LAUSR

Objective To evaluate Rev It Up!, a pilot nutrition education curriculum for teens, when it is taught by either paraprofessional or professional educators. Use of Theory or Research Research shows teens consume low levels of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods; and excessive levels of sugar-sweetened beverages and fast foods. Further, they do not meet physical activity (PA) recommendations. Rev It Up!, which was informed by the Theory of Planned Behavior, addresses these issues with teens, an audience at the inception of controlling their own food choices. Target Audience Urban teens (N=118) in high school health classes participating in the NJ Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). Eighty-five were taught by professional staff (2018-2019 school year); the other 33 were taught by paraprofessionals (2019-2020 school year). Program Description Rev It Up! is a 10-lesson curriculum that employs gamification to provide nutrition and PA education. Evaluation Methods The curriculum was assessed using the EFNEP 9-12th Grade Nutrition Education Survey, pre- and post-education. Results Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests revealed that, pre- to post-intervention, students taught by professionals reported improvements in fruit consumption (P  Conclusion Rev It Up! shows promise in being a curriculum that paraprofessionals can utilize to improve teen's nutrition behaviors. One limitation is that class periods were often too short to teach PA, which may account for the lack of reported improvements in PA behaviors. Future curriculum revisions should ensure that both nutrition and PA activities can be adequately addressed during allotted class periods. Funding Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.