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.

Kids in the Kitchen

For the last two days I have been pulling together resources to use for my project of putting together at cooking class for the HyVee location I work at. The last is to be together a monthly cooking class for kids for a total of six months. I am excited to be putting this project together.

This paticular project can even be connected to the Iowa Core. When looking at the essential standards for science 6-12 I picked out a few that would work:

Design and conduct different kinds of scientific investigations.
Understand that different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investigations.
Select and use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze and interpret data.

I figured that cooking is a type of scientific investigation for the childrent that will be apart of the cooking club. Children can invesitagate and aanlyze receipes looking at the measurements and the ingrediants needed, even going as far as analyze cooking times.

Wine Club and talking with Managers

Today was I was able to talk with the store manager Tony. Tony is the manager of all of the entire Crossroads HyVee. I also met with the grocery manager, the garden manager and the wine and spirits manager. I talked with them about what they are looking for in a potential employee. I was told by almost all the managers that they are looking for potential employees that can communicate well, works well with others, is positive, is productive and a leader and can be reflective of themselves. When reviewing the Iowa Core for 21st Century skills in the employability section I noticed some similarities between what I was told by managers and what I saw in the Iowa Core. I look forward to letting my students know that these are the characteristics that potential employers are in fact looking for.

I also had the opportunity to visit with the Wine Club today. HyVee offers a wine tasting event free of charge to its customers. Customer are invited to sample several different wines while also learning the health benefits of wine. I was aware that red wine had some health benefits but did not realize that red wine also contains several different antioxidants and is also heart healthy. White wine is shown to improve lung function and may harbor some similar health benefits as red wine. The presenter also made sure to let participants know that beneficial effects only occur with 1-2 4 ozs. glasses a day.

Although it is not advised that students drink wine, I think it is also helpful for them to be aware of the potential benefits of some wine consumption, noting that wine is only beneficial in small quantities.

Ideas for Teaching

I worked awhile by myself this past Friday and it gave me an opportunity to be able to think more about my externship and how I would use the new knowledge I was learning to pass on to my studnets. Even though I am learning alot for myself, the purpose of this experience is for me to be able to think about how I would teach the science and the concepts of this externship to my students. I decided to focus on one area of the Iowa core each blog and along with discussing highlights of my day also including what I would use to teach students and connect it to the Iowa Core as well.
One of Iowa Core standards is 21st Century health literacy skills. This is an important standard for my externship because it deasl directly with health. The standard is as follows:
Demonstrate functional health literacy skills to obtain, interpret, understand and use basic health concepts to enhance personal, family, and community health.

I cant began to discuss all the ways that I could discuss functional health with students. This could range from using the webiste mypyramid.gov to help students learn about the food pyramid and a healthy lifestyle. There are also several interactive activities for students to use on this website. I could discuss with stundets what a dietitians job is and discuss with them all the ways that HyVee helps its customer by provide consultations, cooking classes and help groups for individuals suffering with food allergies. Studnes could also explore these differnt food allergies and present a menu of accepatble foods for people with food allergies. The possiblities are endless. I look forward to thinking of new and exciting lessons using the Iowa Core and my externships, Im really strating to see the connections!

Girl Scouts and Fructose

Yesterday was the girl scouts health presentation. Stephanie, myself and Jamie a UNI intern worked with 50 girls presenting health information and also an activity and snack. I prepared this presentation so it was nice to see it in action. The girls were active but it was nice to see them participating and enjoying the information.

Today I went to a 3 hour dietitian meeting with all the dietitians at the surrounding HyVee stores. I listened to a lot of information and learned alot about the different activities that all the dietitians are involved in. It was interesting.

I also attended a fructose intolerance meeting at HyVee. I was intrigued to find out that there are members of the community who can eat fructose. I Had the opportunity to speak with these individuals who are all from different walks of life. I learned alot of the different foods they can and cant eat. It is part of Stephanie's job to help these people talk together and hep each other out. She is more of a support person It once again was nice to see this interaction.

The ins and outs

Today I got to interact with several customers. Each day I'm surprised at all the services that HyVee offers to its customers. They not only provide healthy food selections to their customers but they also provide various solutions to help with weight loss, low cholesterol, diabetes and several other services. I also got the chance to visit with the store managers and also visit the back room where the food and things are kept. There are several operations needed to make the store run successfully. Today I also am preparing for a health and exercise presentation to the Girl Scouts for tomorrow. I am excited!

Cooking Class, Yum Yum!

Each day at HyVee brings a new aspect of what the store offers to its customer. At the end of my first week, I had already been apart of many different projects. To sum up the end of a great week, HyVee offers a free cooking class to its customers. This weeks cooking class was turkey burgers and whey protein smoothies. The store Chef, Chef William and Stephanie the dietitian does a presentation on how to cook by actually demonstrating the cooking. Participants are also invited to sample what is prepared.
I was intrigued by the participation, there were about 15 people registered to attend the cooking class. I was able to talk to participants and get a feel for why they participated in the class. Some people need to adjust their eating style for health reasons and some could only eat certain types of food and wanted to see a demonstration of how to cook those foods. I have to say it was great to see customers from all walks of life interact and come together to discuss their different eating habits. The aspect of science is something we often dont think about which is that one of the best ways to find to something new is to actual communicate and work with others. I feel that the cooking class that HyVee offers gives customers that opportunity.

Sugar Activity and NuVal Score

Today Stephanie and I worked together putting the health presentation together for the Girl Scouts for next week. We decided to focus on sugar intake. I helped to put together a sugar cube activity using sugar cubes to measure the amount of sugar in several different "kid friendly" foods or foods that many kids like to eat. The purpose of the actitivty is to show kids how much sugar are in foods and why it is important not to eat too much sugar. Im going to enjoy participating in thsi activity.

I also learned about Nutrition Value scorces. This is a feature that HyVee stores have on many of not all of their food products. It gives a nutrional score to each item between 1 and 100. The higher the score the more nutrisous the food is. For example an apple is 100 while some 100% apple juices are a 4. I went around the store viewing the scorces and was really intrigued by this! I also was able to meet some of the health food managers and learn a little about what they do.

Day 2 Getting Started

After my first day yesterday, I have much clearer vision of what I would like to accomplish during this externship and some of the projects that I will be working on. I have a project due next week putting together a two-hour presentation for the Girl Scouts of America. I'm excited and look forward to getting started on my projects!

My first Day

After alot of searching and wishful thinking I was able to secure an externship. Horray! I was very fortunate to have the help of dedicated members of the IMSEP program working hard to help me find a match this summer.

As a special needs teacher I teach all subjects including mathematics and science. I decided to join the IMSEP because I wanted to know more about science content and how it is used in real world context. I am pleased to be working with Stephanie at HyVee Food Stores. Stephanie is a registerd dietician and works in all aspects of health through the store. It is funny that I literally met Stephanie yesterday and started my externship today but I have already learned so much! Today Stephanie and I discussed more aspects of her job and the different events that she speaks at catered to helping people understnad their health. I am excited to start putting together a health program for Stephanie next week to teach to k-5 Girl Scouts (right up my alley) This week I will also be helping to teach a healthy cooking class as well as attending a frutose intolereance support group meeting, I was intrigued to find out that that disease even existed! It will prove to be an fun and enlightening week for me. I am excited to be apart of this externship opportunity!