Nazia Afrin Trina, an international graduate student in Texas Tech University's Department of Landscape Architecture, placed first in the Texas Tech University Obesity Research Institute's Graduate Student Poster Competition. The honor was presented during the organization's eighth annual meeting on Wednesday (May 3) at the Texas Tech University Health Science Center Academic Event Building. 

The title of Trina's presentation was, “Using real fruit and vegetables (FV) and supplemental photos to understand the impact of garden intervention on preschool children's FV eating preferences.” One of the findings of the research project was that children's learning, particularly their knowledge of fruit and vegetables can be improved by gardening.

Her academic advisor on the project was Muntazar Monsur, an assistant professor in Tech's Department of Landscape Architecture. Trina's work was supported by one of Monsur's USDA National Institute of Food & Agriculture's grants titled, “Effectiveness of a Child Care Hands-on Gardening Component for Preventing Preschool Obesity in Different Climatic Zones and Demographic Areas.”

Monsur noted that approximately 13 million children (0-5 years old) in the United States spend most of their waking hours in licensed childcare centers. Gardening in childcare may become a major health intervention with the potential to improve the health and well-being of millions of children by improving eating behaviors and increasing physical activity during early childhood.

Recent honors for Trina include receiving the ‘Best Poster Honorable Mention' in last year's Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Poster Competition. The title of her poster was “The Play Value of Plants: Altering parts of plants as loose part play materials in early childhood learning landscapes.” In the past, Trina has served as a research assistant in department's XR Laboratory.

Tech's Obesity Research Institute was formally approved by the Board of Regents in 2019. The purpose of the organization is to foster and enhance interdisciplinary basic, clinical, and community translational research, in addition to understanding the causes and complications of obesity. The group is also developing methods that will help prevent and treat obesity along with its related complications.

Contact: Leehu Loon, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-5215 or Leehu.Loon@ttu.edu

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