The Teams With Intergenerational Suport - Focus on Gardening and  Nutrition program (TWIGS) is a University of California Cooperative  Extension youth development curricula that promotes nutrition,  decision making skills, self esteem, teamwork, and cooperation among  children and youth through a series of 30 gardening and nutrition  lessons. The curriculum has been approved and used in the Youth FSNEP  program for three years - some 1300 copies in use across the  counties. Over 300 have been requested by other youth extenders and  other states. However, without evaluation, it is unknown whether the  curricula is reaching its intended audience and to what degree the  program is able to achieve its stated objectives. Phase I of the  evaluation has begun, assessing its value to extenders, and Phase II  will assess impact with elementary age youth.

This activity was awarded $17,000 in 2000-2001 as Activity #6 under the Garden-Based learning workgroup. To date, two focus group interviews have been held with Youth FSNEP staff to help inform and improve the educator questionnaire. A research design has also been developed, with consultation of Sheri Zidenberg-Cher and Melina Bersamin, UCD PhD candidate in HCD.In preparation for the recruitment of sites, a UCD nutrition graduate student has worked to align TWIGS curriculum with the California State standards.

The overall purpose of this project is to bring together Extension nutrition and health para-professionals to asses the effectiveness of nutrition and gardening curricula (TWIGS) on the nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviors of school-aged children. The evaluation also will explore other benefits of a gardening experience.

The activity addresses the Human Resources Program Priorities. It addresses Human Resources Issue 2: Human Health and Nutrition, Goal 1:Health and Nutritional Well-Being. Specifically, the workgroup will focus on Actions 1.1, 1.2, ad 1.3. The practices of California consumers who are at risk for nutrtion-related health problems (Action 1.1) will be addressed through the assessment of nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviors following exposure to a nutrition and gardening education program.The outcome of this research will be to share test results of a nutrition and gardening education intervention program.

Purpose of the evaluation is to assess the impact of a cross- discipline elementary age curriculum with both educator extenders and ultimately youth participants. There is very little quality research available that describes the impact of connecting gardening and nutrition in affecting children's food choices or preferences. An immediate outcome will be to publish the evaluation results, which will be of value to those involved in the garden-based learning movement and provide them with additional information about whether or not to connect nutrition to their gardening educational efforts. The ultimate impacts of the evaluation are to share information about interventions to improve the health and well-being of children. The evaluation will also provide some qualitative research insight regarding the benefits of gardening with children. An evaluation research plan has been developed in order to determine how successful the TWIGS curricula has been at achieving its stated objectives. The evaluation plan of action is comprised of two phases. Phase 1 emphasizes program monitoring and delivery, while the second phase focuses on outcomes. The following research protocol addresses phase 1 of evaluation. There are three main objectives for Phase 1 of the evaluation project. First, the evaluation will determine how TWIGS is being implemened by various youth poviders and educators. Second, the study will assess what aspects of the curricula contribute to the program's success. Third, the study will examine the benefits school aged children derive from participating in the curicula. Progam implementation evaluation is a necessary precursor to outcome evaluation. Without knowing how the program was utilized or what happened during he course of the program, one cannot make any reasonable connections to program outcomes (Patton, 1997). The data gathered in this portion of the evaluation will also provide stakeholders with relevant information necessary for decision making. This includes data on strengths and weakness. Data will be gathered from educators who have used the TWIGS curricula in either the classroom or some other organized educational setting. Teachers and youth providers will be mailed an informational document that details the purpose of he evluation. If they agree to participate in the evaluation, they will be asked to fill out a self- administered peliminary questionnaire that requests basic program delivery information. If their responses meet a set criteria, they will then be asked to fill out a more in-depth questionnaire or participate in a one-on-one interview. It is estimated that both the written questonnaire and interview can be completed in forty-five minutes to an hour. The purpose of the interview and questionnaire is to gather data on program implementation and preliminary information on program outcomes. The resulting qualitative and quantitative data will be compiled into a database and alayzed using Ethnograph and SPSS. School educators and youth providers who have obtained the TWIGS curricula between 1998 and 2001 are eligible to be study participants. Timeline: May, 2001 - Identify Youth FSNEP couny partners and ask them to identify 3 schools per county who might participate. Develop and har critera by which to identify schools to particate (socioeconomic status, ruralvs. urban, school size, and ethnic divesity). June, 2001 - Identify which lessons from the curriulum will be taught consistently for yout evaluation at one third of the sites (6 - 10). July, 2001 - Enter data from Informational Questionnaire (Phase I). Idetify youth educators for interview. Conduct face to face interviews N=10, and written interviews = 10. This information will inform the youth questionnaire instrument. Meet with participaing Youth FSNEP staff to discuss youth survey and teaching TWIGS curricula at identifed sites. October - December 2001 - Analyze Educator Interviews and begin developing youth survey instruments. January - June 2002 - Conduct program and evaluation at all 24 sites. Pre and post test youth at sites. June - July 2002 - Analyze resuls. Progress on project activity will be reported to the CORE workgroup and also be a presentation at the Garden-Based Learning Conference hosted by the workgroup. The timeline above states the evaluation research plan, as well as specifics on information to be collected and sources. Patton, M.Q. (1997). Utilization-Focused Evaluaion. Sage Publications Inc. Thosand Oaks, CA.