August, 2007

Welcome back to school!

It's not too late to plant summer squash in your outdoor classroom. According to OSU's fall gardening fact sheet, you can plant summer squash seeds through September 1 for harvest in 40-50 days. To find out what else you can plant now, check out the fact sheet.

Scrumptious Summer Squash

Squash is usually divided into two categories - summer and winter. Summer squashes are harvested and eaten while their skin is still tender. Winter squash grows a thick skin, which helps it keep longer. The most common summer squashes are constricted neck, zucchini and scallop, or patty pan. Patty pan is round and flattened like a plate with scalloped edges. It is usually white. Constricted neck squash is thinner at the stem end than the blossom end and is classified as either "crookneck" or "straightneck." It is usually yellow. Zucchini squash is cylindrical- to club-shaped and is usually green.

Squashes originated in America. European settlers of the New World were introduced to the numerous squash varieties by the Native Americans. Archaeologists have traced their origins to Mexico, dating back from 7,000 to 5,500 BC, when they were an integral part of the ancient diet which also included maize and beans.

The colonists of New England adopted the name squash, a word derived from several Native American words for the vegetable which meant "green thing eaten green." Eventually summer squash made its way to the warm Mediterranean regions of Europe where it thrived and was renamed zucchini by the Italians and courgette by the French. Both names mean "small squash," which implies that they were eaten at their small, young stage.

Summer squash is very low in calories and high in fiber. It is rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C, folic acid and calcium. One cup of summer squash has nearly as much potassium as a banana. It also contains the valuable mineral nutrient phosphorus.

Play With Your Food - Zucchini Sneak

Zucchini squash is delicious, but people who grow it in their gardens tend to have more than they can use before the season is over. For that reason, some gardeners in Pennsylvania designated August 8 "National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night."

Celebrate your own “Zucchini Sneak” week.

• Start with five zucchini, and place them in five students’ desks with a secret message wrapped around each one.
• Students who get the zucchini must complete the tasks printed on the message before getting permission from you to sneak the zucchini into the desks of another five students, with instructions to complete additional tasks.
• Tasks will include the following:
  • Define these words related to zucchini - cucurbit, gourd, prolific.
  • Create three zucchini math problems.
  • Write three adjectives to describe “zucchini.”
  • Find three zucchini history facts using online or library references.
  • Find zucchini nutrition information using an online or library reference.
  • Find the name for zucchini in Spanish (calabacita) and French (courgette).
  • Write a persuasive paragraph designed to influence someone to eat zucchini.
  • Write a poem about zucchini.
• Finish the week with a Family Cucurbit Night with all cucurbit activities and curcurbit snacks. Late August through early October, parents with gardens may have zucchini to share.

P.A.S.S. for these activities

Be a Food Explorer - Zucchini Puzzles

• Clean and cut one or more large zucchini crossswise into thin circles.
• Use a canape cutter or small cookie cutter to cut a small shape out of each circle.
• Put the shapes back into the circles.
• Give each student several of the circles, and let them take the shapes in and out of the circles.
• Arrange a plate with several circles that have their shapes set aside.
• Let students put the shapes back in the appropriate circles.
• Ask students to name the shapes cut out of their zucchini circles.
• Wash the zucchini thoroughly, and let students eat them with ranch dressing or their dipping sauce of choice, or make Chilled Zucchini-Mint Soup. Sautee zucchini, simmer it in chicken broth, puree in a blender with buttermilk and fresh mint. Chill.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

More activities and information about cucurbits: "Pumpkins, Squash and Other Cucurbits."

Most county fairs begin this month.

• Contact your county Extension office for dates and for information about special activities available to your students.
• Learn about fairs and conduct your own classroom fair with A Trip to the Animal Fair.

August is National Inventor's Month.

What Oklahoma inventor, inspired by a folding chair, changed the way people shop for groceries?

Research important agricultural inventions using these resources

• A History of Ag Research
• Ag Inventions

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Online OAITC Lessons Related to Ag Inventions and Research

• Agriculture: It Doesn't Just Happen
• The History of Ethanol in America
• Timeline of the Land

What groundbreaking invention developed at OSU helps farmers use fertilizer more efficiently?

The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad occurred on August 15, 1870.

What impact did this have on the cattle industry? Look for the answer in Hit the Trail.

What impact did the railroad have on agriculture in Oklahoma history? Find the answer in Agriculture: Oklahoma's Legacy

August 29 is More Herbs, Less Salt Day.

Oklahoma is a great place for growing herbs. Fresh herbs may be available in the produce section of your grocery store, or you may still be able to purchase some herb plants in garden stores.

Bring an assortment of fresh herbs for students to smell.

Chop and blend into cream cheese.

Spread on crackers for taste-testing.

P.A.S.S. for this lesson

August 31 is National Trail Mix Day.

Try this mix to learn what horses eat.

Corn harvest begins this month in Oklahoma. Most of Oklahoma's corn crop grows in the Oklahoma panhandle and is used for feeding livestock.

Online Corn Lessons:

Corn Cob Toys

Corn Math

Corn in Legend and Myth

Corn in Ancient America

Pop Around the World

Welcome, 7th and 8th grade teachers

Check out our new curriculum for students in 7th and 8th grade addressing such timely issues as:

Oklahoma Fruits and Vegetables of the Month: Cucurbits

Which family of vegetables has members so sweet they are eaten as dessert and often mistaken for fruit? Oklahoma watermelon and cantaloupe are members of the cucurbit family, along with squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. In April the Oklahoma State Legislature declared watermelon Oklahoma's state vegetable. Most people think of watermelon as a fruit and eat it as a dessert, but watermelon is listed in US Department of Agricultore statistics as a vegetable. So is the strawberry, which is the official Oklahoma state fruit. More to come on that subject in a lesson currently under development.

Watermelon and cantaloupe are both warm season crops that thrive in Oklahoma's long growing season. Acreage for watermelon has been the second largest for a vegetable crop in our state for many years. The southern pea is number one. Watermelon production is concentrated in central and south-central Oklahoma. In 2005 the Oklahoma watermelon industry added about $7 million to our state’s economy. Of the 44 states that grow watermelons, Oklahoma ranked 11 in 2005. Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and Arizona are the top watermelon producers in the US.

Watermelon is fat free, nutritionally low in calories and high in energy. A two-cup serving of watermelon contains excellent levels of vitamins A, B6 and C. It is also a source of potassium and lycopene.

Play With Your Food - Watermelon, Watermelon

Create a watermelon book, based on the book, Brown, Bear, Brown Bear: Color the cover to look like the inside of a watermelon, and write the words "Watermelon, Watermelon."

1. On page 2, glue real garden soil to the page, and write "Brown dirt, brown dirt what do you see? I see black seeds looking at me."
2. Glue real watermelon seed to page 3, and write "Black seeds, black seeds what do you see? I see blue water lookingat me."
3. On page 4, write "Blue water, blue water what do you see? I see a green vine looking at me." Color the page blue.
4. Glue green yarn on page 5 and write "Green vine, green vine what do you see? I see a yellow flower looking at me."
5. Continue through the remaining pages with "Yellow flower, yellow flower, what do you see? I see a watermelon looking at me. Watermelon, watermelon what do you see? I see (student's name) class looking at me!"
6. Let students illustrate as desired.

P.A.S.S. for this lesson

Be a Food Explorer - Watermelon Popsicles

• Cut up a seedless watermelon, and puree chunks in a blender.
• Let students try it as a refreshing drink, or pour the puree into ice trays for watermelon popsicles.
• Add lemon juice and mint to some of the puree, and let students do a taste test.

Bring a watermelon and a large tub to class.

• Fill the tub with water.
• Ask students if they think the watermelon will sink or float.
• Students record predictions.
• Place the watermelon in the tub to test student hypotheses.
• Try other summer veggies - cucumbers, squash, tomatoes.
• Weigh the watermelon and other veggies, and find other objects of similar weight to test.
• What makes some things float and other things sink?
• Plant watermelon seeds in milk cartons and chart their growth.

P.A.S.S. for these activities

How to Choose a Watermelon

1. Look the watermelon over. Choose a firm, symmetrical watermelon that is free of bruises, cuts and dents.
2. Lift the watermelon up. It should be heavy for its size. Watermelon is 92 percent water. That accounts for most of its weight.
3. Turn the watermelon over. On the underside of the watermelon there should be a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun.

Online Watermelon Lessons

• Working Watermelon
  Students perform estimates, measurements and calculations on a watermelon.
• Melon Meiosis
  Students learn how seedless watermelon were developed andmodel the process of mitosis and meiosis in
  watermelons, using jelly beans.

Watermelon Facts

Oklahoma farmer's markets are an explosion of great home-grown produce this month. Plan a trip to the farmer's market so students can talk to fruit and vegetable growers and get excited about eating the delicious, nutritious produce that grows in our state. Many markets across the state are open through mid October. Oklahoma students need to eat more fruits and vegetables. We remain near the bottom of all states for eating what is recommended.

Farmer's Market Activities

• Consider applying for an OAITC/Oklahoma Pork Council grant to cover your expenses for a trip to the farmers market.
• Use the lesson Fresh From the Farm to conduct surveys at the farmer's market.
• Have students use the guidelines above to choose a watermelon for your class.
• Learn how far food from the grocery store travels, in comparison with food from the farmer's market, with the new online lesson, How Far Did It Travel?

August is National Catfish Month.

Although catfish farming is not yet a major agricultural enterprise in Oklahoma, Oklahoma catfish certainly have played a major role in the development of catfish farming in the US. The majority of all the channel catfish stock farmed in the US originated near the Denison Dam on Oklahoma's Lake Texoma. These fish were captured in 1949 by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in pools formed in the Red River behind Denison Dam after its construction. The fish were spawned in the Arkansas state hatchery system and were the basis of broodstock for some of the earliest catfish farms. These fish were also some of the founder stocks in federal hatcheries and research institutions in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where most of the catfish farming in the US takes place.

In addition to catfish farms, aquaculture in Oklahoma also includes fingerling production for pond stocking, pay lakes, ornamental fish and plants, and small-scale food-fish production.

Online Lesson: Fish in a Bottle

Make an edible aquarium.

Aquaculture Facts

Browse all the lessons

What makes some things float and other things sink?

Watermelons float because of the displacement of water.  The pressure from the water pushing up on the watermelon is greater than the pressure from the watermelon pushing down.

P.A.S.S.

Watermelon, Watermelon

Pre-Kindergarten: Creative Skills - 1.4. Oral Language - 1.2. Literacy - 3.1,2,3; 8.1,2,3,4. Writing - 9.4. Small Motor - 2.1,2. Life Science - 3.1,2

Kindergarten: Reading - 1.1,2,3,4; 7.2ab. Writing - 1.1. Small Motor - 1.1,2. Life Science - 2.1,2. Visual Arts - 3.1ad

Grade 1: Reading - 1.1,2; 5.1,3; 6.1b,3abc. Life Science - 2.1. Visual Arts - 3.2

Cool Down With Watermelon

Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.2,3. Physical Science - 1.1. Life Science - 2.1,2

Grade 1: Science Process - 1.2; 3.1,2. Life Science - 2.1

Grade 2: Science Process - 1.2; 3.1,2.

Zucchini Sneak

Grade 3: Reading - 2.4; 6.1bd,2b.Writing - 2.2,5; 3.1i. Math Process - 1.2,3; 2.1,3. Language Awareness - 1.1; 3.1. Social Studies - 1.1

Grade 4: Reading - 1.4b; 5.1abe,2c. Writing - 2.2,3; 3.1h. Math Process - 1.2,3; 2.1,3. Social Studies - 1.1

Grade 5: Reading - 14b; 5.1ace. Writing - 2.1; 3.1f. Math Process - 1.2,3; 2.1,3. Social Studies - 1.1; 2.2

Zucchini Puzzles

Pre-Kindergarten: Math - 3.1

Kindergarten: Math - 3.1

Grade 1: Math Process -1.1; 2.3; 5.1,2. Math Concept - 4.1ab

Grade 2: Math Process -1.1; 2.3; 5.1,2. Math Concept - 4.1a

National Inventor's Month

Grade 4: Social Studies - 1.1; 4.2

Grade 5: Social Studies - 1.1; 6.4

More Herbs, Less Salt

Pre-Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.1,2. Physical Science - 2.1

Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.2. Physical Science - 2.1

Grade 1: Science Process - 1.2; 3.1,2. Physical Science - 1.2

Grade 2: Science Process - 1.2; 3.1,2.