Planet Health : An Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Teaching Middle School Nutrition and Physical Activity

An interdisciplinary curriculum encourages active, inquiry-based learning and discusses the integration of four health themes into physical education, mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies classes.

Jill Carter, MA, MEd, is a project director for the Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. From 1996 to 1997 she was the curriculum development coordinator for the School-Based Wellness Initiative in the department of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health. Carter’s years of experience as a high school and middle school science teacher provided her with the experience to design a curriculum that encourages active, inquiry-based learning across multiple disciplines. She earned her master of education degree in teaching and curriculum from Harvard University and her master of arts degree in exercise physiology from the University of Iowa.

Jean Wiecha, PhD, serves as deputy director at the Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. From 1994 to 1997, as a project director for the School-Based Wellness Initiative in the department of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health, she managed the federal research grant to develop, implement, and evaluate Planet Health. Dr. Wiecha earned her doctoral and master of science degrees in human nutrition from Tufts University.

Karen E. Peterson, RD, ScD, is an associate professor of nutrition in the departments of maternal and child health and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health as well as co-investigator at the Harvard Prevention Research Center. She draws from 15 years of experience counseling and administering nutrition services for children in clinical, community, and state health care settings. Dr. Peterson was co-principal investigator of the Planet Health intervention trial. She earned her doctorate in nutrition from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Steven L. Gortmaker, PhD, is a senior lecturer in the department of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health and principal investigator and director of the Harvard Research Prevention Center. He was also principal investigator of the Planet Health intervention trial. For the past 20 years, he has researched and practiced in the areas of children’s nutrition and physical activity and has published more than 80 research articles. He was involved in early studies to document the increase of obesity in young people and television viewing as a cause of obesity. He earned his doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.