Background: In 2012, more than one in three American youth were classified as overweight or obese. The cause of obesity is multifactorial. However, environmental influences and behavioral characteristics appear to have more impact on the development of obesity than genetics and/or cultural background. In response to an Institute of Medicine briefing detailing recommendations for changes to school meals, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was passed to update nutrition guidelines for schools participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. This Act seeks to help reduce childhood obesity through the provision of nutritionally balanced school meals. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta as part of its Strong4Life School Nutrition Program. School nutrition managers in a South Georgia school district participated in a dietitian-led training, inclusive of a pre- and post-training survey. Food production data including the number of servings of foods prepared and sold in elementary schools in the same school district were also collected during the weeks preceding the manager training and post training. Observations of the cafeteria organization were also recorded pre and post training. Frequency statistics were used to describe the pre- and post-survey and food production data. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare pre- and post-survey scores. Cafeteria organizational changes were compared for improvement pre- and post-training. Results: Of the 30 school nutrition managers who completed the pre- and post-surveys, 23 (77%) provided identifying information and were included in this analysis. The average pre- and post-survey scores were 4.9 and 5.8, respectively (18.4% increase). Twelve participants received a higher score after the training session, 10 had no change in score, and one participant’s score decreased following the training. The vast majority of managers (>90%) indicated that they would like to encourage changes in the cafeteria to promote healthy choices and that they felt confident in their abilities to provide guidance to cafeteria staff to make such changes. Manager perception of overweight and obesity in the state of Georgia being “very serious” or “somewhat serious” increased from 93% before the training to 100% following the training. Six of the 12 schools in which food production data was obtained showed improvement in the percentage of students who chose skim or 1% plain milk vs. flavored milk. Seven schools showed an improvement in the percentage of fruit sold between March and October, four showed an improvement in vegetables sold. Conclusions: School nutrition managers showed increased nutrition knowledge and belief in their individual ability to act as a role model in the school cafeteria after completing a dietitian-led training session. No association was found between increased nutrition knowledge of managers and changes in student food purchasing habits. Future iterations of this training program should include collection of the name of the school(s) in which the manager presides to determine association between increased nutrition knowledge and/or changed perception of role in promoting healthy habits and changes in student purchasing habits.

The primary motivation for conducting this study was the apparent conflict between Texas Education Agency guidelines for a vocational cooperative education program and the realities of actual program operation. In the program the mid-management student receives instruction, through a cooperative arrangement between the college and employers, in both academic courses and related vocational instruction.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUIS CARLOS.pdf: 1398463 bytes, checksum: c9631450d9bcd88cdf096e06a1c397ed (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this thesis is to observe the possibilities and advantages of the use of management software in the curriculum of an undergraduate Administration course. Having this objective in mind, an experiment was developed in the form of research-action at the UEG State University of Goiás at the Unit in Santa Helena in Goiás in the Agro-business management course. This work used integrated management software, called ERP Enterprise Resources Planning- to simulate real operational activities of a company and analyzed the way software of integrated management could contribute to training managers, facilitating disciplinary integration and the theory-practice relationship. This research arose from the need to review the concept and the curricular structure of this course regarding the presented critics by the responsible authors and stated by the researcher, with the purpose of meeting the needs of today s market. The present model of training managers in this course, seen by undergraduate students, company organizations and institutions such as the CFA - Federal Counsel of Management has shown signs of exhaustion and weaknesses that must be overcome, mainly due to the conceptions of practiced curriculums which are traditionally focused on isolated subjects, excessively theoretical content and without any relation to practice, where the culture of memorization is still present. In an attempt to overcome these difficulties, the present work analyzed the results of an experiment that developed a methodology emphasizing a problem solution, looking at the highly used resources of technology in companies which apply developed concepts to various subjects in an integrated way and which mean something for students. The work showed that the methodology was suitable for the established purpose in this study and the students manifestations indicate the broadening of knowledge, development of abilities and wide acceptance of the methodology used. The research suggests changes in the curriculum and in the educational projects of administration courses, as well as continuous education for lecturers of these courses. The aim is to develop students competence before too much inefficient information is accumulated / O objetivo central da tese consistiu em verificar as possibilidades e as vantagens da utilização de softwares de gestão no currículo de curso de graduação de Administração. Para tanto, foi desenvolvido um experimento, na forma de pesquisa-ação, na UEG Universidade Estadual de Goiás, na Unidade de Santa Helena de Goiás, no Curso de Administração em Agronegócios. Essa pesquisa utilizou um software de gestão integrada, denominado ERP Enterprise Resources Planning, na simulação das atividades operacionais reais de uma empresa, e analisou as contribuições que um software de gestão empresarial pode trazer, na formação de administradores, possibilitando a integração disciplinar e a relação teoria-prática A justificativa para a pesquisa encontra-se na necessidade de rever a concepção e a estrutura curricular desse curso frente às críticas apresentadas pelos autores e constatadas pelo pesquisador, no sentido de torná-lo mais coerente com as necessidades do mercado atual. O modelo de formação dos administradores, hoje utilizado, visto pelos próprios egressos dos cursos de Administração, pelas organizações empresariais e por instituições como o CFA - Conselho Federal de Administração, tem mostrado sinais de esgotamento e fragilidades que precisam ser superadas, em grande parte conseqüentes da concepção dos currículos praticados, centrados tradicionalmente em disciplinas isoladas, de conteúdo excessivamente teórico e sem relação com a prática, nas quais prevalece a cultura da memorização. Buscando superar essas dificuldades, a pesquisa analisou os resultados de um experimento desenvolvido uma metodologia com ênfase na resolução de problemas, valendo-se dos recursos da tecnologia bastante utilizados nas empresas e que permitem a aplicação de conceitos desenvolvidos nas diferentes disciplinas, de forma integrada e com significado para os alunos. O estudo revelou que a metodologia utilizada foi adequada para os propósitos estabelecidos na pesquisa e as manifestações dos alunos indicam sua plena aceitação, ampliação de conhecimentos e desenvolvimento de habilidades. A pesquisa sugere mudanças no currículo e nos Projetos Pedagógicos dos cursos de Administração, e formação continuada de seus docentes, visando a atualização pedagógica, atentando para o desenvolvimento de competências dos alunos antes que com o acúmulo de informações desarticuladas