GAMETI/RAE LAKES
Tammy Gon says watching what happens to a tooth left in a container of pop for a few weeks opened her eyes to the damage too much sugar can have on the body.

Jean Wetrade Gameti School is one of the winners of the 2014-2015 Drop the Pop Campaign. In addition to other activities designed to promote health, staff taught students how to make smoothies during the school's breakfast program last February. - photo courtesy of Cameron Gee

"It was interesting," she said. "When they put the teeth into different liquids, water, milk and then pop, you could see the difference."

Gon, who graduated from Jean Wetrade Gameti School last year, participated in the school's Drop the Pop campaign last February. Their activities earned them a winning spot in the competition, which is being shared by 17 other schools throughout the territory. The Department of Health and Social Services sponsors the annual campaign and presents winning schools with a share of the $16,000 cash prize.

Teacher Cameron Gee said the tooth experiment was just one of the ways staff helped illustrate the impact of sugary drinks.

"We also took the teeth out of a skull that we found and we put one tooth in milk, one in pop and one in water," he said. "We left it in a display for the kids for a couple weeks to show them how much pop stains and corrodes their teeth. That was pretty powerful for them."

Staff also incorporated healthy drinks into the school's breakfast program by teaching students how to make smoothies with fresh and frozen fruit, Gee said.

They also created posters and had students fill out worksheets based on the information from posters found throughout the school. In biology class, Gee added bags of popcorn to a mannequin to help illustrate how much weight the body gains by drinking pop if those extra calories aren't burned by doing exercise.

Visual aides such as the mannequin and the tooth experiment were effective ways to get the message through to students, Gee said.

"Those are the ones that really hit home," he said.

Staff also established a ballot system for prizes. Students who committed to not drinking pop for a week earned a ballot, which was then put in a prize draw. Prizes included new snowsuits for Grades 3 to 5 while older students won Magic Bullet blenders they could use to make their own smoothies at home.

Potentially winning a Magic Bullet of her own inspired Gon to give up drinking pop for a week, she said.

"I remember I really wanted a Magic Bullet so I didn't drink pop for a week," she said. "When I got it I made smoothies a lot."

Gee said in addition to educating kids about the health impacts of drinking too much pop, the campaign also highlights the importance of making good choices.

"I think it's important for them to start thinking about the choices that they make every day. Kids don't think their choices have an effect on their life, but every little choice that they make really does make an impact," he said. "Doing homework, drinking pop, if you can get that big message through to them they start thinking about things in the big picture."

Gon said she believes the campaign is a great way to show kids the importance of limiting how much pop they drink.

"I think it's really good because pop is not good for kids," she said.

"Especially kids, because they're still growing up and their teeth are not very strong."

Gee said the school hasn't yet learned how much of the cash prize the school will receive but he's already begun thinking about this year's campaign.

While no plans have been finalized, he said he hopes to offer the popular Magic Bullet blenders as prizes again this year.

Source: Department of Health and Social Services

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