Within the Sintra Cresce Saudável Project, the FMUL’s Nutrition Laboratory hosted a Summer School.

From July 15th-19th, a group of students learned how they could develop scientific research and writing skills: from data to publication; in close contact with the Sintra Cresce Saudável Project, promoted by the Sintra City Council and managed, in its technical-scientific aspect, by the FMUL Nutrition Laboratory. They came to realise that the Nutrition Laboratory, as a research unit, can serve the incentive and execution of scientific writing, in practical assignments.

Regarding these days of Summer School as a success and a new level for the development of these students, we spoke with the Teacher and Coordinator of this Workshop, Joana Sousa, who left us a message, with the students in mind.

“School is a privileged and decisive place for health promotion, namely for the teaching and daily practice of healthy eating and physical activity.

Sintra Cresce Saudável is a project that promotes healthy lifestyles (diet and physical activity) with community-based research methodologies within the school context, aimed at children in primary school. The FMUL’s Nutrition Laboratory is responsible for the project’s technical-scientific management and its assessment. It has been two years since its implementation and it has proved to be an outstanding strategy.

Highlighting its relevance and impact is fundamental and it is through the research process that we achieve it. This process has gone through all its stages and the conditions are set for us to start moving towards scientific communication and dissemination. The data is on our side and now we intend to release it to the scientific community!”

This is what we worked with at the Summer School and the final outcome could not be more positive. The final assessment stated that all participants were highly satisfied with the teaching, the methodology, the quality of the debate, and 100% would recommend the Summer School to a colleague. It has been an intense week, but we have no doubt that this is the way to go!

We’ll follow this team’s established path, and congratulate them for all the hard work done in such short time. As the month ended we received the good news that the “Sintra Cresce Saudável” Project is a finalist for the European Commission’s Award and has been selected by the European Commission as one of the three finalists up for a Health Award. This year, it will distinguish projects from non-governmental

Joana Sousa

Equipa Editorial