Planet
Nutrition is a game format software program that would appeal to young Jr. High
School age students. A space person
with foods dancing to some funky music opens the screen. This is the only sound or moving graphics in
the software in the software but that does not detract from the ‘beat the
computer’ fun competition promoted by this software. There are four subjects, the fats of life, salt of the earth,
sweetie pie and fiber facts. The user
may return to the home screen at any time.
At home there is a help ? button.
Within each category is a choice for more information about fats,
sodium, sugar and fiber with games to accompany each. The opportunities for more information and games are fun and
simple to use. That is good as there
are only a few locations for assistance throughout the rest of the program.
The games, graphics, and content are
appropriate for the Jr. High age level.
Other Nutrition Company software such as Nutriquest has information that
is not pertinent to the age group the format and graphics would most appeal
to. The student can learn more about
the subject first in order to increase their chance to ‘beat the computer’ when
playing tic-tac toe or the token game.
Tic-tac
toe begins by the computer telling the student that, for example, he will be
one type of food and the computer another.
The student clicks in a square to begin and a question regarding the
selected subject area of fats, salt, sugar or fiber pops up. If the answer is correct, the student gets
the square. If the question is answered
incorrectly, then the computer gets the square until one wins.
The
Token Game includes questions for any topic of the four categories. It instructs the user to spin to start the
game. The spinner, the colors rotate
making the picture look like it is spinning.
The spinner lands on a topic and the student can earn tokens for correct
answers. The student wins after five and
the graphics flash.
The student can get a visual sense
about the content of fat, salt, sugar and fiber in their favorite food by
selecting the “What’s in That Food” category.
After doing a search for the food item in the database, the user then
has to make several more decisions about the name brand and serving size of the
food in order to get accurate information.
When an analysis is requested, up pops for example, 10 sugar bowls to
show how many teaspoons of sugar are in apple pie. When trying to analyze the fat in a chocolate chip cookie
however, the serving sizes were limited to a whole box or 1 gram. That would be approximately 1/10th
of a cookie! The student would have to
look at a bag of cookies, read the total weight in grams, divide by the number
of cookies in the bag to calculate how many grams one cookie would be, and then
multiply that by the one gram serving size to enter the correct information
into the database. Yet, other What’s in
That Food items were not difficult to maneuver at all and gave the student a
graphic look at the amount unsuspected fat, sugar, salt and/or (lack of) fiber
in their favorite foods.
The software’s content is accurate and
current with a 1999 copyright. It is
most appropriate for a fifth through sixth grade software. A definite drawback is that the computer does
not keep track of the student’s ‘wins’ for either game. The answer is confirmed as Right! or Oops!,
and the answer is explained. The
premise is that the student will read the explanation. Depending on their motivation, this may not
always be the case.
Planet
Nutrition makes learning about nutrition fun.
If the graphics were animated and if sound were present, the program
would be much more in keeping with computer games. It is simply constructed, not allowing for the student or teacher
to track progress or modify content.
The
program is diverse enough to allow for student differences in regard to
interests. The student can choose what
area of nutritional health to explore and whether a game will be played or more
information obtained which can then be used to successfully play the games. The
student could track their wins as a self-assessment tool. Additionally, the student’s thinking is
challenged by the surprise effect of the amount of unhealthy nutrients in
certain foods being revealed.
Pre-teaching on the Food Guide Pyramid
and Dietary Guidelines would make this software more meaningful to the
students. Once the instructor gave a
short overview of the software, the students could play somewhat independently
and more attention could be given to those in learning center.
Teaching materials
are not included with this software, but it is easy to navigate especially with
the help button.
The computer lab would need to be
reserved ahead for one 45 minute period.
Planet Nutrition would most appeal to grades fifth through seventh. The game format is fun reinforcement of
previously taught material. The
instructor could set up a jeopardy format game for the next class period to
assess learning from the program.
CRITICAL
SUMMARY AND RATING EXPLANATION
Planet Nutrition is fun game format
for young Jr. High school age students.
It would keep the interest of the class for one period. It’s lack of animated graphics and sound
would prohibit it from being used more than this. For this reason it rates an 8 out of 10. Yet, the software would still be a
worthwhile purchase for teaching nutrition in Family and Consumer Sciences or
Health since these content areas rotate students twice a quarter. It would require little preparation or
instruction to get the students acquainted with the program and could be used
to reinforce lessons on the Food Guide Pyramid.