Spring/Summer 1999
KEYSTONE 21 is a partnership among Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences & former Commonwealth Educational System, and Rodale Institute Experimental Farm.
Each FSPE project takes a turn hosting or co-hosting the networking conference. This year's conference was hosted by the Oregon FSPE project, InterACTION! The focus was on Conversations and Relationships, and facilitated by Paul Axtell, a communications skills trainer. It was based on the premise that we all do individual work. We also live and work in a variety of groups. It's essential that we are able to be productive and effective in both settings.
The program focused on providing leverage in enhancing participants' personal effectiveness and productivity. There was a very strong emphasis on creating relationships, managing conversation and working in groups. There was an awareness for meaningful conversation that forwards organizational change.
Although the information on conversation skills that was presented during the conference isn't new, it also isn't something we normally focus on or have time to "practice" in our daily lives. The conference gave us a safe environment to practice good conversation skills and develop stronger relationships with the other FSPE participants.
Everyone left the conference with improved conversation skills, ideas to put into practice at home and a better understanding of the other FSPE participants and their projects.
For more information on the InterACTION Project or the conference, contact Elise in the KEYSTONE 21 office.
„Agricultural Career Exploration¾ will demonstrate the large array of career opportunities in agriculture and the food system through the development of educational materials and programs aimed at students, teachers and guidance counselors.
Materials will focus on careers, skills, technologies and educational requirements for six broad areas: food technology, agribusiness, plant science, natural resources, animal sciences and agronomy/soil sciences. Selected students and teachers will take four-day study tours to production sites to learn about business operations and interact with professionals and employers in various fields.
Development of educational videos, lesson plans, CD-ROMs and a Web site
also will be explored.
Collaborators: Penn State Cooperative Extension in Clarion and Venango
Counties & Penn State Public Broadcasting
„Cool Facts About Food Sa fety: A Food Safety Education Campaign for Pennsylvania Elementary Students.¾ As part of this project, food safety action teams will visit elementary schools to teach kindergarten through fourth grade students food safety concepts by performing a skit titled "The Adventures of Patty Melt and Friends."
Each presentation will emphasize the four "Cs" of food safety: cool it,
clean it, cook it and don't cross it. Teachers will also receive a
comprehensive guide to help them integrate food safety education into
their
science, language, art, social studies and health curricula. In
addition,
students will receive food safety activities sheets that reinforce the
campaign's messages.
Collaborators: the Pennsylvania Beef Council, Inc. , Penn State's
College
of Agricultural Sciences and Berks-Lehigh Valley College.
„Why We Eat What We Eat: A New Course on the Science and Culture of Food¾ will encourage first-year college students to think critically about the linkages between food history, science and culture. The course will be designed to promote understanding of how biology and culture interact to affect food choices, nutrition and health, food economics and politics; to help students appreciate ethnic and regional cuisines and the value of alternative food systems; and to enhance students' ability to formulate novel solutions to food system problems by incorporating sound biological, historical and cultural perspectives.
These goals will be accomplished through sensory experience with food,
readings that integrate science and society issues, and direct
experimentation with food properties.
Collaborators: Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and School
of
Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management.
Contents
Young people are getting too little information on food, nutrition, and agriculture - a finding a Pennsylvania State University guidebook is meant to combat. "The goal was to try to make recommendations on how to better help youth understand where their food comes from and how it gets to them," said project coordinator Alison Harmon. "The purpose of the guide is to help educators help students and parents help their kids learn what is nutrition, what is agriculture and how it is related."
Harmon, a Penn State graduate student from Cincinnati, Ohio, launched the project in 1997 under a grant to the university from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Several hundred students from Laurel Highlands, Connellsville Area and Hempfield high schools participated in a survey. "They fill out a questionnaire on their options and knowledge of food, nutrition and agriculture - especially Pennsylvania foods. I wanted to know if they knew about what was grown in Pennsylvania and also wanted to know about their attitudes on how land use is changing," she said.
The survey served as the basis for the guidebook which [was] offered for no cost at a workshop [held in January] by the Fayette Campus Office of Outreach and Continuing Education and researchers in the Penn State Department of Food Science. The workshop [included] a demonstration of activities from the guidebook which is recommended for use in the classrooms, homes and youth group meetings.
"We are concerned that children are not aware of food safety and where food comes from," said Vicki Vrabel, who is a Penn State Cooperative Extension nutrition and food safety extension agent serving Westmoreland and Fayette counties as well as a registered dietitian. Harmon said amongthe questions, students were asked if they eat local or international food, how they feel about hunger and whether it is everybody's responsibility to get their own food.
Another part of the study involved how students learned what they know about food - from home, school, community or media. "As far as attitudes, most youths are interested in preserving farmland in Pennsylvania. They are also interested in keeping Pennsylvania farms in business but they also favor development and don't necessarily know how to support their local farmers to keep them in business," she said. "As far as their knowledge goes, they were knowledgeable about food safety. I found that to be pretty high. They had a lot of knowledge about hunger. They were a lot weaker on types of agriculture and how different parts of the food system fit together. They were average on nutrition."
Harmon said television viewing has a negative effect on food awareness, while positive influences come from participation in community activities and work with gardens or farms. "As far as attitudes, I found the ones with positive attitudes on agriculture and food systems had greater participation at home with raising food at home in gardens or farming, shopping for food or cooking," she said.
Culture Shock by Bethany Nelson with input from the INTAG groupIn our two-month stay in Russia, we have been exposed to a great deal of Russian culture and many customs. However, I don¼t think any of us were prepared for what awaited us at the now infamous banya. We had heard about this "banya" from the moment we arrived in Russia. We were told of how relaxing and enjoyable it was. Everyone told us it resembled an American sauna. Of course, when we were given the opportunity to go, we jumped at the chance.
We all loaded into our "minibus" and headed off to the country to enjoy a "relaxing" afternoon in the banya. Little did we know what awaited us. We arrived and were told we had to split up into males and females. The males headed in one direction and the females in the other. This seemed a little strange to our virtually inseparable group until we entered the changing room.
At this point we were informed that you enter banyas without clothes on. Once inside, we sat on benches while Lidia, our Russian instructor, made steam. After the steam was made, we each had to lay on the bench and take a turn at being hit with hot birch branches. Apparently, this is to clean your spirit. After our beatings, we had to leave the steam room and some of us opted to roll naked in the snow, while others just stood in the cool room.
After several minutes, we returned to the heat and relived the experience again. This took place several more times. When our time was over in the banya, we had to take a shower, with the assistance of Lidia, (our Russian language teacher and banya guide).
After the shower, we got dressed and sat down to cool off. We enjoyed tea and bliny (thin Russian pancake), while waiting for the guys. As they rounded the corner of the banya it was easy to see by the red faces and wet hair that they had been through an experience much like our own.
The guys had a true bonding experience sitting in a steamy room naked with the owner of the banya, Yuri. He informed the boys, "You must have a good heart." That¼s because the heat was so extreme that near the end of the session it was as hot as boiling water. They too had to go through the ritual of birch beatings and snow rolling. However, they also had to rub hot cedar all over their bodies.
Some of the guys found the experience to be extremely invigorating. As Andrew put it, "I have never before experienced the exfoliating power of white cedar being rubbed all over my body. Nor had I experienced being switched by birch branches. It is fitting that we were beaten with birch, which is the national tree of Russia. It is everywhere, and I feel one with Russia now that I have been beaten with her national symbol."
I think as a group we have all determined that the banya was a unique experience that we will remember forever. We are appreciating the culture that we are being exposed to and are thankful to all those who have helped us make the most of our experiences.
Up to five new Mini-grants could be awarded this summer. This would bring the total number of KEYSTONE 21 grants awarded to 31!
At this time, the KEYSTONE 21 Project does not plan to offer any additional grant cycles. The Project's funding from the W.K.Kellogg Foundation will end on June 30, 2001 so all of the KEYSTONE 21 awarded grants must be finished by that time.
We appreciate eveyone's interest and support for the KEYSTONE 21 grants. We have funded some very innovative and exciting projects. We hope that each one can be sustained and expanded in the future. We wish we had the money to fund all of the great proposals that were submitted.
The goal of the confernce is to provide an opportunity for the participants on the many different projects to network and exchange ideas with each other. It is very exciting to hear about their activities and experience the excitement they bring to their projects. This year's networking conference will be covered in our next issue.