Developing evaluating the impact of an extension-based train-the-trainer model for effectively disseminating food safety education to middle school students

Abstract

Adolescents are an understudied, but meaningful, population when it comes to food safety education. With the proliferation of pathogenic microbes and changes in eating habits of Americans, today's youth are more at risk of contracting a foodborne illness than previous generations. Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms provides effective food safety education for adolescents. However, rapid expansion of the program created the need for a train-the-trainer model of professional development. The study reported here evaluated the efficacy of a trainthe-trainer model. Results indicate that the model can effectively train classroom teachers to implement the Hands On program. © by Extension Journal, Inc.