Best GEM Award for PEAS article, Hegde

Published Sep 25, 2024 by
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Dr. Archana (Anu) V. Hegde is co-author on an article that recently won the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior’s 2024 Best GEM (Great Educational Material) Award. The award is selected each year by the SNEB Journal Committee.

The article, “More PEAS Please! Teaching Teachers How to Integrate Food-based Learning Into Preschool Science,” was published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior in 2023. Lead author is Dr. Virginia C. Stage.

Dr. Archana Hegde, in purple, is pictured with other members of the “More PEAS Please” statewide grant team during a 2023 professional development session in Raleigh. (Contributed photo - by Charlie Dickens, CharlesDickensPhotography.com)

Dr. Archana Hegde, in purple, is pictured with other members of the “More PEAS Please” statewide grant team during a 2023 professional development session in Raleigh. (Contributed photo – by Charlie Dickens, CharlesDickensPhotography.com)

Hegde was announced by the ECU College of Health and Human Performance in August for the esteemed Nancy W. Darden Distinguished Professorship, thanks to her productivity in research, teaching and service to date, as well as her capacity to continue to make a positive impact through her scholarly activities in the disciplines of human development and early childhood education. Also representing ECU as co-author in the article was Dr. Tammy Lee with the Department of Science Education.

Articles in consideration for the award were evaluated on multiple layers of criteria, including importance of the problem addressed, creativity, contribution of knowledge and quality of design of research. This work relates to the collaborative work from a $1.32 million Science Education Partnership Award for expansive science exploration in preschool education, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

Hegde also was co-author for the open-access article, “Associations between Preschool Teachers’ Food-Based Learning Frequency, Level of Personal Priority and Identified Resources and Challenges: A Needs Assessment,” which was accepted for the Journal Nutrients. The first author, Dr. Jessica Resor, is an alum of the ECU Department of Human Development and Family Science and a research assistant professor for the NIH team.