The school-age year, age 6 to 12 years, frequently define as a period of calm before the storm of adolescence. Dramatic changes occur during this period, when one compares the size of the beginning school-age child with those of one entering adolescence. The children growth more slowly in height and weight than in infancy and adolescence, but growth occurs at a steady space. The child develops new motoric skill and perfects it through practice. Mental abilities grow remarkably as the children learn to read, write, and understand mathematics and other academic subjects. As motoric and mental abilities develop through exposed to school and peer relationship, a sense of competence develop as well. Competencies also develop with a child’s emotional connections to peers and others outside the family (Edelman and Mandle, 2006). The Health Ministry of Republic Indonesia (2014) reported that around 30.7% children age range 5 to 12 years malnutrition were measure with height and weight (H/W), 12,3% of them stunted, and 18,4% underweight. Papua has the highest rate of stunted prevalence 34,5 %. While prevalence of malnutrition were measured with Body Mass Index to Age (BMI/A) 11% of children range 5-12 year under weight consisting of 4,0% thin and 7,2% under weight. Papua is one of the six provinces that have higher level of underweight. Education is effective to influence school age children to choose healthy life style, one the others factor influence nutritional in school age are children nutritional status. This research purpose was to identify the influence of nutritional education using real things toward students’ knowledge. This study used a quasi-experimental one-group pre-posttest design. Sample consisted of 55 people were taken using total sampling technique. Statistical analyzed showed students’ knowledge in good category increased 40% after intervention. Paired t-test found there were significant differences between students’ knowledge before and after intervention with p-value 0.070 (ӕ < 0,05); CI 95%: 0.87 – 0.78. Nutritional educations using the real things were effective to improve students’ knowledge. It’s suggested to develop nutritional knowledge by using another method based on children’s growth and development, and the environment where they live.
Keywords: School, child, nutrition, education, and real things Introduction