Spicing Up Introductory Nutrition
Authors: Levitsky David A. 
Published: November 2023

To maintain the fascination of 600 students three times a week one must use the techniques of a performer. The most powerful tool I use is my passion for subject. In addition, I keep the students expecting the unexpected. As the students enter the auditorium for the lecture, I play food songs. When I discuss the energy sources the body uses at various stages of exercise, I undress to my running shorts and run around the auditorium for various periods of time, each time explaining what fuels my muscles were using. I use PowerPoint to its fullest extent, using animations to draw complicated diagrams, making use of sounds for humor and surprise. I frequently include short videos that either explain in a more animated fashion or illustrate conditions that I am discussing in class.

I regularly interrupt my lecture with Dave's Dietary Delusions where I show advertised products related to a subject I'm lecturing and point out the weakness, inaccuracies or falsehoods in the advertisements or their label. I teach students how to think critically about nutrition and health by discussing common ideas about nutrition, breaking them down into scientific questions, then reviewing the evidence. The paper I assign asks them to pick any controversy in nutrition, find two scientific articles on one side, two on the other, critically evaluate each study for its strengths and weaknesses, then draw a conclusion as to which side of the controversy is the strongest. To grade the papers, I use a feature on BlackBoard called peer assessment where each student grades three other students. I provide the rubric describing what I am looking for and the number of points designated.

I have a special session before and after each exam. Before the exam I present them with questions as well as offer the students an opportunity to ask their questions. In addition, at the end of each set of lectures, I recite a rap song I wrote that summarizes the major points of the previous section. After the exam, I hold a rebuttal session where I discuss any question the student may have answered incorrectly and offer them the opportunity to write a rebuttal describing the rationale of why they believe their answer is correct. If they provide a reasonable argument, I give them credit for that question on their exam. The answer sheets are graded electronically. I receive an electronic file containing the answer of each question by each student. I remove any question where 50 percent or fewer students answered correctly.

The structure of the course is not organized around nutrients, but rather by diseases whereby I integrate the nutrients into the understanding of the pathology or treatment of disease. Thus, I integrate the role of fiber into a discussion of the diseases of the GI tract or the Krebs cycle when I discuss weight control or protein when I talk about cancer.

I cook in front of the students once each month where I demonstrate simple techniques such as stir‐frying or the use of the slow‐cooker to show them how to prepare healthy meals quickly and inexpensively, then have them sample the food at the end of class.

I record each lecture using Panopto which includes not just my PowerPoint presentations, but a video of me while I'm lecturing. The students have access to these lectures within several hours after I deliver it. This procedure reduces the number of students who attend the lectures by about 20 percent, but the students who attend want to hear me lecture which, in turn, feeds my passion to teach nutrition and improves the quality of my lectures.