Patterns of decisions about nutrition established during early adolescence can influence the risk of developing cancer later in life. It is important to provide children of this age group with information about cancer and nutrition to guide them toward wise nutritional choices. However, it can be difficult to impress adolescents due to the pressures of peers and the advertising media. The flexibility and appeal of computers makes them especially appropriate for presenting nutrition and cancer information to this population. The investigators propose the development of a computer-based instructional system for sixth through eight grade students which presents information about nutrition and cancer in an engaging and enjoyable manner. The system will incorporate the advanced computing technologies of interactive simulation, graphical user interface, and hypermedia, along with an innovative instructional design approach. Specific objectives include developing a prototype and evaluating its effectiveness in a controlled educational setting. The research results lead to better understanding of the feasibility of and evaluating its effectiveness for adolescents in a controlled educational setting. The results should also apply to other age groups and instructional domains.
Thesaurus Terms: cancer prevention, computer assisted instruction, health education, neoplasm /cancer education, nutrition aspect of cancer adolescence (12-20), computer human interaction, computer simulation, early experience, life style, neoplasm /cancer human nonclinical subject, nutrition related tag
