After a week of extracting our own DNA and using some fancy borrowed equipment, my high school students are intrigued about the uses of biotechnology in the world.  Aside from their obsession with all things CSI and forensics, they were also curious about what is in the foods that they eat.  The concept of “fish-berries” had them baffled…and so began our discussion of Genetically Modified foods.

Please forgive the horrible quality of this video, and instead focus on the fact that a group of teenagers, who might otherwise be found texting with their friends or guzzling neon blue energy drinks, were engaged in a valuable debate about GMO’s.  I am pretty dang proud, in case you were wondering!

Regardless of your species, performance athletes require amazing REAL food to sustain their energy.  On our winter vacation to Montana, our family had an adventure of a lifetime – we went dog sledding outside of Whitefish.  The dogs were amazing athletes and ate an incredible diet.

Dog Sled Adventures was an awesome operation, filled with 121 dogs (plus lots of barking and loads of yellow snow.)  The animals are very well cared for, getting lots of attention from the staff and all of the guests.

Of course, I was curious about the diet that the dogs are fed.  Underneath a shed is a 50 gallon drum, filled with “meat soup” which they brew all day, every day.  The soup contained random meat bits (complete with horse, cow, chicken and fish parts), and provided the dogs with a protein boost while keeping them hydrated at the same time.  Jeff, the owner, also brings in 48,000 (yes, 48 thousand!) pounds of fish and chicken every 6 months for the dogs.

Real food for real athletes.

Lucky dogs!

Given all of the years that I have spent teaching children to cook and eat healthy, it comes as no surprise that I like to include food in my high school biology curriculum.  Right now, we are finishing up a unit on cell division and DNA.  My students were thrilled to find a large mug filled with strawberries on my desk this week on our lab day.  But they couldn’t get over the strange mixture of odors – the sweet fragrance of the berries combined with the vapors evaporating from our bottles of rubbing alcohol.  Like a fruit-doctor’s office!

The goal of our lab was to extract the DNA from the berries, so they could see what it looks like with the naked eye.  It was simple to do, and can even be done at home with kids of any age.

Mashing a strawberry inside a zip top baggie

The best part was that we didn’t need any fancy-schmancy scientific equipment to complete the lab.  We only required a combination of ingredients and equipment that most households have handy.  (I know you probably don’t have a test tube – but I have a hunch that you have a shot glass!).

To set up the lab, we started by combining the mashed berries with a soap, salt and water mixture, which breaks down the phospholipid cell membranes.  Then we filtered the sludge through a double layer of cheesecloth.  One student suggested that we could have even used a coffee filter instead.

Cold rubbing alcohol repels DNA molecules so they clump together.

After our filtrate was collected in a test tube, we added cold rubbing alcohol, which repelled the DNA molecules so they clumped together into a clear glob (somewhat similar to egg whites or mucus).

Then, we used a thin plastic loop to spool up the DNA and look at it.  If you were doing this lab at home, you could use a long wooden toothpick or bbq skewer.  (You know a lab is awesome if the kids ask if they can take out their phones to take photos!)

Strawberry DNA!

You can download a copy of the lab that I used with my students here:  Strawberry DNA Extraction Lab.  For all 5 of my biology classes, I used this recipe to make the soap/salt buffer solution:  900 ml. water, 50 ml dish soap and 2 tsp salt.  At home, you would need to reduce it significantly for a much smaller portion.

Additional photos from this lab are posted to my class Facebook page.

I recently set up a Facebook page for my high school biology students.  I was having trouble getting them to visit our class website, so I figured I’d might as well meet them where they are already spending a lot of their time.

In an effort to engage them, I decided that I’d post some super interesting (and gross) science-related news stories and offer them a little credit for giving their thoughts.

The first news story that I posted was about a legal case in which a man sued Pepsi because he claims to have found a dead mouse in his Mountain Dew beverage.  Company’s experts declared that “Mountain Dew would have reduced that mouse to jelly by the time it was opened 15 months after bottling” and that therefore it was impossible for him to find a dead mouse inside his drink.  Interesting line of defense.  (Sure, there might have been a dead mouse in your drink at one point, but it would have dissolved before you opened it, sir. Confidence building, for sure.)

Jokes aside, it isn’t rocket science to consider than an acidic citrus-flavored beverage could dissolve bones and teeth over a period of several months.  The real question is if it is capable of dissolving a carcass, should it be a part of someone’s regular diet?  Probably not.

My students chimed in with other reasons why they might opt for water or beverages other than sodas…

The amount of sugar can contribute to obesity and diabetes. also, sodas have no nutritional value and doesn’t do any good for the body.

The recommended daily consumption of water is half of your body weight in ounces. Diet soda can cause kidney damage, weight gain, tooth decay and bone loss.

I heard (according to ABC news) that a recent study showed that people who had consumed diet soda every day had a 61% increase in the risks of cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke.

Our family couldn’t have finished 2011 on a better note.

Family trip to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador: our family, a marine iguana, baby sea lion and swallowtail gull

Me with a sea lion, a red footed booby, a waved albatros and a Sally Lightfoot crab

Happy new year to you and your family. May it bring you delicious food, wonderful adventures, health and happiness.

xoxoxoxo
Michelle

If there is one thing I have learned, it’s that people don’t like it when you compare their children to dogs.  But here I am, doing it anyway.  You see, I love dogs – and I genuinely believe they have a lot to teach us about raising and teaching children.

I should probably start by telling you that I have spent a good portion of my life at our local animal shelter as a volunteer (and working for vets and dog groomers over the summers when I was young).  I have also taken many dog training classes – because like children, dogs need to learn to have good manners.  The key to being successful in training your pooch is timing – immediate corrections for mistakes and instant praise for good behavior.

It turns out that those same qualities can contribute to good teaching.  I had my first evaluation yesterday (yes, on Halloween!) and was anxious about how the students would behave.  Despite the fact that they were amped up and excited for the sugar-loaded night ahead, our lesson was very successful and they couldn’t have behaved any better.  My administrator told me that the lesson was excellent and he was impressed with my timing on the little discipline issues that arose.  He loved that I addressed them immediately and without being punitive.  What he doesn’t know is that I learned those skills by training dogs.

Using Cabbage Juice as an indicator solution for a pH lab with my High School Biology Students

After teaching cooking classes to children for 8 years, I didn’t realize that I’d ever head back to the traditional classroom to teach biology again.  But I have good news on many fronts:

1. I love it.  Even more than I thought I would.
2. All of my recent experience setting up cooking classes for children has made it much much much easier to set up labs for my biology students.
3. And finally, it is awesome to see how many labs I can do with my students that connect to food.

Prepping for a lab is just like prepping for a recipe: My front table in class

Take our recent experiment about pH, for example.  Did you know that cabbage juice is an amazing indicator of whether or not a substance is an acid or base?  All you have to do is boil some red cabbage leaves and strain off the purple juice.  Use that as your test solution and add some lemon juice. Magic will happen.  Trust me.  I dare you to bring your kids into the kitchen and see what inspires them

From left to right: cabbage juice + base; cabbage juice plain; cabbage juice + lemon juice

If you’d like to see a copy of the lab, or photos of my students in action, please check out my class website.  You didn’t think I’d leave social media completely, did you?

Learning to Make Observations...of a Fish

I have spent the past 8 wonderful years as a teacher, but not in a traditional classroom.  My students and I played with food as we learned to create delicious dishes, help the less fortunate and make good choices for our planet.  The fish we worked with were edible.  And we cooked them (perhaps with a Finding Nemo theme…).

But now, there is a fish on my desk.  And he is certainly not of the edible variety.  My students are vying for the right to name him and enjoy asking me on a daily basis if the reason he isn’t moving is because he has expired.  Clearly, I am no longer spending my days in the kitchen.  So, where have I gone?  Why have I not posted in several weeks?

I have returned to the classroom to teach high school biology.  It’s how I earned my teaching chops 15 years ago, before I had children.  And the opportunity arose for me to go back…and I took it!

Yes, I was one of the lucky few to publish a book.  (And I hate to shatter your impression of authors, but that does not automatically make me a financially successful businesswoman.)  And yes, I was honored with an invitation to the White House for my work with kids in the kitchen.  But no, it didn’t mean that I was able to easily meet the financial obligations of our family.  Thank goodness, my husband’s job can support us.  But our son has some special needs and we were starting to get spread pretty thin.  I needed more financial security and was yearning for more consistent work.  I tend to be an over-achiever and didn’t like wondering when the next paying event would occur.

So, I am back in the classroom.  And I am loving it.  The past 11 years as a mom has made me a better teacher, and time has mellowed me out.  I think my teaching will be better for it.  In the meantime, I don’t plan to ditch the past 8 years of work.  You’d better believe that I plan to include food and cooking in my teaching.  What better way to teach my students what they are made of and how it affects their bodies?  And my work on school lunch reform?  I now have 160 students a day that can share their feedback and suggestions.

I’ll miss you, but I’m still around.  I’m not gone.  I’m teaching.  And I’ll share when I can.

xoxo
Michelle

When planning our cooking summer camp, I wanted the students to be able to showcase their new culinary skills and confidence.  We decided that an Iron Chef Challenge on the final day would be just the strategy.

The kids selected their own teams, evaluated the ingredients we had on hand, and then planned their menus.  After approval from me, they began to prepare their food.  The grand finale was their “camera challenge” where they had to present their dishes to the rest of the class, some guest judges…and the video camera!  I was so proud of their accomplishments!

On our agenda was to learn about organic produce and meat – and why it was better for the environment.  We were also eager to ask the pros about whether or not cucumbers were really a fruit or a vegetable.  Along the way, we tasted amazing stone fruits, berries and a striped Armenian cucumber!  Not a bad way to spend the morning!