Foods and Nutrition S&T Friday

One of my students brought this video to class for show and tell. A great discussion followed.




One of our favorite lines was; "death by potato is rare. . ."

Stewardship of the Environment - a perspective I hadn't thought of

 Our discussion last week didn't include using de-extinction as a learning tool to use to help a threatened species. I'm including a link to a National Geographic blog post, and then the last few paragraphs of the article which looks at the feasibility of cloning a mammoth in light of learning more about the technology so it can be used to clone still living, but endangered species or perhaps just to fund raise for other preservation efforts.



 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/12/mammoth-deextinction/
Conservation boost
Despite these many hurdles, Schuster does not dismiss the possibility of cloning a mammoth, especially with improvements in genetic techniques. “Every time a journalist asks me about this, one of those hurdles has been taken out,” he says. “I think it’s a little irresponsible to stand there and say it’ll never happen, but that doesn’t mean we should spend money on it. Maybe it would be better spent on preserving endangered species today.”
Can we really justify trying to bring the mammoth back from extinction when all three species of living elephant are in danger of joining it? “If you’d interviewed me two or three years, ago, I would have been much more aggressive against it,” says Hildebrandt. He has changed his mind after struggling with efforts to conserve other large animals like the Sumatran rhino. Only a few hundred remain, and many are so old that no amount of assisted reproduction will help them to breed. “Our only option is to clone them,” he says.
Mammoth-cloning projects might act as an attractive funding magnet in a way that conservation projects of little-known rhinos cannot. “The mammoth may be able indirectly help future conservation projects, by developing cloning technologies that could help modern species,” says Hildebrandt. It’s a sobering thought: as impossible as cloning an extinct animal might sound, the one good reason to try is that it might prevent a number of species from suffering the same fate.

It seems that every issue I use to add interest to my classes requires me to think about issues from a new perspective and then to ask students to also think. I love connections between the curriculum and real life!

How to capture a class' attention

As part of our discussion on the history of the earth’s rocks and life forms one of my students asked me yesterday if I thought it would really be possible to bring back dinosaurs like happens in Jurassic Park. I was delighted to find this article, posted yesterday on the National Geographic website. I shared the article with the class this morning, and then asked the students what they thought.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130305-science-animals-extinct-species-revival-deextinction-debate-tedx/

Should we de-extinct animals?

S

“I think so only if they have plans for it like where it would live and not disturb our life. So don’t just make a mammoth and then set it free. Have it be controlled.”

W

“I think that if it was because of people that the animal went extinct, then it should be our responsibility to bring them back.”

K

“Umm, I think it would be really cool to be able to do that. But sometimes I think it would be a bad thing, like bringing a sabre-tooth tiger or something back it would compete with today’s animals and maybe even prey on them. But I think some animals might be good to bring back.”

K

“I think the technology is amazing. To think that this may be a possibility, but I don’t believe it is necessary. I don’t think extinct animals should be brought back.”

I think that the next step in this process is to share this article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130306-neanderthal-genome-extinction-cloning-hominid-science/

I wonder whether they will have though more carefully about their responses by tomorrow.

This would make a fascinating discussion if the students have continue to have conflicting opinions and are willing to back up their opinions with knowledge. It might even work for the Sabbath School class on environmental stewardship I've been asked to teach!

 

I'm glad you asked!

I'm posting this response to a letter as a way of reminding myself how much I really do read. Poor unsuspecting Mark just asked how my classes were going and what I like to read and out poured all of this:

Hi Mark,
I've spent the last week fighting a cold and laryngitis, which is a trick while teaching! My students are getting used to the whispers. My classes almost always go well, and the students are really good people, so I'm quite spoiled.
I've read or re-read several books this last week. The newest one was "God, Sky &Land" by Brian Bull and Fritz Guy. I really enjoyed reading it, and learned a lot about ancient Hebrew culture from it. I bought the book after seeing it advertised on the Spectrum website. It quotes a book I read over Christmas "I love Jesus and I accept evolution" by Denis Lamoureux. Both are books I read because of my own personal interest and because of what I teach.
Another book I finished last night is "5 secrets for peace in a storm" by Ruthie Jacobsen. It was given to all the SDA teachers at the teacher's convention in Nashville last summer.
I'm in the middle of reading "The Shack Revisited" by C. Baxter Kruger. He speaks as a representative of a ministry dedicated to "proclaiming the gospel of the Triune God". I very much enjoyed reading "The Shack", so this caught my eye at Chapters. I currently have two students who are dedicated Christians, but who do not believe in the Trinity, so I felt like I needed to learn more before I could converse intelligently with them.
I do enjoy reading cookbooks - but lately I've been selecting recipes for my Foods class from online sources. Yesterday the class made homemade gnocchi and tomorrow they will make a homemade tomato sauce. I'm busy looking for Easter breads for them to make the week after next.
I almost always have two or three books on the go - I love to read. Besides books, I have the NSTA journal 'The Science Teacher', the  NCTM journal 'The Mathematics Teacher', Canadian Geographic, and Beautiful British Columbia which I read regularly. I  spend a fair bit of time scanning the contents of about 30 blogs which I follow. Many of them are teacher or science content related, some are quilt related, and some are written by friends and family.
I almost always have a "happily ever after story" to read just before I go to sleep. Sometimes these are kids books, sometimes romances, sometimes books recommended by a friend. I just try to read something fun and cheerful every day.
Thanks you so much for asking - clearly I wanted to talk! Please tell me more about what you like to read.
Cherri

thoughts at term end

Today was a very hard day for my grade 11s and 12s. Next week they write final exams, and so today students wrote chapter/unit tests in Chemistry and Biology. This job would be easier if all assignments and labs were done carefully, corrected to 100%, and then submitted. However, procrastinators abound, so work is late.
This happens every semester. Maybe it is me that never learns.

Anne Voth Woloschuk 1912 - 2013

June of 2007

Christmas 2010

Grandma Anne had a gift for inclusivity. She never met a grandchild , great grandchild , or great-great grandchild she didn't love. More importantly, she never met a friend of those children that she didn't turn into a grandchild. She loved us all, prayed for us, sponsored our mission trips, listened to our school programs, and fed us whenever she could.
When she could no longer remember our names she still wanted us to know that she loved us. She didn't love because of deeds we did or trait of character we possessed. Instead she loved because we were hers. I learned much about God's love from seeing it in action in Grandma.
I have been so blessed to be her grandchild for 33 years.

November 2012

Pillowcases as comfort

About Sandy Hook Elementary Pillow Case Drive

HI everyone, The Quilters Corner in New Milford CT has started a pillow case drive for the children of Sandy Hook elementary school.
I saw this on my google feed this morning and have decided that this is at least something I can do. I may donate the pillowcases I make to a local charity, but at least I can sew a little and pray a lot for victims of violence, for policymakers, for those who stand ready to help.
I believe the goal is to get 600 pillowcases done so the children can receive them after Christmas break. I know it is a small thing to do....but a pillow is always a great comfort and to be able to give these children a little extra peace at night would be a wonderful thing.

This is the mailing address for the Quilter's Corner:
312 Danbury Rd. ( Rt. 7), New Milford, CT 06776
Please feel free to pass this along, let's get these done for Sandy Hook