78 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



for all students but Food Majors, and as a required subject for them, 

 with the possibility of doing a year's work in this field if desired. Last 

 year it was an experiment both on the part of the College and the public 

 school. However, the successful completion of two terms work warranted 

 its incoiporation as a permanent feature of the city schools^ educational 

 program and proved to the Home Economics Division that it was a type 

 of field work with genuine educational values. The Division secured the 

 active cooperation of (1) the Lansing Board of Health, which met part 

 of the expense, furnishing careful medical examination of all children, 

 and supplied school nurses to assist in following up children in nutrition 

 classes; (2) the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools 

 who not only furnished the scales but met a portion of the expense in- 

 curred and arranged for a place in the schools' daily schedule for the 

 nutritional instruction. These boards, Avith the Home Economics students 

 under the direction of Mrs. May Person Kirby, undertook a fundamental 

 experiment in health education. 



The primary value to the students of the j-ear's work in Problems of 

 Nutrition was (1) to give them a social point of view, an appreciation of 

 different economic levels which exi.st and how liome economics should func- 

 tion in these levels; (2) an opportunity to oljserve first hand the direct 

 effect of improper feeding and (3) to teach them to assume and carry the 

 responsibility for a de«finite piece of educational work. The instruction of 

 the school children was planned and given by the students in the schools, 

 and was followed up by home visiting. This field practice offered tlie stu- 

 dent an opportunity to take an active part in a real educational organiza- 

 tion, to study the nonnal recation of children to new types of instruction, 

 to apply the theories of psychology, to develop a method of health instruc- 

 tion which would demonstrate to the school children the relation between 

 food and health and themselves, and to observe the effect upon the family 

 health of the expenditure of the family income. 



The result achieved with the school children was to give (1) an under- 

 standing of the relation of health habits (food, sleep, fresh air) on the 

 growth and development of their bodies, (2) a keen interest in their health 

 as expressed by their weight and appearance and (3) to insure a family 

 interest in the proper food and health habits. 



GENERAL STATISTICAL DATA. 



Number of children handled in nutrition classes : 444. 



Number handled in small groups 375 



Number handled bv schoolrooms 1C4 



539 

 Less duplication 05 



444 

 Percentage of gain in excess of normal: 



Children handled in small groups 51.4% 



Children handled by schoolrooms 43.6% 



