Final Projects

Wow, the time has really gone fast! This is my final week for my externship. I am now in the progress of finishing up two long term projects. The first is designing a kids cooking class for the Crossroads Hy-Vee. I was to choose, the time, dates, location, rules, recipes, age groups and all aspects of the club as well as designing a flier and intercom announcements for the store. I enjoyed doing this because I could combing my knowledge of children and lesson designing with my new nutritional knowledge gained. This was a great project for me to put together.

Another project I am finishing up is providing an outline for a "lunch and learn" series that Stephanie will be presenting to a group of people who are interested in learning about the latest health topics and trends. She will use the outline to present the information in a lunch and learn style. I am glad to be more knowledgeable about health ans nutrition and be able to put together the outline.

Swai fish

Today was our healthy cooking class that Hy-Vee offers to their customer every two weeks. This was the first time that customers had to pay to attend the class. Originally I thought maybe less people would attend since the cost per class was now $5.00. I was glad to see that some of the same people were there and also some new members as well.

Today Chef William prepared Swai or Basa fish. Swai fish is a fish that is saltwater raised in Asia. It is a white fish and when prepared has a less fishy smell. It holds it shape well when grilled, baked or fried. It also a healthy fish and 4 ounces of the fish has about 92 calories and a great source nutrients. He also prepared Quinoa as a side dish with dried fruit. It was a great meal and I was glad to learn about a type of fish that I had not known about before. I actually brought Quinoa and Swai fish to prepare at home.

As my final week approaches I am finishing up some of the long term products I have been working on throughout the externship such as the Kids Cooking Club and also preparing a lunch and learn series for Stephanie to present to customers. I look forward to summing up these last two projects.

KWWL News at Noon

Today was our presentation on KWWL news at noon health segment. Stephanie gave a presentation on the health benefits of Quinoa. I put the presentation receipes and the decoration for the prsentation together and it was really neat to see it all put together.

I think it will be awesome to share this video clip with students and even have a project wwhere I use the FLIP video to record studens makign their own commercials for a fruit or vegetable or a health topic related to their age groups. This could even turn into a lesson on video production and all the work behind the scences.

I have included the link to the video segement. Although I was not on television it was really neat to be able to see the demonstration on TV and internet.


http://www.kwwl.com/Global/category.asp?C=130142&nav=menu82_6

Snap Fitness

Today was the SNAP fitness health fair. I spent two days pulling together information to have for a booth for the health fair, Stephanie the dietitian would be there to answer questions and present handouts over topics that I choose.
I decided to put together information that had to do with health for athletes such as what to eat before and after working out, what foods are best to eat and other information regarding health tips for athletes and those who work out. while doing this I also learned some new health tips to be able to pass along to my students.One piece of this information was regarding dairy products and refueling the body after sports or exercising. There is a growing body of research that points to the sports nutrition benefits of low-fat milk and chocolate milk, including effectiveness in recovery, re-hydration and muscle-building.
The Midwest Dairy Council provides an educational toolkit for teachers called, “Milk: An Ideal Sports Recovery Drink,” that will assist in educating parents, athletes and coaches on these benefits. I was really pleased to come across this information because it provides information for me to share directly with students. I will definitely be ordering my dairy toolkit!

Aha! Moment

Today as I was leaving my externship I ran into a former student of mine who is going to be a junior in high school (wow how time flies!) I was glad to see Nick and noticed that he actually is employed at Hy-Vee part-time and works nights. This student and I had great rapport with each other so I took the time to let him know what I was doing at Hy-Vee and asked him how school was and life in general. I also decided to take the opportunity to ask Nick about how he was able to get his job. Nick was a sophomore at the time he had gotten hired. He began to tell me how important it was for him to have what us teachers would call employability skills. He said it was important for him to have good grades, be kind courteous and know how to work with other people. I had an immediate Aha! moment. This is why it is so important for those 21st century skills to be included in the Iowa Core. Ive had many of my 7th graders tell me they want to start working soon, but they are not aware that potential employees look for them to have good grades, be well rounded and also show that they can work well with others. I try to always emphasis with my students that they must possess these skills in order to work at a job one day. It was great for me to see that one of my former students had taken advantage of the information and was able to get a part-time job while in high school. It is awesome to see when former students are doing so well.

Quinoa Projects

This past weekend, Stephanie completed a Quinoa demonstration along with Chef William. Alot more people were exposed to the Quinoa because there are more diverse customers that have time to shop on the weekend. I learned today that the Health Market sold $11,000 worth of health foods this past weekend that I worked. I was excited that I was apart of the health market and demonstrations.

I am helping to put together demonstrations for Quinoa to be used on television on KWWL News at noon next wednesday. I am excited to be putting the recipes and demonstration togther. Im also putting together a demonstration for use for SNAP fitness. I am putting together handouts and brochures.

When thinking about ways that students can use this knowledge, I thought it would be a neat idea if students chose a less common food and completed a food demonstration and recipe card for each product and share out with the class. Also students can measure how much excercise it takes to burn off a ceratin amount of calories. This will remind students that good nutrition and excersie go hand in hand.

Quinoa

Today I put together a demonstration on a seed called Quinoa pronounced (keen-wah). The quinoa seed is high in protein, calcium and iron, a has a good source of vitamin E and several of the B vitamins. It contains an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans. It is exceptionally high in lysine, cystine and methionine-amino acids typically low in other grains. It is also gluten-free.

I put together a presentation in the Hy-Vee health market for customers to try a Quinoa receipe that I made in the Hy-Vee kitchen. I talked direectly with customers about Quinoa and the health benefits of it. This proved to be an excellent opportunity for me to interact with customers. I enjoyed doing this. It was hard at first to approach customers but I became more comfortable with presenting the information and talking with the customers.

If I was presenting this idea to students I would have them research a less common food such as Quinoa and discuss the health benefits of it and maybe have complete a demonstration on how to prepare the food.