English

The multicomponent health promotion program Join the Healthy Boat developed for kindergarten and primary school children aims at increasing everyday physical activity, active leisure times, higher consumption of fruits and vegetables as well as a reduction of screen media use and a decreased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Join the Healthy Boat pursues the aims and contents of the current curriculum for primary schools and kindergartens. Children are meant to gain competencies concerning their health behavior and encouraging them to making the healthier choices.

The program offers lecture material (in German) developed by the research team in close collaboration with experienced primary school and kindergarten teachers. It is designed to be used directly during school lessons and break times as well as in the daily routine of kindergartens.

Dissemination and Sustainability

In order to guarantee a long-term implementation of the program as well a spreading throughout all districts of Baden-Württemberg the train-the-trainer approach is applied. Selected kindergarten/primary school teachers from all 44 districts in southwest Germany train other participating kindergarten/primary school teachers in the main topics of the program and show them how to use the (free) materials. These training courses take place on two days with the beginning of each kindergarten/school year. The trainers in turn are trained twice a year by an interdisciplinary scientific team at Ulm University. The advantages of such an approach lie in its cost-effectiveness and a high acceptance amongst participants as it is promoted by colleagues and not external experts.