Are you interested in the health of children and finding out their optimal nutrition? Then you should sign up for this minor! Proper nutrition is a key factor for growing up healthy. Unfortunately, not all children have a healthy daily diet. This has great impact on their physical, mental and social development. Children have specific nutritional requirements in healthy situations and, even more, during diseases. In this minor you’ll learn a new and creative, user-centered, way to solve problems, which will provide you skills useful in many aspects of your professional work. You’ll explore a problem, about nutrition in children, from different perspectives and will empathize and define the problem. You have a lot of freedom in your own project. In the second part of the minor, you’ll describe different solutions, build a prototype and test it for specific target groups and stakeholders.

During the minor, you’ll work according to Design Thinking principles. The minor will start with an orientation phase by studying the general aspects of nutrition for children with or without health problems.
After the orientation phase, you’ll chose a target group, provided by stakeholders in the work field. Perspectives of different stakeholders will be examined. What is the problem, for whom is it a problem, why is it a problem and how big is the problem? To solve this problem, you work together with a team of approximately 6 students.

To complete the assignment, you’ll work through the phases of Design Thinking. Each phase last for 3 weeks.
Phases of Design Thinking:
• Empathize: gain insights and needs of the target groups/users
• Define: define the specific problem
• Ideate: create solutions from different perspectives
• Prototype: design a solution for the problem, this has to be made visible even if it is an intervention or app.
• Test: test, improve and retest the prototype within the team and with future users

After following this course you have the ability to:
Orientation Phase:
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the impact of nutrition its consequences on quality of life for children;
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding performing assessment of nutritional status, growth and nutritional requirements of children in different age ranges
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of different ways supporting children learning to eat;
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of aetiology of common nutrition related diseases which origin in childhood;
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of pediatric formulas in the clinical setting
• critically analyse national and international guidelines relating to prevention and management of health and disease of children;
• critically appraise the evidence to support strategies available to promote behavioural change;

Empathize Phase:
• to select the best available evidence (from scientific literature and uses the relevant information to gain insights and need of the specific target group;
• prepare and conduct open and semi-structured interviews with the target group and stakeholders about personal values and perspectives on health;

Define Phase:
• demonstrate how choices are made for the design of a practice based study and demonstrate the choice for the most suitable (research) instruments;
• to communicate their understanding of the problem;

Ideate Phase:
• phrase several different perspectives regarding a formulated solution and can communicate possible dilemma’s which go along with the chosen solution’
• use brainstorming as an ideation technique to facilitate concept creation;

Prototype Phase:
• students can analyse and use data gained from the ideate phase to design a prototype;
• students can use physical and paper prototypes and storyboard to make their design vision tangible and visual;
• explain why the prototype has to be tested by the end-user;
• use insights gathered by testing the prototype by the target group;

Implementation Phase:
• are able to demonstrate understanding of the needs of the end user in relation to implementation of the product/service in the organisation of the client/stakeholder.

Third and fourth year students who are interested in solving issues with the method of design thinking and/or are interested in Child Nutrition in Disease and Health.

Articles will partly be provided by the lectors. You are motivated to search for evidence based information yourself or collect information by talking to experts or interviewing target groups.

Teaching methods & division of study load

In general every phase of the minor will contain the following teaching methods:
• You will prepare yourself for every lesson by making preparation assignments. Besides reading or watching literature/information, every assignment consists of an active learning component, you will make an empathy map, a problem statement, a prototype of the solution
• Thematic lessons. In these lessons relevant expertise will be integrated in specific themes (for example the prevention or treatment of food allergy). The assignments during the lessons always have an active component (learning by doing). Preparation assignments are discussed.
• Guest lectures
• interviewing the client / target group. Aim: to discuss the assignment.
• Project groups: the project groups will work during guided (supervised by a tutor) and unguided project groups on the different phases of Design Thinking and the different products.
• Workshops: for example a workshop Business Canvas Model.

Lecture 4 hours per week

Workshop 4 hours per week

Design thinking/guided project group meetings 4 hours per week

Contact hours per week
You have 12 contact hours per week. Teaching is scheduled on Monday and Thursday morning.

The minor consists of 6 phases (orientation, empathize, definition, ideate, prototype and test phase) according to the design thinking cycle. Each phase ends with an individual or a project group assignment. Your student team (approximately 6 students) will deliver professional products:

Testing:
The first 3 weeks (Introduction) will be tested individually:
• position paper (5 ECTS); result of the introduction phase


In other phases of the Design Thinking method group products need to be handed in at the end of each phase:  
• empathy map (5 ECTS); result of empathize phase  
• problem statement (5 ECTS): result of the define phase  
• design alternatives (5 ECTS): result of the design phase  
• prototype (5 ECTS); result of the prototype phase  
• evaluation and definite design (5 ECTS); result of test phase  

Each product consists of three different parts:  
• product  
• evidence  
• reflection  

Each product will be assessed with a rubric.  

The final mark is given only when the assessments are all at least 5,5 and is calculated as a weighted average of the assessments where the weight corresponds to the study load.

Do you have questions about this minor? Do not hesitate to contact the lecturer(s).

Are you a student at The Hague University of Applied Sciences? Then you can register through Osiris.

Curious about all the KOM minors of The Hague University of Applied Sciences? You will find an overview in the KOM Minorkrant (brochure) of THUAS.