Project LifeLab Food and Health - Innovative Teaching for the Future - Development of Student Active Learning Tasks for Home Economics Education in the 21st Century

Oct 15, 2026

Food and nutrition strongly influence human health, yet global dietary intake remains suboptimal, with children and adolescents often consuming too little fruit, vegetables and fish while taking in excessive saturated fat, salt and sugar. Norway’s mandatory school subject Food and Health is expected to build knowledge of the link between diet and health, supporting critical thinking, ethical awareness and responsible food choices. The LifeLab Food and Health project develops research-based active learning tasks for sixth- and ninth-grade students, presents learning activities, and evaluates students’ experiences in the Norwegian school context.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Nutrition, diet quality, and disease burden

Dietary guidelines and youth dietary patterns

Political priorities and action plans

Norway’s Food and Health subject and educational aims

LifeLab Food and Health learning tasks

doi: 10.26529/cepsj.1179 Project LifeLab Food and Health – Innovative Teaching for the Future: Development of Student Active Learning Tasks for Home Economics Education in the 21st Century Cecilie Beinert*1, Nina Cecilie Øverby2 and Frøydis Nordgård Vik2 • Food and Health, previously referred to as Home Economics, is a mandatory school subject in Norway. It has the unique advantage of giving all students, regardless of their social background, practical skills and knowledge, life skills that are important for their future health. In the LifeLab Food and Health project, we have developed a research-based and innovative teaching programme and evaluated how it is perceived in a school setting in Norway. This teaching programme is for use in Food and Health teacher education, but also in the education of primary and lower secondary school students in the same subject. LifeLab Food and Health consists of learning tasks in which students in the sixth and ninth grades in school gain first-hand knowledge and an understanding of life skills that are important to manage everyday life. In this paper, we present the learning activities developed and how the students experienced them. Examples of such learning tasks are tasks revealing the science behind dietary guidelines and the promotion of a healthy diet through student active tasks. Our aim is to establish LifeLab Food and Health as a “best practice” within master’s education in Home Economics at the University of Agder in Norway. Keywords: home economics, food and health, active learning tasks, life skills, school 1 *Corresponding Author. Department of Nutrition and Public Health, University of Agder, Norway; [cecilie.beinert@uia.no](cecilie.beinert@uia.no). 2 Department of Nutrition and Public Health, University of Agder, Norway. Projekt LifeLab prehrana in zdravje – inovativnopoučevanje za prihodnost: razvoj aktivnih učnih nalog za učence pri pouku gospodinjstva v 21. stoletju Cecilie Beinert, Nina Cecilie Øverby in Frøydis Nordgård Vik • Predmet prehrana in zdravje, prej imenovan gospodinjstvo, je na Norveškem obvezni šolski predmet. Njegova edinstvena prednost je, da vsemučencem, ne glede na njihovo socialno ozadje, omogoča pridobivanje praktičnih spretnosti in znanja, življenjskih veščin, ki so pomembneza njihovo zdravje v prihodnosti. V okviru projekta LifeLab Food and Health (slov. LifeLab prehrana in zdravje) smo razvili na raziskavah temelječ in inovativen učni program ter ocenili, kako ga dojemajo v šolskem okolju na Norveškem. Učni program je namenjen uporabi priizobraževanju učiteljev na področju prehrane in zdravja pa tudi pri izobraževanju osnovnošolcev in dijakov nižjih razredov srednjih šol priistem predmetu. Projekt LifeLab prehrana in zdravje je sestavljen iz učnih nalog, pri katerih učenci v šestem in devetem razredu iz prve roke pridobivajo znanje in razumevanje življenjskih veščin, ki so pomembneza obvladovanje vsakdanjega življenja. V tem prispevku predstavljamo razvite učne naloge in kako so jih učenci doživljali. Primera takih učnih nalog sta nalogi, ki razkrivata znanstveno ozadje prehranskih smernic in spodbujanje zdrave prehrane z aktivnimi nalogami učencev. Naš cilj je vzpostaviti oblike dela, razvite v okviru projekta LifeLab prehrana in zdravje, kot »najboljšo prakso« v okviru magistrskega izobraževanja na področju gospodinjstva na Univerzi Agder na Norveškem. Ključne besede: gospodinjstvo, prehrana in zdravje, aktivne učnenaloge, življenjske veščine, šola Introduction Data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study (Afshin et al., 2019) reveals the essential role food and nutrition play in human health. Globally, the intake of healthy foods and nutrients is suboptimal, while the intake of unhealthy foods and nutrients is higher than the desired amount. Most of the disease burden related to diet is a result of a too low intake of whole grains and fruit, and a high intake of sodium (Afshin et al., 2019) . Although the diet of

FAQs

What problem does the paper address regarding youth nutrition?

It highlights that intake of healthy foods and nutrients is suboptimal globally, and in Norway children and adolescents still consume too little fruit, vegetables and fish, and too much saturated fat, salt and sugar.

Why is healthy habit formation important for children and adolescents?

Dietary habits track into adulthood, so establishing healthy habits early is essential for long-term health outcomes.

What is LifeLab Food and Health?

A research-based, innovative teaching programme built around student active learning tasks for sixth- and ninth-grade students, designed to develop life skills and understanding of everyday health management.

Oct 15, 2026

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