Good for you: Food!

 

Of course you need food to live, but some food is better for you than others – and the right mix of food can help keep you healthy. Get the inside scoop on the nutrition of food with these online activities.

 

COMMENT:

• What is nutrition? and why is it important? Get the answers at https://youtu.be/VpfYP2NtHfs
• A good place to start is a good plate. See the US Department of Agriculture’s recommendations for healthy eating at https://www.myplate.gov/life-stages/kids
• Family dentists are sharing 10 fun food facts for kids at https://wemakekidssmile.net/10-fun-food-facts-for-kids/
• Become a healthy superhero by watching Captain Create at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA9UUVYEagSVjyzf8enp9gQ/videos

 

CREATE:

• Make dining decisions a game at https://www.cdc.gov/school-nutrition/dining-decisions/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/bam/mobileapp.html
• Try the snack shack challenge at https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/whyville-snack-shack-games
• Take the Vitamin C challenge at https://aglab.ars.usda.gov/let-s-get-to-work/the-vitamin-c-challenge
• Are you 10 or older? Then you can help protect the community from food-based illness by playing https://outbreaksquad.com/index.html

 

CARE:

• Learn how to read a nutrition facts label at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylY0w04AAVk&ab_channel=DrSmarty; parents can use the information at https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/how-understand-and-use-nutrition-facts-label to help plan nutritional family meals.
• What is a food allergy? See the answer at https://youtu.be/CnxzZXjbddk
• Girls only! Get girl-only nutrition tips at https://girlshealth.gov/nutrition/index.html
• Become a diet detective at https://health.choc.org/how-to-become-a-diet-detective-some-trends-may-be-harmful-to-kids/
• For parents: Build a healthy diet for your children, based on the Mayo Clinic’s guidelines at https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/nutrition-for-kids/art-20049335

 

CAREERS:

Does good food sound good to you as a career? You could be a nutritionist, a dietician, a scientist, a healthcare professional, a cook or chef, a farmer, a teacher --- there are many ways to you can make a nutritional living. Here is a sampling of opportunities, so treat yourself.

• https://nutrition.org/careers/career-pathways-in-nutrition/
• https://www.eatright.org/health/wellness/healthful-habits/what-a-registered-dietitian-nutritionist-can-do-for-you
• Farmer markets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ZaVZpFSMM&t=51s&ab_channel=NationalAgriculturalLibrary
• Follow the nutrition story map about feeding a growing population at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6f92b5c2e3754eb3b449a96580605d98

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Up, Doc?

We all need to keep healthy, and many kinds of people in the health care industry can help use. Find out more about what they do in the following activities. You might want to become one of those helpers yourself!

CONNECT:

• Watch a day in the life of a pediatrician (a doctor who treats youth): https://www.fda.gov/drugs/developmentapprovalprocess/howdrugsaredevelopedandapproved/
• What does it take to run a hospital? It’s a complex system, as you will find out at http://blog.soliant.com/healthcare-workers/what-it-takes-to-run-a-hospital/
• Watch 200 year of medicine at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxx14RCxblg
•  How are drugs developed and approved? The federal government shares their perspective: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/developmentapprovalprocess/howdrugsaredevelopedandapproved/

CREATE:

•  "Lose a Million (Bacteria)" is a fun, interactive game; its object is to lose bacteria: https://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/ToolsMaterials/ucm212691.htm
•  Playing doctor for little ones can include art activities, games, and songs as seen at http://www.childfun.com/themes/people/doctors/
•  Here are health crafts to make: https://www.daniellesplace.com/html/doctor-nurse-crafts.html
• Make your own doctor or nurse costume: http://www.ziggityzoom.com/activity/easy-nurse-costume-or-doctor-costume-make and https://www.care.com/c/stories/7201/how-to-make-a-doctor-costume/

CARE:

• Sports injuries are a serious problem for both amateur and professional players. Here is an online guide to sports medicine for youth: http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/sports-injuries.html?ref=search&WT.ac=msh-t-dtop-en-search-clk
• Here’s the place for girls’ health: mind and body. This website includes healthy tips, videos and games: http://www.iemily.com/
• What is it like to stay at a hospital and have an operation? Get advice at http://www.chop.edu/patients-and-visitors/kids-health-galaxy-our-web-site-kids
• Be healthy and safe this Halloween by following these tips: https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm230283.htm

CAREERS:

• Interested in a career in health care? Look at all the jobs you could do: https://www.snagajob.com/job-descriptions/healthcare
• Here’s how to navigate your journey through medical school: https://students-residents.aamc.org/
• Who does what in a medical office: http://managemypractice.com/who-does-what-in-a-medical-office-basic-position-descriptions/
• Want to manufacture medicines? Find out about the industry at https://collegegrad.com/industries/pharmaceutical-and-medicine-manufacturing

Fit Families

So how much time does your family spend on the Internet? Are you exercising your fingers more than your legs? You CAN use the Internet to help you get fit and stay fit. It’s a matter of what you access, and how you apply that knowledge. It’s time to walk the talk!

CONNECT:

• In order to be fit, it helps to know how the body works. You can watch movices, take quizes, and do activities all about the parts or your body: http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/#cat20130
• Hospitals want to keep you healthy; Kaiser Permanente’s webpage Kid Wisdom (http://info.kaiserpermanente.org/richmedia/kidWisdom/) has kid-friendly features and activities to develop healthy habits.
• You’d think that playing sports would be healthy, but consider all the accidents that occur. Should you avoid sports instead? No, you just have to learn to play them safely. KidsHealth has several sports safety tips as well as points for choosing the right sport for you: http://kidshealth.org/teen/nutrition_fitness_center/index.html?tracking=81347_C#cat20755
• Girls have different fitness needs than boys. Find out what works for girls at http://www.girlshealth.gov/fitness/index.html

CREATE:

• How fit is your family? This this free Health Risk Assessment as a family, and then follow some suggestions on improving your family’s fitness, found at http://www.fitkidsnc.com/AtHome.aspx
• Is your family thinking about getting some exercise equipment? Check before you buy. Exercise Equipment Review (http://www.exercise-equipment-review.com/ )links to sources of trusted reviews.
• There’s lots of fun fitness games at Kidnetic (http://www.kidnetic.com/), some created by kids. Try a few, design a dance, and test yourself.
• Bicycling can be a family-friendly way to keep fit. Find out resources, including 41,000 miles of cycling routes at the American Cycling Association website:  http://www.adventurecycling.org/. Try creating your own cycling route.

CARE:

• Special Olympics is a wonderful way to help people with disabilities have opportunities to excel in sports. You can get involved in several ways; check out http://www.specialolympics.org/Sections/Get_Involved/Get_Involved.aspx
• You can keep fit and help others keep fit outdoors by volunteering to help create and maintain trails. Participate in National Trails Day: http://www.americanhiking.org/national-trails-day/
• “It takes heart to be a hero!” That’s the American Heart Association slogan for helping donate to their cause. For example, you can participate in Jump Rope for Kids (http://www.kintera.org/site/c.dkLRKbOWLjK4E/b.8180513/k.BD61/Home.htm); you keep healthy, and help others get healthy along the way.
• You can create your own video workout: at http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/abs/create-your-own-video-workout/. Think about making one for a friend.

CAREERS:
Physical fitness trainers, sports coaches, physical therapists, kinesiologists, nutritionists, sports equipment manufacturers, naturalists, physicians, all help people keep fit. Check out some of those careers at:

• http://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/fitness-trainers-and-instructors.htm
• http://www.americankinesiology.org/careers-in-sport-fitness-and-exercise
• http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/70/Physical_Therapist
• http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-career
• http://exercise.about.com/cs/forprofessionals/a/careers.htm

Count on Summer!

Yes, you can count on math to make your summer add up to more fun. No matter the angle, you and your family can figure out how to help those summer days measure up to your expectations – and help you get an edge on fall.

Connect:

+         Amuse yourself with Cool Math! It contains an online theme park of game games and puzzles: http://www.coolmath.com/

+         Which mathematician shares the same birthday as you? Find out at http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/ m which features mathematicians for every day. The site provides biographies, quotes and even posters. You can also find which mathematicians lived in your area of the world.

+         Puzzle it out! Your family can choose from a treasure trove of fun math puzzles at different levels at http://www.mathpuzzle.com/

+         It’s a good idea to exercise your brain as you exercise your body to keep mentally fit. Move your mind with arithmetic arcade and math baseball at  http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/MathBrain.html. You can also try your hand at math basketball at http://www.scienceacademy.com/BI/index.html. There’s even a whole math playground to explore at http://www.mathplayground.com/

+         How do you make lemonade without lemons? Online with this virtual lemonade stand at http://www.classbrain.com/cb_games/cb_gms_bag/lemonade.html. See how much money you can make –without squeezing a dime or a lemon. And there’s no clean up either.

+         What do a sunflower, a nautilus shell, and the Greek Pantheon have in common? Fibonacci numbers. They are all around you; explore Fibonacci numbers in nature, art, and the creative arts at http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html

Create:

+         Did you know that Walt Disney created a film about mathematics starring Donald Duck? You can join Donald in his adventures at http://www.schooltube.com/video/4330a09d98c125dcaa00/Donald-Duck-in-MathMagicLand. You’ll see some fun visual puns about mathematics (such as square roots) and creative mathematical “expressions” through music and other activities. You might try your hand at creating a geometric image or math-based musical instrument.

+         Some of those great animation effects of movies seem so realistic. You can think math, fractals in particular, for such realistic detail. Explore fractals at http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/, and try your hand at creating your own fractal images.

+         Have designs on math? You can create grids, polygons and more at http://mathforum.org/~sarah/shapiro/index.html. Or if you just want to create fun images using geometric shapes, you can use the online grid palette at http://ejad.best.vwh.net/java/patterns/patterns_j.shtml. That experience can help you use simple computer drawing and paint tools.

+         Tessellations are any repeating pattern of interlocking shapes. This ThinkQuest, created by students, traces the history of tessellations, focusing on Escher’s contributions, largely through its extensive historical image gallery. The creators explain different types of patterns, and provide templates to enable users to create their own tessellations. http://library.thinkquest.org/16661/

+         Want more money? Want to lose weight? Want to go faster? It’s all in how you calculate it! Instead of having one dollar, you can have 1,562.88 liras for the same cost (You might explore which currency has the least and the most value). Or maybe you don’t want to look greedy; instead of asking for a pint of ice cream you can ask for a mere 0.002 of a hogshead. Would you rather run a mile or 160 934.4 centimeters? How many seconds have your lived? Create your own conversion games and fantasies by using http://www.onlineconversion.com/

 

 

Care:

+         In order to find out the status of world social issues such as hunger and poverty, you need to know the statistics. What are some of the statistics about children’s well-being in today’s world? Find out at http://childstats.gov/.  Maybe you can think of a way to improve those statistics…

+         What’s the fairest way to vote? It’s a more complex issue than you might first think. Figure out what might be the fairest way to elect a president by exploring http://www.ctl.ua.edu/math103/

+         Speaking of great mathematicians, the world needs more females in the field. Here are some famous women mathematicians: http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm. Find out ways to support girls who like math at http://blog.amigram.com/parenting/how-parents-can-support-their-girls-in-math-and-science/

Careers:

+         Did you enjoy Cool Math? Do you find math to be cool? That site also has information about math-related careers: http://www.coolmath.com/careers.htm

+         Ok, so the sound of math doesn’t excite you. How about money? Space? Interior design? Sports? Forensics? Animation? Ecology? Law? Writing? Photography? There’s a math career associated with each of these; check it out at http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mathcareers.html   and http://www.math.com/students/advice/careers.html

+         STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) careers are hot these days – and universities are willing to give students scholarships to major in these areas. Explore STEM, and especially math, careers at these websites.

+         http://education.ti.com/studentzone/StudentZoneUS/careers/index.html

For parents:

Are you a bit intimidated by math? By exploring these math activities, hopefully both you and your family can feel more self-confident about math. It’s all around us,  and you can count on it – so enjoy it. Nevertheless, everyone can use a little math help. Here are some math tutoring site. Remember that the more that you and your children engaged in math-related activities that they like, the better they are likely to be in math.

+         http://mathforum.org/

+         http://www.ies.co.jp/math/java/

+         http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/webmath/

+         http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/vandewalle_awl/

+         http://www.homeworkspot.com/middle/math/ 

+        http://www.teachthechildrenwell.com/math.html