Food Experiment

Abstract

The food that people eat determines who they are, and this is a popular and common saying. Food and class activities are two events that are intricately link, and in recent years, people have often tried to link lunch hour to food patterns to class activities. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of food taken during lunch hour on the students in class concentration levels. Taking of snacks during lunch increases concentration during afternoon classes, on the other hand, partaking of a full meal leads to lower concentration levels in class, and this is manifested through an inclination to sleep during the afternoon classes. A random sample of 20 students were interviewed on their lunch hour meals, and these were used in running a significance test if  junk foods is related to concentration in the afternoon classes.

Introduction

Food is a basic need, and a healthy meal is a prerequisite for a healthy body, and healthy body helps the brain functions properly. Note that this statement is a mere hypothetical argument that is based on this experiment.  The basic healthy meal is one that at least protein, vitamins and carbohydrates, and un healthy is the typical foods with high amounts of calories, and are served in fast food joints.  These foods are normally known as junk food in popular conversations.  This country has one highest rate of obesity in the world, and majority of people who are overweight and obese are under the age of 18. Reports confirm that the obesity for people is reducing, and this is often linked to the strong campaigns that have been held against huge dependence on the junk foods. If the trend and campaigns continues, and then in the year future, probably five years into the future, there will not be a single individual in the country who is obese. A rough estimation of obese students in this is almost fifty percent and this is a low rate compared to the previous year, when the rate appeared much higher. A bad diet has been associated with bad behaviors in children, poor concentration, and bad moods. Besides, reports have asserted that students whose diets are constantly devoid of important minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids normally perform purely in their academic work, they fail to concentrate effectively, and are prone to aggressive behaviors.  This is a significant experiment, as it will help students know the truth if their eating patterns during the lunch hour affects their afternoon concentration levels. In addition, the experiment is also important to schools as it can help them implement a good eating program to the benefit of the afternoon classes.

Method

In this experiment, 20 students from different classes were randomly identified to be participants from a school population of 200 students. This was an individual undertaking from about 10 percent of the entire school population. In statistics, the ten percent of the population chosen to participate in the experiment is known as the sample, and 20 represents the sample size.

Apparatus

In this experiment, 20 students were identified, and there lunch hour food information was taken, together with their ages, and gender. Further, in all the classes, the students were allowed to attend to their afternoon class, but unbeknown to them a CCTV camera had been mounted on their respective teacher desks, and this was used to monitor their in class activities.

Procedure

Each and every student that participated in this experiment was classified into three groups: junk food, healthy meals, and control. Those who were in the junk food group ate foods that are considered to be high ins sugar or fat, and with very little protein, vitamins or minerals. A healthy meal is a prescribed one with sufficient concentrations of these vital nutritional components, and the control group (belonging to the placebo group) merely drank plain water.  In this experiment, the first independent variables were junk foods, and healthy meals, and the dependent variables were sleep during the afternoon lesson. The model for this experiment can be stated in this format; healthy meal at lunchtime is equals to alpha, which is a constant minus afternoon sleep in class. In short, hypothetical, it can be stated that a healthy meal is inversely related to sleep in the afternoon class, and that junk foods and sleep in the afternoon class are directly related.  Hence, the null hypothesis in the experiment was if junk foods leads to sleep in the afternoon classes, and the alternative hypothesis in the experiment was if junk foods do not lead to afternoon sleep during lessons.

Results

The hypotheses were tested using the student t-test, and this is a statistical tool used when the test statistic follows a t distribution if the null hypothesis can be readily maintained.  The test produced a score of 0.73, and because this value is more than 0.05, the null hypothesis shall be rejected, and instead the alternative hypothesis shall be accepted.

Discussion

Eating healthy foods has been one of the most talked about thing in modern schooling system, and there have been reports that link healthy dishes to improvement in concentration amongst students. In addition, recent reports suggest that healthy diets have an impact on a student’s behavior, and that it could lead to early independence in students. On the basis of these reports, schools, and schooling systems throughout the country have introduced radical food programs in the country that are aimed at bringing more balanced diets to meals during lunch hour. These radical food programs have been known as standards in schools, and they have been applied to the effect that junk foods are eradicated from the schools’ food program.  The foods students eat in school in the present times are no longer the low budgeted-processed meals, rather they are devoid of saturated fat, sugar and salt, and they have been described as healthier options. 

Good food really does make a difference!

Are you still packing a packed lunch?

Research by the Children's Food Trust (4&5) shows that school meals are now consistently more nutritious than packed lunches, giving the children who eat them a better foundation for good health.  Watch The School Food Plan's very informative film if you would like to learn more about the wide spread benefits of switching from packed lunches to a school meal. 

Look what Food for Life can do!

The comprehensive approach to food education adopted by FFLP schools shows what can be achieved when schools do it right.

Schools enrolled in the Food For Life Partnership regularly show take-up figures of 70-75% (against a national average of 41.4% for primary schools and 35.8% in secondaries) and have raised their take-up figures 7 x faster than the growth in the national average (7). Whilst take-up has increased by almost 2% nationally in the past year (indicating that the new healthier menus are starting to win over parents and pupils alike) the multi-faceted and comprehensive approach to food education adopted by FFLP schools shows what can be achieved when schools do it right.

They then assessed the results to see if the changes had an impact on learning and behavior in the classroom after lunch.

Observers recorded pupil behavior at the beginning of the study and then again 15 weeks later.

The study found that pupils at the schools where improvements had been made were 18% more likely to be "on task" (concentrating and engaged with learning) compared with those in the control schools.

Pupils in the schools that had seen improvements were also 14% less likely to be off-task than those in the control schools, it found.

The study said: "These findings have important implications for classroom teaching in secondary schools.

"If pupils are likely to be more on-task and less off-task for up to one third of the time, teaching is likely to run more smoothly, with fewer disruptions.

"The net effect of these improvements in behaviour is likely to mean that more time is spent on achieving the objectives of the lesson and less time on activities or discipline needed to retain the pupils' focus."

The study comes just days before the SFT publishes the latest figures on take-up of school lunches.