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Monitoring General Education Science Competencies through a Beginning Nutrition Course: Step 1, Development of Items for a Brief Assessment Quiz
Author(s) -
Fly Alyce D,
Kurz Lisa
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.675.16
Subject(s) - mathematics education , overweight , presentation (obstetrics) , medical education , underweight , competence (human resources) , construct (python library) , psychology , calorie , nutrition education , computer science , medicine , body mass index , gerontology , social psychology , pathology , programming language , radiology , endocrinology
Natural and Mathematical Science courses are part of the undergraduate general education requirements at many universities in the United States, and verifying the extent that students attain the competencies can justify including less traditional courses on approved lists of courses, and expand the variety of suitable courses. The purpose of this study was to construct a competency tool that could be used to demonstrate how a beginning nutrition course can help students 1) practice rigorous analytical thinking, 2) interpret and evaluate data, and 3) engage in active problem solving, any of which may be achieved to meet these general education science competencies at Indiana University. A brief questionnaire was developed to address these competencies using key course content and required moderate to higher level forms of learning according to Bloom's taxonomy (application analysis, synthesis and evaluation). Several resources were also provided, including a Nutrition Facts panel from a food package, a table with criteria for metabolic syndrome, two appendices from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, including a table of Calories for various age, gender and activity levels, and a table of Recommended Average Daily food Group Intake Amounts at several daily calorie levels. Also included were equations for calculating Estimated Energy Requirements, and a graphical presentation of heights to weights to guide determination of body mass index, and labeled with ranges for underweight, normal, overweight and obese. Items and responses choices were reviewed by experts in nutrition science and test construction. Two adjustments were made to elevate the level of learning demonstrated: One item was completely rewritten to elevate the form of learning from Bloom's comprehension to analysis. Another item was modified from identifying a false statement from a list of statements to identifying the general principle behind a series of statements; that is, changing the measure from knowledge to analysis and synthesis. The resulting 10 item questionnaire provides an instrument to test analytic thinking (3 items), interpreting and evaluating data (4 items) and problem solving (4 items) and can be used to test general education science competency through learning in the applied science field of nutrition. Support or Funding Information Indiana University