5 December 2016: Students from Giralang Primary School will visit the University of Canberra TODAY to meet the graphic designers they worked with to create a report card aimed at curbing childhood obesity.
A group of third-year graphic design students from the University have worked closely with the third and fourth graders from Giralang Primary this year to develop the system to help children in reaching healthy fitness levels and maintaining positive body weight.
The Physical Activity and Lifestyle Management (PALM) card system uses fitness and body weight standards based on measurements taken from almost 30,000 primary school-aged children – 75 per cent of whom attend schools in the ACT.
Guidelines to meeting these standards have been included on the PALM cards to help children remain active and healthy as they continue to grow.
University of Canberra professor of public health Tom Cochrane, who co-authored a research paper on the concept, said the PALM cards would act as an important tool in combating the rise in overweight children.
“We developed these monitoring and progression standards to provide parents and school communities with guidelines around fitness and body weight standards for primary school aged children,” Professor Cochrane said.
“We know that students’ activity levels have been declining for many years. We hope that these standards will give kids something to work to, and help reverse these worrying trends.”
Led by the University’s Health Research Institute and Cross-Cultural Design Lab, the primary schoolers participated in a number of workshops over the last 12 months which encouraged them to think about their own health and wellbeing.
Students completed drawings and filled in questionnaires created by the University’s budding graphic designers to assist them with concepts for the PALM cards.
University of Canberra assistant professor of graphic design and founder of the Cross-Cultural Design Lab Dr Lisa Scharoun said involving the children in the design process will yield greater buy-in from students and parents.
“By using a co-design process, we will hopefully see the PALM card system successfully rolled out and adopted by parents and children,” Dr Scharoun said.
“Encouraging input from the students fosters a sense of ownership in the system. We’re confident this will translate to the children embracing and using it.”
The winning report card, as voted by the primary schoolers, will be considered in the final design before being trialled at schools across the ACT.
*Professor Cochrane and Dr Scharoun are available for interview
Contact the University of Canberra media team:
Claudia Doman: 0408 826 362
Antony Perry: 0434 795 919