MONDAY, OCTOBER 21

Poster Session: Innovations in Dietetics Practice and Education

Farm to School Education Project

Author: A. Paxton Aiken; Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project,Asheville, NC

Background: Children who participate in hands-on experiences, such as Farmto School, led by educators and health professionals trained in creatingpositive food environments and activities are more likely to develop tastesand attitudes that will positively impact their health. In 2011, AppalachianSustainable Agriculture Project and Western Carolina University (WCU)embarked on a collaborative project to integrate Farm to School activities intothe food service management practicum rotation of the Dietetic Internship(DI) and a Farm to School service-learning component into the undergraduateNutrition and Dietetics (ND) program. The goal of the project was to teach DIand ND students how to incorporate hands-on learning with fresh, localfoods into their future dietetic careers while meeting Didactic Program inDietetics core knowledge requirements and DI competencies for theAccreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND).Through this project, a total of 44 WCU DI and ND students completed acomprehensive Farm to School training, four WCU DI students completedfoodservice management and nutrition education competencies throughFarm to School activities at their respective practicum sites, and 20 WCU NDstudents volunteered or completed service-learning requirements throughFarm to School activities at an elementary school. Benefits included uniquepracticum placement for supervised practice hours, civic engagement, andmeaningful application of didactic knowledge to nutrition education and foodservice management projects. Partnership formation, instructional design oflearning activities aligned with ACEND competencies, implementation,challenges, and qualitative student feedback will be presented.

Funding Disclosure: This project was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

From Hoop Houses to the Hospital e Let Food Be Thy Medicine

Author: L. McDowell; St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Ann Arbor, MI

Background: A century ago, farmers worked the land where 5 1. Joseph MercyHospital's 341-acre campus is now located. While the hospital stands firmlyin the 21st century with its newly rebuilt, state-of-the-art patient towers, thesurrounding land has come full circle to agrarian times.

In 2010, a horse-drawn plow tilIed a four-acre plot in the hospital's shadow,marking the beginning of The Farm al St. Joe's. Hoop houses were added andcampus-grown produce began to appear in patients' meals and on the cafe-teria menu. In all, The Farm consists of 15 acres of land and three 30' x 96'hoop houses, which were erected by employee volunteers and organicfarming special lists from Michigan State University.

Over 2500 pounds of fresh vegetables have been donated to Food Gatherers(a Washtenaw County food bank) and given directly to patient families inneed. Spinach, kale, tomatoes, basil, broccoli, lettuce and peppers from TheFarm have appeared on the inpatient and cafeteria menus.

Perhaps most importantly, The Farm has changed the way that the hospitalsees itself: not simply as a place for treating the sick, but as an organizationthat supports healthy living In our community. The Farm functions todemonstrate the importance of good nutrition to overall health, and as a focalpoint for SI. Joe's efforts to transform our patients' and employees' relation-ship with food.

Funding Disclosure: None

A-66 JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS

Implementing Cell Phone Polling in a Medical Nutrition Therapy Course

Author: K. Stearns Bruening; Syracuse Univeristy, Syracuse, NY

Background: Forty-seven students submitted responses using their phoneduring the fall 2012 semester. After students submitted formative questionsand comments, instructor responses were posted on the course Blackboardwebsite. Survey and open-ended items, added to the usual anonymous stu-dent course evaluations, were used to solicit feedback from learners about hevalue of cell phone polling. Students most highly valued the opportunity topractice multiple-choice questions before exams, followed by the opportu-nity to pose questions anonymously during class polling and read theinstructor-posted responses later on the course website. Open ended re-sponses showed that students found themselves more engaged in the classwith cell phone polling and the students especially valued the privacy ofbeing able to submit questions via their phone. While 89% of students founduse of cell phone polling helpful to their learning, only 30% were willing topay an additional course fee of $10 to cover the cost of using the followingsemester. For the instructor, posting multiple choice questions before anexam allowed the opportunity to discuss how to approach the item, and whyone answer was better than others; however, this took a significant amountof classroom time.

Funding Disclosure: None

Interactive Learning Assessment

Author: E. Yakes; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Background: Across the spectrum of professional nutrition education, fromundergraduate and graduate dietetics programs to continuing professionaleducation, it is challenging to provide quality education that integratescontent and practice. To address this need, we have been developing Inter-active Learning Assessments (ILA), which are simulations that put the learnerin the role of practitioner giving counsel to virtual clients. Funded by a USDAgrant to recruit and retain Hispanic students, ILAs have been field tested withundergraduate students (n¼15) and graduate students (n¼19). We found thatstudents can learn content (e.g., nutritional needs for a child with Downsyndrome) and practices (e.g., growth charting, nutritional assessment). Theyviewed what they were learning as relevant to their future professions, andmade use of feedback. We have recently partnered with maternal and childhealth professionals to explore the use of ILAs for continuing professionaleducation. Based on the success of field testing, we are developing anauthoring system (launching summer 2013) to allow faculty and pro-fessionals to create their own ILA cases. We will create research-basedguidelines for how to develop cases and provide exemplar cases. Theauthoring system is being designed to be easy to use, requiring no specialcomputer skills. The ILA will track user responses, provide automated feed-back, and provide data displays. We will continue to evaluate studentlearning of content and professional practices as we develop and test newILAs in other nutrition classes and with professional audiences.

Funding Disclosure: We received funding from the USDA NIFA HispanicServing Institutes Education Grants program to develop ILAs as a means torecruit and retain Hispanic students.

September 2013 Suppl 3—Abstracts Volume 113 Number 9