Introduction

Developing sound nutritional and exercise habits early in life will help children become healthy adults. This is one of the most important life skills that we can teach our middle school students. But, just how can we help students in our science classes understand exactly what we mean when we say "take care" of their bodies?

In this publication, you will find web sites that provide general background information for teachers on nutrition and fitness, as well as lesson plans and activities for use in the classroom. Students will enjoy and learn from the activities we've included on health, fitness, nutrition, and sports that will reinforce good habits and help students to learn to take care of themselves.

In addition to looking at how we can help children to establish good habits, you will find web sites that look at the health issues facing preteens and teenagers today. How many kids need help evaluating their diets and taking a good look at their food consumption? Most likely all of them. With this in mind, there will be many opportunities to examine current guidelines for a healthy diet and to discuss the impact weight gain has on the body image of young people.

Because keeping healthy involves more than diet, we have included informational web sites on fitness and sports just for kids. Active middle schoolers involved in sports already know the importance and benefits of exercise. For those who that aren't as motivated to keep active, there are web sites that will help them establish and implement exercise routines.

Be sure to see the section on helpful tools. Here you will find downloadable charts, logs, graphs, and all manner of calculators so your students can keep on top of their new health regimen. Students can learn to calculate their body mass index, compare their weight to others with similar measurements, and read the nutrition label on their favorite snack food. When students see their progress charted daily and weekly, it will be much easier to stay motivated, keep up their exercise, watch their calorie intake, and become more aware of the kinds of snacks they reach for when they are in a hurry, bored, or making choices at the store or in the cafeteria line.

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by Janet Kahkonen Keppler

Janet Kahkonen Keppler is a consultant to the Middle School Portal. Previously, she was the catalog manager for various digital library projects at the Ohio State University, concentrating on the development and application of metadata for digital collections in mathematics and science.

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Copyright September 2006 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.