Marian Koshland Science Museum



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Issues Research Lab

Fall 2012

About the Issues Research Lab

The Issues Research Lab (Lab) is a partnership of the Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences (the Koshland) and the Hispanic College Fund (HCF). The lab is intended to help Hispanic Youth Institute (HYI) participants consider an issue of importance to their community and develop recommended actions related to that issue based on evidence they collect. Lab participants will learn how to make decisions based on evidence, and to apply that skill to issues of importance in their lives.

In 2012, the issue of focus will be the effects of food marketing on nutrition. Participants in the Greater Washington HYI this summer selected that topic for study.

You’ll have the chance this fall to make some friends, connect with old ones, and to learn about an exciting new topic. You’ll work hard, but get a lot out of this. You are expected to stick to the schedule outlined on the next page.

If you would like to receive community service credit for your participation in this program, please send me the form required by your school. At the end of the program, you’ll receive a certificate of participation that includes the number of hours of service.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at any time:

Jeanne Braha Troy

202.334.1841

jtroy@nas.edu

Schedule

|Date |Activity |Location |

| | |(or where to submit work) |

|October 6 |Workshop |Koshland Science Museum |

|October 13 |Research Question and Teams Finalized |jtroy@nas.edu |

|Every week |Comments posted to KYRL Facebook page* |Facebook |

|Whenever you work |Make a notation and comments in your research log |Research Log – return at museum at end of |

| | |program |

|As needed |Optional conference calls about specific |number will be announced when workshops are|

| |methodologies or planning |scheduled |

|October 24 |Research Plans Complete |jtroy@nas.edu |

|November 5 |Data Collection Complete |jtroy@nas.edu |

|Tuesday November 6 |Workshop #2 |Koshland Science Museum |

|November 14 |Preliminary Conclusions Written |jtroy@nas.edu |

|November 21 |Posters Written for review |jtroy@nas.edu |

|Date TBD |Poster Presentation |Koshland Science Museum |

*Every student must post at least one new comment, or comment on other’s posts, on the Lab facebook page. You should offer ‘lessons learned’ from your group’s work, ask questions about challenges you face, or share ideas for your peers.

Research Group

Record the contact information for your research group members. You will be working together closely to develop your research plan, collect data, develop conclusions, and create recommendations.

Scientists and other professionals often collaborate on projects. Your work will model this practice.

|Name |Phone Number |Email Address |Preferred Method of Comunication |

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Research Methods

1. Identify the Issue

2. Research the Issue

3. Create a Hypothesis

4. Experiment or investigate (test the hypothesis)

5. Draw Conclusions

This is a general overview – these steps are described in more detail in the following pages. You will work with your group to develop a plan that you will then implement together. Some people use slightly different terms for each of the steps above, but the general process is the same. The next several pages of this booklet give a lot more detail about each of these steps. If you want more examples and guidance, check out the links below.

Some good resources for developing a research plan:

Your science book. Most textbooks start with a chapter or section on the scientific method. These tend to emphasize controlled experiments, but the general structure will also apply to social science research.

: Understanding Science: How Science Works – an overview of the process of science, with some tips for scientists (like you!).

: National Student Research Center – Section II on this page has a nice overview of the scientific method.

: Choosing appropriate research methodologies and methods – this site is written for graduate students, but has some very useful information about qualitative research methods.

One: Identify the Issue

This step is where scientists discover an issue they want to investigate. This may be the result of observations of the world around them (“Wow, I always see that bird at the feeder on days that are really sunny. I wonder what’s going on…?” or “It seems like people take longer to get on and off the bus during the winter. I wonder why?”) or new questions that arise from previous research they are currently doing. Once the kernel of an idea is identified, more observation and background is needed to refine the question.

In our case, each of you shared photos or a log that showcased the issue of food marketing in your community, and shared them with the group. Take some time to peruse the photos and reflect on what you’ve observed.

Some questions to consider (add your own, too!):

• What are the common themes you see?

• Are there different media that that seem to be more problematic or have more food marketing?

• What sorts of foods are most commonly marketed?

• What patterns do you think you see?

• How do the trends or patterns you see seem to impact your life?

|Use this space to note some of the trends you saw in food marketing: |

Two: Research the Issue

Research in this case means finding out what others have done previously to investigate this topic. You can do a literature review at the library. Professional scientists used peer-reviewed journals to share their work, so these are the primary sources for this step. However, scientists may also talk to others in their field to learn more about research in progress.

At the end of this booklet are some great websites with more information about the issue of food marketing and health. Peer-reviewed journals are very reliable sources of information, but can be rather heavy in specific jargon. Many also require subscriptions, though your school or public library may have access. These journals are considered so reliable because other scientists (the ‘peers’) review the work before it is published to ensure that it is credible. Also, research methodologies have to be explained, so they can be replicated by others and judged (by the reviewers and by readers) to be appropriate ways to answer the question being asked.

Remember, as you read through background material and take notes, to be sure to keep track of where you are finding information so you can cite the source in your final report or poster.

Use the space below to take notes on the expert information presented.

|Sarah Sliwa, Institute of Medicine: |

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|Magdalena Hernandez, Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative: |

Three: Create a Hypothesis

(What will you investigate?)

Based on what you now know about food marketing and health, and what you have seen in your (and others’) community, what would you like to investigate? Your group should create a hypothesis, or testable explanation of a phenomenon. The hypothesis helps you think about what you want to test.

The purpose of a hypothesis is to connect the manipulated changes made by the independent variable with the effects on the measurements of the dependent variable.

Huh?!

First a few vocab words:

• Manipulated changes: these are the changes you make in the experiment

• Independent variable: this is the thing in the experiment that you are manipulating (changing on purpose)

• Dependent variable: this is the thing that you think will change in response to the manipulations of the independent variable.

For example, say you want to know what effect packaging has on consumption of snack foods. You could hypothesize that using trendy packaging will increase the amount of chips eaten by a teenager.

• Here the dependent variable is the amount of chip consumption (how many chips or bags?).

• The independent variable is the packaging on the chips.

Four: Test the Hypothesis:

Developing Your Research Plan

How will you investigate your research question? This step requires a lot of planning to ensure that you are developing a test or investigation that will actually get at the question you have posed. Please use the Koshland staff and mentors to help you figure this out. Your science teacher may also be a good resource.

Your research plan should note the following:

• Will you do a controlled experiment, an observation, a survey, or some other form of research? How did you pick that method?

• What potential variables do you need to control? If you’re not doing a controlled trial, how will you account for these variables?

• Who or what is in your sample?

• What is your sample size?

Using our example from above, that trendy packaging will increase a teenager’s consumption of chips….

Things we might want to control include things like:

• What else have you eaten that day?

• Make sure all the chips are the same in appearance and taste

• What else?

Sample size:

A sample is meant to represent a larger population. There is no need to conduct your study on every member of a population – that would be a census – but the group needs to be large enough to avoid any accidental biases. This is sometimes a matter of judgment, and is an issue of quality, not just quantity. It also depends on what you want to be able to say with your data – what that larger population is.

For example: You have probably heard a lot about polling for the presidential election. Assume the voting public is about 1,000,000 people. The surveys are generally of a few thousand people. But they are carefully distributed, so about half are men and half are women; there is a mix of racial/ethnic groups that matches the U.S. public; the mix of income levels matches; etc. So a lot of time is spent calling people, asking them about those characteristics, and then conducting the survey. The analysts can ‘kick out’ responses from people who don’t fit the necessary groups.

Say you want to construct a sample to represent your school: step 1 would be to find out about your school. Look on the website to see if there is demographic information about the student body (male/female, numbers per grade, what % are English Language Learners, or what % are on the Free and Reduced Meal program, or other relevant characteristics). Also think about your hypothesis. What might affect someone’s media or food consumption? Do you think (for example), that students in the marching band tend to have healthier diets in general? Or do members of the a/v club tend to watch a lot more t.v. than most other students? You’ll need to adjust to make sure you don’t over-represent those people and bias your sample.

Talk to Koshland staff or your mentor about the appropriate sample size for your project.

Controlled trials vs. Quasi-experimental methods:

It’s much easier to do a controlled trial when doing a study of non-humans. For example, to test the impact of a specific drug treatment (medication) on a human would be challenging, so most companies start their work on animals, such as mice. They even breed the mice to be nearly identical in their genetics, and keep them in nearly identical homes with identical diets.

Rather than trying to control variables for humans, it’s often easier to simply account for normal variation. For example, in last year’s study of the impact of sleep debt on grades, Lab participants simply surveyed a large number of students. They could group them by the amount of sleep they were getting, and consider that the independent variable. The answer to the question, “how are your grades?” (they were a little more precise than that!) was the dependent variable.

Four and a half: Doing the Research:

Developing a plan is a huge step. Now it’s time to do it! The most important thing is to DOCUMENT all of your work. So before you start, think about how and where you will store all the information you collect. Be honest – if you interview someone and get wacky results, make a little note that it seems odd, but keep track of it. Since each project will be different, Koshland staff or your mentor can help you set up a spreadsheet or other document to track all of your data.

If you are doing a survey, allows you to create a survey for free that can be sent to others via email. The results are put into a spreadsheet for you.

Sharing your work with your group:

• is a free (you have to register) way to create a folder in the ‘cloud’ that is shared amongst a group. Jeanne can show you how to set it up.

• Googledocs is another way to share files remotely.

Both of these systems would allow you to have multiple group members enter data into one spot.

Five: Draw Conclusions

Now you have your evidence…….what can you say about it?

• Could you use your colleague’s evidence to strengthen your recommendations or argument?

• Are you positive?

• Can you say that x caused y?

• What other tests could you do to find out more?

• What areas of research remain?

Stay tuned – for now you should focus on creating and implementing an awesome research plan. Our workshop on November 5th will focus on what the data can tell you – you’ll receive a lot more information and assistance on this topic.

Six: Develop Recommendations

Developing recommendations is not part of the scientific method, but is an important part of using science to solve problems. This topic will also be covered on November 6th.

Seven: Present Your Findings

Your poster will be like a lab report: it will document the steps in the process that you took, and display your findings.

These posters will be displayed in the museum during the presentations, and you will be present to explain and answer questions about them. They should be clear, use proper grammar and spelling, include charts or other visual aids to demonstrate your findings, and properly cite all information sources.

A Powerpoint file will be uploaded to the group Facebook page that you can use as a template for your work. It will include sections for each step of the process:

1. Identify the Issue – share your initial investigations here. HINT: the Flickr site will be a great source of images for this section, as long as we have permission to use the photo from the person in it.

2. Research the Issue – Provide some review of the science of sleep and its effects. See the resource section below for some good references.

3. Create a Hypothesis

4. Experiment or investigate – this is generally the longest section. You should be very detailed about your methods.

5. Draw Conclusions

6. You should also add community recommendations based on your conclusions, if you feel you have sufficient evidence to do so.

If you do not have access to Powerpoint, you can make a poster by hand. If you can, please type your text into a word processing program and email it to Jeanne, or send the text in the body of an email.

Resources: Where to find information about food marketing and nutrition

National Academy of Sciences

The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council have written a few reports about food marketing. These tend to be written for technical audiences (such as other scientists and policymakers), but have fantastic information and very useful bibliographies. A few useful reports:

Institute of Medicine (2006) Food Marketing to Children and Youth. Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth, J. Michael McGinnis, Jennifer Appleton Gootman, Vivica I. Kraak, Editors. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Download here:

Institute of Medicine (2011) Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies. Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children; Leann L. Birch, Lynn Parker, and Annina Burns, Editors;

Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Download here: – of particular interest is Chapter 5, “Marketing and Screen Time”

A short summary of this report can be found here:

Institute of Medicine (2012) Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: solving the weight of the nation. Committee on Accelerating Pregress in Obesity Prevention, Food and Nutrition Board. Dan Glickman, Lynn Parker, Leslie J. Sim, Heather Del Valle Cook, and Emily Ann Miller, Editors. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press

Download here:

(with links to the poster about obesity prevention and the HBO series)

Food Marketing Working Group

Food Marketing 101

Accessed 9.26.12 at

The Food Marketing Workgroup is a network of more than 125 organizations and academic experts who are concerned about the proliferation of marketing of unhealthful foods and beverages that targets children and adolescents. This national network, convened by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG), is dedicated to eliminating harmful food marketing — particularly marketing aimed at those who are most vulnerable to obesity and other nutrition-related diseases — by actively identifying, investigating, and advocating changes to marketing practices that undermine health.

Center for Digital Democracy



See also some of their specific reports, including:

Interactive Food and Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age

(Full Report - PDF link)

(Brief Report - PDF link)

Written by Jeff Chester, Center for Digital Democracy, and Kathryn Montgomery, American University

 Today, U.S. children are confronting myriad diseases associated with excessive weight gain and poor nutrition. Type 2 diabetes, a serious medical condition previously found only in adults, has become common in children and adolescents. Government agencies and public health professionals have become increasingly concerned over the role of advertising in promoting "high-calorie, low-nutrient" products to young people. Most of the policy debate has focused on TV commercials targeted at young children. However, marketing now extends far beyond the confines of television and even the Internet, into an expanding and ubiquitous digital media culture. The proliferation of media in children's lives has created a new "marketing ecosystem" that encompasses cell phones, mobile music devices, instant messaging, videogames, and virtual, three-dimensional worlds. These new marketing practices are fundamentally transforming how food and beverage companies do business with young people in the twenty-first century.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

What Does Mobile and Digital Marketing Have to Do with Childhood Obesity?

Published: 06/01/2012; accessed at on 9.27.12

A wide-ranging body of research shows marketing to young people has a direct influence on the foods and beverages they consume. Food and beverage companies have advertised to children and teenagers via print and television outlets for years, but the media landscape has changed. These companies now are engaging young people in the digital world—and doing so in a highly engaging and effective manner.

• Foods and beverages advertised to young people are often high in calories and low in nutritional value and marketing influences what children consume.

• Digital technology is transforming how food and beverage companies market their products to young people, particularly African-American and Hispanic youths.

• The federal government has designed voluntary principles for companies to follow when marketing to young people, but has not yet finalized them.

Change Lab Solutions

, accessed 9.27.12

Report on Digital Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Problematic Practices and Policy Interventions

Food and beverage marketing has undergone a dramatic transformation in the digital age. Fast food, snack, and beverage companies are drawing from an expanding toolbox of sophisticated online and social media marketing techniques, and the next few years will see an explosive rise in new tactics targeted especially at young people.

This report details new digital marketing tactics now being used by fast food, snack food, and soft drink companies to target children and adolescents. It includes research on the impact digital marketing has on teenagers’ behavior, and the ways in which ethnic minority youth are particularly targeted.

 

In light of the childhood obesity crisis, this report is designed to help policymakers, scholars, health professionals, industry leaders, and consumer advocates develop and refine safeguards for protecting young people.

accessed on 9.27.12

Food and Beverage Marketing to Children in the Digital Age

Food and beverage companies are pioneering the use of digital media to market their products to children and adolescents. Until recently, television has been the focus of researchers and advocates exploring the affect of food and beverage marketing on the nation’s childhood obesity crisis.

The time has come to expand that focus to the broader digital marketing environment—including mobile phones and online videos, games, social networks, and virtual worlds—in which these companies are achieving unprecedented levels of engagement and intimacy with young people.

To inspire this work, NPLAN partnered with Berkeley Media Studies Group and the Center for Digital Democracy to commission issue briefs on the implications of food marketing to youth from leading experts on neurological development, the new media marketing environment, and the current regulatory landscape.

In addition, NPLAN and the Center for Digital Democracy released an in-depth report detailing new digital marketing tactics now being used by fast food, snack food, and soft drink companies to target children and adolescents. In light of the childhood obesity crisis, these resources are designed to help policymakers, scholars, health professionals, industry leaders, and consumer advocates develop and refine safeguards for protecting young people.

Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children



See in particular the research brief on the Influence of Media on Overweight and Obesity Among Latino Youth ()

Latino youth are more likely to be overweight or obese than their white peers (Figure

According to current estimates, more than 38 percent of Latino youth ages 2-19 in the United States are overweight and almost 21 percent are obese. The higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among Latino youth places them at greater risk for developing health and psychological problems such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, sleep apnea, depression, anxiety and psychological stress. These negative effects on Latino youth—and the nation as a whole—cannot be understated, as Latinos currently represent the most populous and fastest growing ethnic minority in the United States. In 2010, the 50.5 million Latinos in the United States comprised 16 percent of the total population—a figure that grew by 43 percent between 2000 and 2010. In the coming years, the negative effects felt in this large minority population will likely ripple through the health of the nation as a whole, resulting in greater health care expenditures, higher disability rates, lost work productivity, stunted economic growth, and perhaps even threats to national security.

Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity

- select “Food Marketing” from the dropdown menu

Food Marketing 101

Accessed at on 9.25.12

What kind of food is being marketed to children?

The overwhelming majority of the foods marketed are of poor nutritional quality.

• Three-quarters (73%) of the foods advertised on television shows intended for children are for convenience/fast foods and sweets.1

• On Nickelodeon, the most popular children’s television station, ads for foods of poor nutritional quality decreased only modestly from before self-regulation went into effect (2005) to after (2009), from about 90% to 80% of food ads.

• Only one-quarter of chain restaurants that market to children have food marketing policies and none of those address toys. Yet 99% of kids’ meals at the top chain restaurants are too high in calories.

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How does food marketing affect children’s health?

The rise in obesity among children and teens coincides with major changes in the way food and beverage industries market their products to youth.2

• According to the Institute of Medicine, TV advertising influences the diets of children ages 2-11.3

• There is strong evidence that exposure to television is linked to the body fat of kids and youth ages 2-18.4

• Aggressive food and beverage marketing targeted at kids and youth contributes to an environment that threatens their health.5

How do marketers reach children?

The total amount spent on food marketing to children is about $2 billion a year.6

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• Companies market food to children through television, radio, Internet, magazines, product placement in movies and video games, schools, product packages, toys, clothing and other merchandise, and almost anywhere a logo or product image can be shown.

• Food marketing techniques include the use of spokes-characters, celebrities, cartoons, toy giveaways and other premiums, collectibles, games, contests, kids’ clubs, and more.

• With a rise in digital media including online gaming and mobile phones, marketers are increasingly able to reach children directly, often without parents’ awareness.

How effective is food marketing?

There is no disputing that the goal of food marketing is to influence children’s food choices. Companies clearly believe that marketing works or they wouldn’t spend billions of dollars a year on it.

• According to a comprehensive review by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, studies demonstrate that television food advertising affects children’s food choices, food purchase requests, diets, and health.7

• Parents know from experience that ads and cartoon characters on food packages affect not only which foods their children ask them to purchase, but which foods their kids are willing to eat.

• Based on an extensive review of the research, the American Psychological Association concluded that until the age of about 8 years old children are unable to understand the persuasive intent of advertisements.8

 

When You Get Home

It’s time to get to work! Go back to the beginning of this workbook for a full list of deadlines. But you have a few to-do items for this weekend:

- Look for our invitation to the Issues Research Lab group on facebook

- Set up an initial meeting with your research group.

- Make a first entry into your research log about the workshop today.

- Have a healthy dinner!

Research Log

Purpose: The purpose of this document is for you to track the amount of time you spend on your research and determine which activities you have completed as you move through your Koshland Youth Research Lab research project. At the end of the project, the program director from the Koshland will review and approve your hours and activities.

This is also an opportunity for you to reflect on the process. You’re doing real scientific research. Sometimes research can be exciting and sometimes it can be very challenging. Scientists often keep journals to note their progress, write down hypotheses as they are going along, and to document their experiences.

Directions: Every time you work on something for the Koshland Youth Research Lab project, log the following items in your field journal:

1) What aspect of the research process did you work on?

a. Examples: team meeting, phone call, instrument development, data collection, data analysis, write up, presentation

2) How much time did you spend on the activity?

a. Examples: 30 minutes or 0.5 hours

3) What are your thoughts and feelings about the part of research you just spent time on?

a. Consider any challenges you faced

b. New things you learned

c. Guesses about what might happen next

Use the form below to capture each of these aspects of your research. Some examples have been provided for you.

|Date |Research task |Time spent on task |Reflection |

|10/8/2011 |Team meeting at the |3 hrs + 2 hrs travel |Today we met a pediatrician who talked to us about current sleep |

| |Koshland |time |research. I thought it was very interesting. She gave me some good ideas |

| | | |on ways that I could study sleep. I think I might use a survey and do |

| | | |some interviews with people in my family. |

|10/9/2011 |Research planning |2 hrs |I spent some time reviewing my notes from the meeting yesterday. I |

| | | |started sketching out my project. I think I will participate in a phone |

| | | |call with the museum staff to think through the development of my survey.|

|10/12/2011 |Phone call |30 mins |I talked with Jeanne from the museum today about how to design my survey.|

| | | |She helped me think about how I would recruit participants. I should be |

| | | |ready to start collecting data by the end of the week. |

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Before You Leave….

Thanks for your time today. Before you go, please take a few minutes to answer the following questions:

1. What are you unsure of? What questions remain for you? Knowing these questions will help us guide you and your peers during the next few weeks, and plan additional (phone call) training sessions.

2. On what topics would you like more information? Be as specific or broad as you need.

3. Generally, would you prefer to be contacted and stay in touch via:

← Email

← Facebook

← Googledocs

← Something else: _____________

4. For our meeting on November 6th, what time is best for you:

← 9:30 a.m. – 1:30p.m.

← 10:30 a.m. – 2:30p.m.

← 11:30 a.m. – 3:30p.m.

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Use this space to write your group’s hypothesis:

What is your dependent variable (what will change)?

What is your independent variable (what is being manipulated)?

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