying we here often. When we step into a

doctors office we see posters of the food pyramid and how it is an important guideline to follow.

We have learned throughout our life spans that the nutrition a child receives is very important.

Their nutrition is important for their growth and development. The body gets its nutrient to carry

out bodily functions and thought process. However, there is also a correlation based on the

nutrition a student receives to their academic performance. It is important to understand how this

correlation affects a student in all areas of health; social, emotional and physical to mention a

few.

Literature review

The correlation between nutrition and academic performance is very important. When a

student has breakfast, they are ready to start the day. But what happens when a student does not

have the luxury of having breakfast? How does that affect their school?

It is expected that a students cognitive performance is enhances when the student eats

breakfast. Eating breakfast helps memory function (Edwards, Mauch, Lois, Winkelman, Mark,

2011). When breakfast is offered at the school, school attendance improves ( Edward, et al, 2011,

Ni Mhurchu et al, 2010). If students do not have access to breakfast, they are more likely to go to

where it is offered. School breakfast is offered before class starts. This will ensure that the

student is present and is ready to learn. Adding a morning meal can result in further academic

gains, and reducing iron deficiency can enhance cognitive function (Shilts et al, 2009).

When breakfast elements are not present, malnutrition leads to a poor performance and

functioning capabilities (The Relationship of Nutrition To Brain Development and Behavior,

1974). The student is not getting all of the vitamins and minerals that the brain needs to be able
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to function and focus. The student is more likely to show behavioral issues, if he or she is

hungry. Malnutrition affects their learning experiences (The Relationship of Nutrition To Brain

Development and Behavior, 1974). Children will not be motivated or even have the energy to

participate in school activities (Ni Mhurchu et al, 2010).

Due to this important linkage, school breakfast programs were created to improve

academic performance along with behavior. School breakfast programmes have benefits in

relation to nutrition, academic performance and psychosocial function Intervention at schools is

very important in order to see how successful breakfast is to improve academic performance (Ni

Mhurchu et al, 2010). In a study with six graders, A EATFIT program was started where they are

taught about nutrition and it is also incorporated in their academics. For example. To calculate

the average time to it took a person to run over a span of a week. It incorporated math and a

physical activity. (Shilts et al, 2009).

Synthesis

The commonalities of the sources included how nutrition played a role in the overall

academic performance. In order to see how nutrition affects academic performance, the articles

dug deeper into the brain development. There has to be an understood relationship between

nutrition and brain development in order for there to be a learning experience. An article

references the development of the brain inside of the womb is dependent on the mothers

nutrition to explain why it is important for the brain to have good nutrition (The Relationship of

Nutrition To Brain Development and Behavior, 1974). Another common theme discussed is how

nutrition affect behavior. The behavior often leads to the learning experience.
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Two articles discussed how an intervention and the implications. The intervention was to

provide breakfast or lunch and see how behavior and academic performance was affected. Once

the intervention was serviced, the school had to see how that intervention will keep running.

Practical Implications

Marketing

It is important to spread the word about the importance of nutrition and breakfast. One

immediate solution to market this, is through posters along schools. This will alert the students

on why they should start their day with breakfast. Posters should consist of the positive reasons

on why they should have breakfast, and why is it important to eat healthy. For a communicative

means, the school should pass out pamphlets or flyers about the role nutritions plays with the

childs nutrition. Every parent wants only the best for their child.

Take home flyer:

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School poster (these are actual posters one of my students created, based on a health

activity):

Funding

Serving students breakfast is highly important. Schools try to maximize their efforts to

provide students with free breakfast. But what would happen if a school can no longer offer

nutritional meals? I propose a plan that help solve this. Students should fundraise to get funds in

to keep their breakfast program going. Without this program, students are missing out on

vitamins and nutrients that serve as the main source for their development. This will make the

community aware of the issues that need to be address. It has been seen that when a community

comes together to solve an issue, great things happen. The community help will be serving the

future doctors and lawyers of these communities. In order to allocate more money, classes who

get more money should be awarded with a fun water day or a pizza party.

Committee

To keep the flow of money coming in, a committee should be formed from by members

of the community and the school. This formed committee can allocate money or food donations

from companies. For any additional funding, the committee should research for any food grants
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or partnerships with business. This committee should also be able to create sustainable ideas to

keep the breakfast program running

Educational components

The way people eat, what they eat, and how they eat all comes from what they learned at

home. Parents teach their child what to eat for breakfast. Further expansion on why nutrition and

academic performance is important, schools should host an event. In this event, parents, students,

teachers etc should learn about the linkage. This will be a good opportunity for parents to be

more active in the nutrition of the child. Perhaps they can make a change from frosted flakes to a

blueberry oatmeal for their child or themselves. Parents could potentially change how the

household eats for better nutrition of the whole family. Parents can see data of students who eat

good breakfast academic performance vs. data of students who skipped breakfast. As for

students, students learn to make better health choices for their own good. Students will be taught

what are good foods to eat in the morning for that brain power vs. what is not the best choices.

This event could be life changing. Those students will be parents one day and they will be able to

pass that nutritional information to their child.

Engagement

Engagement should happen over parents and students shifting or swapping out foods for

better choices. Both students and parents can make the choice of what food items can replace the

existing foods they are already consume. Engagement in the nutritional education could be

parents and students attending events at school. Not only will they learn further importance, but

also be aware of the health of the overall school and community.

Overall, it is important to realize what we feed and how it affects the children. Parents
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will only want the best for their children. The best thing is for children to be provided nutritional

meals. These nutritional meals are the fuel for brain power. That brain power affects students

academics. If parents and teachers want the best school performance out of students, then their

breakfast should be looked it at; this is where it all starts. If we start at a community level, and

begin to feed the students good and healthy meals, we can expand this to other communities;

then one day nationwide. The perfect ending to this social injustice of nutritional breakfast would

be that every student will have access to a dose of brain power. The way communities collect

funding or donations need to be handed down to the next people who will oversee the

organization. This way the community itself can be sustainable for the future.
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References

Edwards, Jane U., Mauch, Lois, & Winkelman, Mark R. (2011). Relationship of Nutrition and

Physical Activity Behaviors and Fitness Measures to Academic Performance for Sixth

Graders in a Midwest City School District. Journal of School Health,81(2), 65-73.

Ni Mhurchu, C., Turley, M., Gorton, D., Jiang, Y., Michie, J., Maddison, R., & Hattie, J. (2010).

Effects of a free school breakfast programme on school attendance, achievement,

psychosocial function, and nutrition: A stepped wedge cluster randomised trial. BMC

Public Health, 10, 738.

Shilts, Mical Kay, Lamp, Cathi, Horowitz, Marcel, & Townsend, Marilyn S. (2009). Pilot Study:

EatFit Impacts Sixth Graders' Academic Performance on Achievement of Mathematics

and English Education Standards. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 41(2),

127-131.

The Relationship of Nutrition To Brain Development and Behavior. (1974). Nutrition

Today, 9(4), 12-13,16-17.