Abstract
This study empirically examined the actual level of elementary school children's knowledge of nutrition and the extent of current nutrition education for the children through the use of textbooks. Two or three classes were sampled from each of six schools, respectively, in Gangneung; of the 562 questionnaires that were distributed, 537 were returned and used for analysis. Respondents were all sixth-graders, on average boys and girls were 153.02$\pm$8.19㎝ and 152.79$\pm$7.15㎝ in height and 45.27$\pm$10.32㎏ and 43.33$\pm$7.46㎏ in weight, respectively, which was consistent with others' research. Most children had two siblings and a working mother, considered that they were well off, and their mother prepared meals. Children regularly had breakfast and dinner, although more children had dinner than breakfast. As a whole, their knowledge of the main nutrients contained in foods was lower than their general knowledge of nutrition. There were significant differences in knowledge of the main nutrients contained in foods, with girls showing more knowledge than boys (p<0.01). Most of them learned about nutrition at school, followed by home. At school, Practical Technology classes taught them the most about nutrition. Although Physical Education classes were expected to teach about nutrition in a quantitative way, they accounted for just 4.7% of the overall knowledge. As for the children's understanding of nutrition education through use of a textbook at school, just 19% of the students gained a very good understanding. As for interest in nutrition education at school, 22.2% of the students had no interest, while girls were more likely to have their interest in nutrition education at school affected by knowledge of nutrition than boys. For both boys and girls, the most desired method of education was cooking practice. More research across subjects is necessary so that nutrition education concentrated on the curriculum for fifth-graders can be provided by stages from the lower grades. Since cooking practice or games were preferred, it is necessary to develop nutrition education methods to incite active interest rather than passive education.