THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD PRODUCTS FROM BLACK GLUTINOUS RICE AND NAM DOK MAI MANGO USING A STEM EDUCATION APPROACH TO PROMOTE MENTAL WELL-BEING IN THE COMMUNITY
Keywords:
STEM Education, Mental Health, Functional Foods, Black Glutinous Rice, Nam Dok Mai MangoAbstract
This research aimed (1) to enable students to design and develop mental health
functional food products from black glutinous rice and Nam Dok Mai mango through a STEM education approach, (2) to examine the effects of consuming these products on stress levels among community volunteers, and (3) to assess the volunteers’ satisfaction with the products and mental health promotion activities.
A quasi-experimental one-group pretest–posttest design was employed. The sample consisted of 30 volunteers with mild to moderate stress levels living in Ban Haet community, Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. They were purposively selected based on the Stress subscale of the DASS-21. STEM-based project learning was implemented to engage students in exploring local agricultural resources, formulating and testing recipes, and refining six functional food products. These products were then incorporated into a two-week mental health promotion
program that combined product consumption with brief relaxation activities.
Research instruments included the Stress subscale of the DASS-21, a satisfaction
questionnaire for products and activities, a behavioral observation form, and students’ STEM logbooks. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), paired-samples t-test, and effect size (Cohen’s d).
The findings revealed that (1) students successfully designed and developed six
functional food products that met predetermined criteria regarding nutritional value, feasibility, and consumer acceptance in the community; (2) participants’ mean stress scores
significantly decreased from 18.40 (SD = 4.52) to 10.20 (SD = 3.81), with a statistically significant difference at the .01 level (t(29) = 9.87, p < .01) and a very large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.81); and (3) participants reported high to very high satisfaction with both the products and the mental health promotion activities, particularly in terms of taste, relaxation effects, and activity engagement.
These results suggest that integrating STEM education with the development of
community-based functional foods can serve as a practical approach to promoting mental well-being, while simultaneously enhancing students’ skills in innovation, problem-solving, and interdisciplinary learning.
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