Planting Science Seeds for a Future Harvest!

The 4-H BioScience program 2015-16, a science experience for students grades 8-11, started August 3-7 on the MSU Bozeman campus and continues until February through experiments and video conferencing with MSU professors.  Eight Teton County youth, Berit Bedord, Jacob Boetticher, Lila Bradley, Jill Donaldson, Bryce Gramm, Oliver Jorden, Ashley Pearson and Sam Stutz have formed two BioScience teams in Teton County this year.  They are coached by Lisa Bedord, Brenda Boetticher and Jane Wolery. 

While on the MSU campus, students participated in three modules – neuroscience, metabolomics and infectious disease.  The 4-H members work with MSU professors and graduate student mentors.  The teens from Teton County were able to use their own blood to separate red and white blood cells.  The blood was then tested for a variety of nutrients, but the students concentrated on the omega-6 and omega-3 scores and the ratio.  One of the students had an excellent ratio of nearly 1:1 and credited his diet of home-raised, grass-fed beef.  The typical American diet is more askew with ratios of nearly 20 to 1 omega-6 to omega-3.  Diets high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 may make a person prone to poor brain function and health conditions such as headaches, ADHD, depression as well as cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases.  4-H members worked with Dr. Edward Dratz and his team of students drawing the blood samples and analyzing results.  They will continue throughout the year with metabolomics by completing some dietary analysis.  The 4-H members may also get to test an app being developed by an MSU grad student that will simplify dietary input and allow users to choose a nutrient of focus, such as sodium or vitamin D.  Students also did a simple zinc test and learned more about zinc’s important role in the body.

The neuroscience module is a little mind boggling.  4-H students puzzled over optical illusions and sensory input as they learned how the human brain connects to the rest of the body.  One of the more electrifying experiences was using a spiker box to see if impulses from one person’s ulnar nerve, found along the outside of the arm, could be sent to another person and control their movements.  It was a little unnerving, to say the least, to have finger movements controlled by another person.  As part of the unit, students will explore hand sensitivity and see if they can use the elasticity of the brain to change how their hands feel stimuli.  They will be creating a 3-D hand homunculus as well as studying about auditory and taste sensory inputs.

The teams participated in an infectious disease unit and were able to test their own nose and throat cultures and explore their own microbiota, guided by Dr. Jovanka Voyich.  They also used samples of a “patient” from a case study.  Students learned to use agar plates, do Gram staining and catalase tests.  One team had a patient in her early 20s present with non-bloody diarrhea following a visit to a relative’s dairy farm.  At first she thought she was just exhausted, but the students determined through a variety of tests that she had an e-coli infection.  As part of the continued work the teams will choose an infectious disease experiment to explore further using skills they learned in the lab at MSU.

While on the MSU campus, students were able to tour the Schutter Diagnostics Lab, where plant and insect diseases are identified and monitored and learn how the lab’s efforts affect agriculture producers as well as urban consumers.  Students also got a tour of Cooley Lab with a graduate students studying the herpes virus.  Cooley lab is a hub for biomedical research.  Students received a tour of the Renne Library and learned about services available on campus.  They were also able to spend time at the Museum of the Rockies, enjoy the features at the planetarium, use the fitness center on campus and stretch out with climbing at the Spire climbing center just a few blocks from campus.  

Of the eight members involved in the SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) funded BioScience program, five are new to 4-H since April.  A few who joined specifically to take part in BioScience Montana now plan to take other projects and participate in leadership trainings.  Extension Agent Jane Wolery says one of the best parts of the BioScience program is how students start to see other opportunities and gain confidence in their ability to maneuver on a college campus, interact with professors and gain exposure to different areas of study and careers.  

Adding Healthy Choices

I’m better at addition than subtraction.  Subtraction is just harder.  I suppose that is why elementary teachers start with addition when teaching math concepts.  I find the same thing is true when it comes to nutrition. Subtraction is harder.  I often think, when it comes to our diet, we are thinking from a point of subtraction, or restriction.  During National Nutrition Month, I challenge you to think of nutrition in easier terms.  Put a little addition in your nutrition equation.

This month could you add one more fruit or vegetable to your daily routine?  Maybe you’ll add sliced apples as a mid-morning snack.  Maybe you could do a strawberry smoothie after work.  Maybe you like addition so much that you want to find out a way to add a new fruit or vegetable, one that you’ve never tasted befo

re, to a meal each week this month. 

I always like the phrase, “eat the rainbow,” because it helps me thinking about adding colorful produce to my daily meal plan.  The different colors are famous for providing different nutrients and phytochemicals, so adding a little color seems not only a good way to make a plate more appealing, but also equals a great way to boost nutrition. 

There are plenty of ways to add something a bit healthier to your routine.  Have you been getting enough whole grains in your diet?  If not, what about making a low-fat granola?  There are some great breakfasts featuring oats, steel cut oats or even wheat berries. 

If you are providing food for others, there is always sneaky nutrition.  You can add chopped spinach to other salad greens or to sauces like spaghetti, or even to salsas to give a boost of nutrition.  You can add a sprinkle of wheat germ or bran to breads and muffins.  You can also blend cauliflower in with mashed potatoes if you are looking for a way to hide it from you family. 

So often with nutrition, the focus is subtraction.  Reduce your sodium intake.  Cut back on fats.  Remove the refined sugars.  Subtraction is often much harder to do, because you feel limits being imposed.  However, I suspect if we all concentrated on addition, we would find that by adding another fruit, we would eliminate a different snack – maybe even one packed with solid fats, added sugars and salts.  We might not even notice.  It seems that adding something nutritious takes a fraction of the effort that eliminated something unhealthy takes. 

No matter the nutrition variable you choose to change, I hope it adds years of vitality to your healthy future. 

Steel Cut Oats Baked in Oven

1 c. steel cut oats

3 c. hot water

Place both ingredients in a baking pan.  I use a bread loaf pan, for no reason other than it is a good size.  Put in an oven that is 350 degrees.  Bake for about 45 minutes. 

Steel Cut Oats in Slow Cooker

8 ½ c. of water

2 c. steel cut oats

1 ¾ c. milk

¼ c. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

1 tsp. cinnamon

Grease the inside of a slow cooker with butter or spray.  Add all ingredients but the extract.  Cover and cook on low until the oats are creamy – about 7 hours.  Add extract and serve.

Steel Cut Oats Toppers

Consider adding any combination of the following to the steel cut oats:

Yogurt, flavored or plain

Greek yogurt

Dried fruit – raisins, cranberries, etc.

Fresh cut fruit – apples, strawberries, peaches

Nuts – chopped walnuts, almonds or pecans

Flax seed

Chia seeds

Honey

Nutmeg

Let me know if you have your own favorite combination!

Mashed Potatoes with Cauliflower Surprise

Potatoes

Cauliflower

Butter

Milk

Boil about an equal amount of cut cauliflower and potatoes together in the same pot.  When vegetables are tender, drain off the water.  Add enough milk to assist in whipping the vegetables to mashed potato consistency.  Butter can be added to taste, but go lightly.  Just a tablespoon or two will probably work, depending on how many vegetables you boiled. 

You can add spices and seasonings to taste – cayenne, cumin, chives, oregano, basil, pepper and garlic come to mind. 

Experiment and make it your own!