Connecticut-Extension-Logo-Large

Navigating the Grocery Store Aisle: Use Our Game In Your Extension Program
August 25th, 2021

3 PM - 4 PM Eastern
 
Navigating the grocery store aisle is challenging for many consumers—especially those who want to buy the most nutritious food and stay within their budget.
 
Food manufacturers and distributors cover their boxed, canned, and bottled foods with labels like “whole grain” and “low-calorie” to suggest that their food has certain health benefits. Among the most misunderstood food marketing labels are “non-GMO,” “natural,” and “organic."
 
The UConn Extension New Technologies in Agricultural Extension (NTAE) team developed an interactive learning activity (or game), Unpeeled: The Case Studies of Maya McCluen. The purpose of this game is to increase audiences’ understanding of food marketing labels. The development of the game is made possible through support by the Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University. The Extension Foundation supports this team through key informant expertise to help grow the overall project.
 
Join us for an interactive session where we introduce the game and related content and share how you can use it in your Extension program.

Presenters

Stacey Stearns

Stacey Stearns is a Program Specialist focused on communications for Extension, and formal and informal reporting. She works with Extension teams on farm to community, Bug Week, GMOs, and trails. Stacey earned a bachelor of science in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut and a master of science in Agricultural Education and Communication from the University of Florida.

Picture1-1
Picture2

Cristina Connolly, Ph.D.

Cristina Connolly is an assistant professor at the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut. She has a Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics from The Ohio State University, an master of arts in Economics, from The Ohio State University, and a bachelor of arts in Economics/Spanish, from Middlebury College. Her research areas are local food, consumer behavior, and spatial econometrics.

Sharon Gray

Sharon Gray is a Cooperative Extension Educator at the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut. She supervises the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and does food and nutrition programming in the Hartford County Extension office. She oversees a number of Community Nutrition and 4-H Grants. She also handles food and nutrition questions from the public.

Picture3
Picture4

Xiuchun Tian, Ph.D.

Xiuchun (Cindy) Tian is a professor of animal science at the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources at the University of Connecticut. She has a master of science and a Ph.D. from Cornell University, where she conducted research in early pregnancy recognition and regulation of steroidogenesis in ovarian tissues. She received post-doctoral training as a recipient of a National Research Service Award from NIH in developmental genetics and molecular embryology at Cornell University and the University of Connecticut.