A touch of sugar

Cereal nutrition in the news today, discusses sugar. Here is a tip for decreasing sugar in your morning cereal, but, first, a nutrition lab that overlaps with other areas like shopping, advertising, marketing, and, human behavior.

Every parent or guardian seems to discover that children, as well as adults are attracted to ideas in marketing and advertising. In a course I designed called, Nutrition, Health and Lifestyles, we discussed breakfast cereals and other overlaps among the science of nutrition.

In one of the labs that I designed for the course, students analyze supermarket fliers for area of advertising devoted to good and bad nutrition, or, analyze television commercial time devoted to good and bad nutrition . Students quantitatively describe what constitutes good and bad nutrition for their own experimental designs. Students love this lab. I also did the lab and used my own analysis to decide where to shop. (I like shopping where the person deciding what to sell considers the health of the shoppers.)

The lab can readily be adapted to students from K through graduate school, based on level of analysis and reference to sayings of parents or grandparents or school nurses, to, references in the technical literature of both science and business.

Typically, there has been much space and time devoted to sugary cereals in the media. As a parent, I didn't want my child to never have cereals other children craved. A solution we came up with in our household was to use the "sugared cereals," in the sugar bowl and sprinkle a spoonful of that onto a healthy breakfast cereal selection. For example, one might put a spoonful of Fruit L.-Coco P.- Captain C., or other sweet cereal, onto a dish of old-fashioned oatmeal. Children readily adapt to this, "special use," of the sweet cereals. The result is connecting science to what you and your children eat, and, a healthier family.

Enjoy breakfast together! Enjoy science together!

(c)2008 J S Shipman

K-12, year 5..Making sense of levels across borders

[Under Development...Needs your input...]

Many people from outside the United States have asked about K-12: Kindergarten through 12th grade. Those queries has prompted this post.

• pre-K and nursery school in the United States are usually for before age 5.
• K is for Kindergarten... around age 5.
• 1-6 is primary school...but, 1-3 make-up Lower School, while, 4-6, is Upper School
  
• 7-8 is Junior High...but, 4,5,6,7 is Middle School
• 9-12 is Senior High School, but 4-12 is Middle-High School
• Exams include the PSAT and SAT
  
• Prep school gets one ready for college (or University)
• Community College is usually a 2-year school, but college is used to refer to colleges and universities... We often say, "college," for what a European would call, "University."
• After 4 years of college (=university) comes graduate school..but you need the GRE's before that or MCAT's or other professional exams...
  

Now, in the USA, people often ask what Year 5 is, or
Gymnasium (France), Baccalaureate (spelling? ... Morocco).

KS4 and higher KS3 level students (in the UK)

CELS=Coalition for Education in the Life Sciences

Coalition for Education in the Life Sciences

[under development]

4-H National Youth Science Day

"On October 8, 2008 the 4-H Youth Development Program is launching the first annual 4-H National Youth Science Day to help build America's future science, engineering, and technology workforce."

Click here to learn more (This is the old link. new one below).

Movie clip 2008

2009 Link: National Youth Science Day

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
4-H Reveals National Science Experiment
to be Featured [during]
Upcoming 4-H National Youth Science Day
"Chevy Chase, Md. (September 8, 2008) –
National 4-H Council today announced details of the first-ever National Science Experiment (NSE), the designated science activity of 4-H National Youth Science Day (4-H NYSD) to be held October 8, 2008.

The National Science Experiment will focus on the environment and will use science principles to teach youth across the country about the importance of water conservation.

Science education expert Steve Spangler worked closely with 4-H and Dr. Bob Horton, 4-H science education specialist for The Ohio State University Extension, to create the NSE and related activities, which will be made available to the 6 million 4-H youth plus parents, teachers, students, and youth organizations nationwide.

# # #
For more information, please contact:
Karyn Barr
Karyn@allisonpr.com
202-223-9260
-or-
Allyson McMahan
amcmahan@fourhcouncil.edu
301-961-2915

Allison & Partners National 4-H Council

My Father planted a Forest

My Father planted a Forest
When my father was young, 4-H friends of his got several young trees (He recalls, "one or two thousand...") to plant. They were twig-like. At first they dug very slowly and tucked each tree into the ground gingerly. But, they had only one day to plant the trees. The boys that signed-up for the tree project didn't get very far, so the 4-H leader got my dad and some other 4-Hers involved. Someone came up with the idea of using a broad pick-axe to dig one hole after another and then a kind of assembly line planting occurred....Dig, lift, put in the twig, stomp the ground on top, repeat. Today, there stands a magnificent forest in Hamptonburgh, New York (Near Campbell Hall...) that is a result of this 4-H project. I think we will go and look at the forest again soon.

You, too, can save the environment and plant a forest...
Join 4-H or be a 4-H leader. 4-H is a national organization that works with similar groups in other countries. Originally 4-H was mostly farm youth, but now it has membership encompassing farm, sub-urban, and urban youth, too. There are many projects on computers, science, engineering, nutrition, home economics, wood-working, environment, and more. 4-H is well worth checking out.

I came across the following video and it reminded me of the above story and of my own adventures in 4-H. The video is more, "art," than, "science," yet, it triggered me to write this post. I hope the post encourages you to plant or care for a forest.

Palms from Seeds and Germination Stories

Highlighting germination and growth of palms, this video shows some parts of the generalized plant life cycle. It might serve as a useful introduction to plant life cycles, or, labs where you are germinating seeds. It does bring to mind the economic value of plants, too, so you might inspire some entrepreneurs among your students.



Here is another video on seed germination.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/drsubramonian

And, here's a link to a story by Teresa Guardiola: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXbhdBzx1Ag

See if you can create your own video on plant life cycles, including seed germination.

Convection, Conduction, and, Radiation draws most interest.

I have found that the blog post on convection, conduction and radiation often draws the most global interest. I have not received feedback other than the numbers of people around the world going to that post.

I would be very happy if some of the people visiting that post would leave a comment. That can be done by clicking the comment link under the post. This alerts me by sending me an e-mail and then, I can go to the post and read the comment.

Thank you for your interest. Please share this blog with people you know.

Thanks, again.

Dr. J