Deakin University HSN708 Assignment 1: Nutrition Promotion Overview

This document presents a comprehensive overview of HSN708 Assignment 1, focusing on nutrition promotion session planning. The assignment requires students to develop a detailed session overview for a 1.5-hour nutrition promotion session, targeting specific groups such as preschool parents, primary school teachers, or university/TAFE administrators. The session plan must incorporate evidence-based strategies, address influences on eating behaviour, and apply relevant behaviour change and learning principles. The assignment also includes an evaluation component, outlining program evaluation methods and how the outcomes will be utilized. The session plan is designed to convince the manager that council resources are being used effectively. The document also provides an overview of Assignment 2, which requires a program plan and a cover letter for a healthy eating program in a local high school, addressing the school's food environment and involving various stakeholders. The assignment aims to develop skills in evidence-based proposals, program planning, stakeholder engagement, and evaluation.

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HSN708 Assignment Overview, 2018
The two assignments for HSN708 are designed to build on each other, so that feedback on Assignment
assist you in preparing Assignment 2.
Assignment 1 is designed to assess the content of Modules 1 and 2, and Assignment 2 primarily assess
content from Modules 3 and 4.
Assignment 1 asks students to prepare a Session Overview, i.e. to develop a one-off nutrition promotio
session plan designed for small group delivery. This task requires a reasonably high level of detail rega
the content, and evidence and rationale for this content. You may choose the target group from the op
provided (below), but your promotion strategy must focus on session planning (not other potential nutr
promotion strategies). Feedback on Assignment 1 will be released by Monday 7th May, in plenty of tim
weeks) to be useful before Assignment #2 is due.
Assignment 2 asks students to prepare a Program Plan (and Cover Letter). Assignment 2 differ
Assignment 1 as it requires you to produce a higher level of work than a single session plan, and encom
a variety of the other elements which are important in nutrition promotion. The Program Plan is broade
nature and therefore contains less details about the individual strategies than the Assignment 1 Sessio
and more consideration of the environment in which nutrition promotion might occur. The Program Plan
must address the specified scenario, but students may choose from a variety of potential strat
propose and justify.
The assignments have been designed to address previous feedback from both markers and stu
particular, in response to markers’ previous comments about the theoretical nature of assessments, th
have been re-designed to focus on practical workplace skills, such as evidence-based proposals, progr
planning, stakeholder engagement, and evaluation. Also, in response to students’ previous comments
unclear linking between assignments and requesting more assignment information early in trim
complete overview of all assignment information is being provided by Week 1.
These assignments has been designed to assist you to develop and
demonstrate your achievement of the following ULOs:
Assignment #1 Assignment #2
ULO1: Discuss the foundations, scope and role of nutrition
promotion and use the relevant theories.
Yes
ULO2: Analyse and compare the purposes, requirements, strengths
and limitations of nutrition promotion at the levels of
individual/group, settings and community.
Yes Yes
ULO3: Demonstrate professional communication and advocacy in
nutrition promotion for a variety of settings, audiences and
mediums.
Yes Yes
ULO4: Propose appropriate, practical, evidenced based strategies
for facilitating behaviour change by applying understanding of
influences on behaviour.
Yes Yes
ULO5: Demonstrate effective evidenced based, tailored, practical
program planning and evaluation planning for nutrition
promotion.
Yes Yes

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HSN708 Assignment #1: Nutrition Promotion Session Overview
Due date: Tuesday 16th April, 11.59pm AEST
 Word length: 2200 words (There will be no 10% allowance. Any words in excess of the 2200 word
limit will not be read or marked)
 Weighting: 45% of unit mark
 Submission: via CloudDeakin dropbox
 Please report word count and student ID on front page (there is no cover sheet)
 Please ensure you refer to the rubric (uploaded separately) for further details about the assessm
criteria and the weighting of each section.
 Please also refer to the information about Assessments in the Unit Guide and Your rights and
responsibilities as a student in this Unit.
Assignment scenario:
You have just commenced a new position in Health Promotion (Nutrition) at a local council in the outer
suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. This area incorporates some new housing estates, and is classified as lo
SEP according to the SEIFA. The health promotion division is concerned about the low rates of healthy e
in the area, so is directing additional resources to address this issue, and your position has been create
addition to that of another nutritionist. When you arrive on your first day, the existing nutritionist tells y
that one of your first jobs will be running group education sessions aimed at the promotion of
eating. Based on a needs assessment in the local area, the following are the priority target groups – yo
choose which of the following existing activities you would like to take over (please choose one):
- Preschool parents: A program where interested kindergartens (and long day care centres) in the
local area have signed up for the Nutritionist (you!) to come and speak with children’s par
(mostly women aged 25-40) about healthy eating for young children.
- Primary school teachers: A program where interested primary schools in the local area have sign
up for the Nutritionist (you!) to come and speak with staff (mostly females aged 20-50,
healthy eating for children).
- Administrators from the local university and TAFE (including cafe managers). Interested staff fro
these institutions have signed up to hear the Nutritionist (you!) speak about the promoti
healthy eating among students (mainly aged 18 to 25 years) and to provide healthier food optio
in their institutions.
You will be running a one-off, 1.5 hour session with a group of 20-30 people at a time.
Task:
The managers at the local council are currently reviewing the existing council health promotion activiti
check that they are the best use of resources – in particular checking that evidence-based strategies ar
implemented and that the activities are evaluating and achieving outcomes relevant to the council prio
of promoting healthy eating. Your task is to prepare a formal Session Overview for your manager that o
how and justifies why council resources (i.e. your time as a Health Promotion Officer) are being utilised
this nutrition promotion activity.
Suggested structure:
Introduction (15%)
- Briefly outline why the promotion of healthy eating is important in this target population (i.e.
preschool or primary children, or university/TAFE students).
- Briefly discuss the links between eating behaviour and children’s (or young adults’) health and
well being. (You are recommended to choose and justify a focus on specific elements of

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nutrition/eating here, to inform your subsequent goals.)
Propose and justify an evidence-based Session Plan to address the nutrition issue (50% total),
incorporating:
- Discuss some key influences on eating behaviour relevant to the target audience, and explain ho
your session plan will address these.
- Describe a relevant behaviour change theory, and how this will inform your session plan.
- Discuss learning principles relevant to the target audience and explain how your session plan
incorporates these.
- State the goal and objective(s) of your nutrition promotion session.
- Propose a practical, evidence-based session plan outlining the strategies, elements and key
resources that you will incorporate to engage participants.
Evaluation (15%)
- Briefly describe how you will evaluate the program, including the type(s) and method(s) of
evaluation.
- Briefly indicate how the evaluation outcomes will be utilised.
Analysis and conclusion (15%)
- Briefly discuss the key strengths and limitations of your proposed nutrition promotion program in
addressing the promotion of healthy eating in this target group.

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HSN708 Assignment #2: Nutrition Promotion Program Plan
Due date: Tuesday 28th May, 11.59pm AEST
 Word length: 2200 words including letter (there will be no 10% allowance - any words in excess o
the 2200 word limit will not be read or marked)
 Weighting: 45% of unit mark
 Submission: via CloudDeakin dropbox
 Please report word count and student ID on front page (there is no cover sheet)
 Please ensure you refer to the rubric (uploaded separately) for further details about the assessm
criteria and the weighting of each section.
 Please also refer to the information about Assessments in the Unit Guide and Your rights and
responsibilities as a student in this Unit.
Assignment scenario: Assume that you completed your Postgraduate Nutrition qualifications at Dea
last month, and you are now working as a Health Promotion Officer (Nutrition) at a local council in a
outer eastern suburb of Melbourne. The CEO of the local council in very interested in the poor state
adolescents and young people’s food consumption and would like to spend council funds on a healt
eating program for the period 2019-2021.
Whilst the CEO would like to develop a program covering most sectors within the council area, she i
particularly interested in developing a healthy eating program in the local high school with which th
council has already developed positive relationships in the sports and young employment domains.
The local state high school is pretty impressive by most measures. It has over 2000 students drawn
over 30 ethnicities. The students come from a mix of SEP backgrounds. The school has a strong
Indigenous student program and extensive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathemati
programs. The students have excelled in VCE and VCAL examinations in these subjects. The school
renowned for the wide array of sports that it offers students. These have been largely supported by
parents who have conducted many fundraising activities (including chocolate drives) to support the
The school principal is concerned about the poor food consumption of many of her students and is
interested in health promotion, especially physical activity and healthy eating. However, she believe
that health and food choices are largely an individual responsibility. She has agreed that the school
engage in nutrition promotion efforts from 2019-21, and has suggested the focus of these should be
seminars, workshops and education sessions.
The school is close to a shopping strip that has several fast food outlets that students (and parent) u
often. The school has a canteen and several vending machines that mainly serve energy dense, nu
poor products (e.g. pies, hot chips, cakes, confectionery, hot chips, sugar sweetened beverages). M
students and teachers use the canteen several times per week.
Two home economics teachers are employed to teach home economics in the middle school and VC
Food Studies in the senior school. They have access to a small kitchen where students can learn bas
cooking skills.
The school is in close proximity to a wholesale fruit and vegetable market and to several large scale
market gardens as well as several dairy and other farms.
A recent needs assessment undertaken February-March 2019 has identified the following informatio

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• The school has about 80 teaching staff, 20 technical staff (mainly for science and sport).
• Almost all students take a short course in Home Economics in Year 8 but only a minority take the
optional VCE food Studies (VCE Health and Human Development ) in years 11 and 12.
• In a recent survey many students commented that the school’s food environment does not suppo
messages that are taught in food and nutrition subjects, which are based on the Australian Dietary
Guidelines. Some students see this situation as hypocritical.
• The Home Economics teachers feel that they are not allocated enough time and resources to teac
about healthy eating.
• The school canteen staff’s priorities in choosing food to sell in the canteen were taste and cost –
though they were not adverse to healthy choices as long as they still tasted good and weren’t more
expensive.
• The canteen staff (numbering eight to 10 in al, mainly part time workers) have relevant food safet
training, but no health promotion training. The manager’s main priority is to ensure that the cantee
does not run at a loss as the profits it makes go towards supporting the school’s excellent sports
program. However, the staff are open to health promotion ideas as long as they do not require larg
time or financial commitment.
• No previous nutrition promotion initiatives have been implemented in the school during the past fi
years
• A recent national survey of parents of adolescents showed that parents regard the acquisition of f
and nutrition knowledge and skills as very important. Many would like to see more time allocated to
type of learning.
Task:
Your first job will be to convince the principal that broader, multi-component initiatives across the w
school community are likely to be more successful healthy eating promotion strategies than the sol
reliance on classroom education. You should write a one page letter to:
• Introduce yourself to the school principal, briefly highlighting your background and expertise
relevant to this role.
• Advocate for a broad range of healthy eating strategies for the whole school (e.g. using a social
ecological framework as a guide). This would include classroom activities as well as the school
canteen.
o You may include a few key references in the letter, but the reference list must also fit on the sam
page (you may use an abbreviated reference format but it should still give the reader enough
information to be able to find your reference).
Assuming your efforts above are successful, and the principal agrees to implement broader strategi
your next task is to prepare a Program Plan that outlines how nutrition promotion will be implement
in this setting.
Your program plan should include:
• A brief introduction to the issue, the importance of nutrition promotion, and the purpose of this
document - Based on the introduction, determine needs/priorities, and identify a goal and two or thr
objectives for the nutrition promotion program.
• Propose an appropriate number of practical, complimentary, evidence-based strategies to be

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implemented in this setting (2-3 strategies are recommended).
• Incorporate at least one existing community-level strategy (i.e. for the whole school community
including students, teachers and other staff , and perhaps parents).
• The strategies themselves should be described only briefly, not in great detail, with greater emph
on why these strategies are important, appropriate, complementary and likely to be effective in this
setting, and with references to further information - Propose a timeline for the program (mid 2019 –
end 2021) .
• Explain the order in which strategies will be implemented and whether, why and how they might
overlap. Include time allowance for planning, implementation and evaluation o In order to concisely
present sufficient detail, you may use a table, flowchart or simple gantt chart – this is included in th
word count.
• Describe plans for stakeholder engagement o For example, identify: Who are the stakeholders with whom you will engage regarding each of the proposed strategies What the interactions might involve (e.g. staff training, or program update meetings), and Time points/periods when this will occur
• Outline the evaluation and dissemination plan.
o Identify what measures you will use, specify how these will assess your objectives, and briefly exp
how the evaluation will be implemented.
o Briefly suggest how you could make this initiative an exemplar for other high schools and settings
young people, and hence have broader reach across the community than the one setting where you
working.
6 : Further assignment information:
Does the assignment need to be presented in any particular way?
The letter component of Assignment #2 should be a professional document appropriate for sending
a third party, and should be formatted and presented as such. The Session Outline and Program Pla
documents you submit should be in an appropriate format for sharing with colleagues in a workplac
There are no specific requirements for font size, margins, headings etc. – as a Postgraduate student
expected that you can undertake your own research and use professional judgement in deciding on
elements required for a professional, clear, legible, consistent document. Word documents are best
submission to CloudDeakin.