Changing the course: a school nutrition and cancer education curriculum developed by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.

Increasing evidence exists linking eating patterns and risk of several major chronic diseases, including cancer. The focus of the "Changing the Course" curriculum is to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to enable them to adopt cancer risk reducing eating behaviors. A behavioral approach is used, involving acquisition of pertinent background information, evaluation of personal intake patterns, decision-making skills, goal-setting, and evaluation of success in achieving goals. The curriculum involves about 20 hours of action-oriented core instruction, five hours of optional activities, and 10-15 hours of home assignments. Educational strategies involve independent activities such as individual food records, cooperative or team activities and quizzes, and out-of-classroom assignments such as inventorying fruits and vegetables at home. Pilot-tested in four states, the curriculum will be revised based on pilot evaluation data and disseminated nationwide through American Cancer Society divisions and volunteers.