Coed Lleol welcomes Bangor University Researcher

19 Tach 2020

Coed Lleol (Small Woods Wales) is delighted to welcome Ramiga Kirupaikkumaran of Bangor University to our team. Ramiga is a recipient of a prestigious fully-funded KESS (Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship) award to complete her Master’s degree in Food Psychology using Coed Lloel’s Actif Woods Wales family groups as her case study. Ramiga will be exploring the psychological impact of food choices and how outdoor eating might encourage more or healthier food choices in pre-school children. Ramiga will be supervised by Dr Mihela Erjavec, senior lecturer in Psychology with recent publications including, the Nudges Project: Promoting healthy food choices in the school dining room and the Food Dudes Project: increasing fruit and vegetable intake in pre-school children.

Ramiga will be working with us to design a programme to encourage healthy eating among family groups using a creative outdoor environment in which families with young children are encouraged to try and repeatedly taste a variety of healthy foods, in order to develop a liking for them. At the same time, the disadvantages of overreliance on ultra-processed foods can be discussed, and tips for avoiding this shared. The research will utilise our Actif Woods Wales project innovatively, to provide a supportive environment for the families to engage with healthy eating in a fun manner. Establishing a ‘culture’ in which healthy eating becomes an enjoyable part of the normal family routine is the ultimate goal of the project. Exploring the impact of being outside, in nature and of being part of the process of gathering and preparing food will also be examined.

Ramiga has previously undertaken an Internship for Nudges project (as above), this involved carrying out a healthy eating intervention and collecting pre- and post-intervention data. Additionally, she has undertaken Research for Bangor’s Child research centre, Tir Na N Og where she was testing the bilingual advantage of infants (14-36 months) and toddlers (3-4 years) she presented a poster publication to the 'International Congress of Infant Studies'. Ramiga has an interest in the outdoors and outdoor education having spent three years as a Beaver Scout volunteer. She was also an NCS team leader whereby she delivered outdoor adventure and team-building activities to young people based at Open Door Adventure in St. Asaph, Wales. 

We look forward to working with Ramiga and wish her every success in her Masters’ Degree.

Any questions? Please contact Coed Lleol’s Research and Evaluation Officer at [email protected]