Protected Under
18 U.S.C. 707
Protected Under
18 U.S.C. 707
OSU HANDS ON
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
COOS COUNTY EXTENSION OFFICE
Ohlsen Baxter Building
631 Alder Street Myrtle Point, OR 97458
PHONE: 572-5263 FAX: 572-5963
Website: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/coos/
November is Good Nutrition Month
Dear Educators,
I’d like to welcome a wonderful addition to Coos County OSU Extension
Service. Timely, too, being November is Good Nutrition Month! Alice
Voluntad is our new Extension nutritionist who covers program materials
such as health prevention, childhood obesity, hunger and food safety.
She is looking to partner with classroom teachers who are interested in
having their students’ learn more about current trends and information
regarding these aforementioned topics. To reach Alice, please contact
her at the Extension office.
To celebrate Alice’s arrival from Pendleton, let’s begin our newsletter
with a recipe!
TREE TREATS
1 cup dried apricots
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup dried figs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup dried, pitted prunes
1 small package shredded coconut
2/3 cup almonds
November
2003
Volume 5
Issue 3
In This Issue:
Greetings!………..….1
Hello from Jon…...2
Cooking with
Leaves ….…....…...2
Pass the Plants,
Please……………………...3
HazelnutHooray!.....4
Website
Insight…………….……..4
Grind the apricots, figs, prunes, and almonds in a food grinder or processor. Stir in the spices. Mold the
mixture into little balls, and then roll the balls in the shredded coconut.
Makes three to four dozen.
I hope you will have fun with these Hands On activities from Project Learning Tree. If you are
interested in attending a Project Learning Tree training for grades K-8, please contact the
Extension office.
Best regards,
Sue Powrie-Smith
OSU Coos County Extension
4-H School Enrichment
“4-H School Enrichment at your fingertips.”
Hello From Jon
Forestry 4-H School Enrichment
for Youth and Families
This has been a wild month of projects! We started the month facilitating Natural Resource Day at the
Coos County Fairgrounds. There were over 140 students from Myrtle Crest School who participated in the event.
The students had the opportunity to go through six different stations to learn about Pacific Northwest natural
resources such as habitat, volcanoes, fish and predators. This was a fun day! I gave a lesson on lumber
dimensions and trees. The tree part of my presentation was geared towards talking about different species of
conifers and deciduous trees. The lumber for the project was donated by East Fork Lumber Company and W.L.
Contractors. I took the lumber that was donated and developed a Borrow Box, which is now available.
The trail building opportunity at the Myrtle Point Interpretive Site was a success! We had over fifteen
people volunteer for the event from around the county clearing the trail. The trail has been roughed in, and we are
now seeking funds to complete the site, build bridges and place 4” x 6” identification markers . This will be done
by grants and donations. When this interpretive trail is complete, we will be able to facilitate natural resource
education projects year round for Coos County students.
In addition, Sue and I worked on 6th grade Outdoor School for Myrtle Crest students. Pam Royer, a 6th
grade teacher, contacted us to do a tree identification project. We worked on identifying two different conifers and
deciduous trees. Extension also provided the Soils Borrow Box for another educator to use during the program.
Timber cruising was also on my agenda for the month when 130 students from Coquille Valley Middle
School went to a Lee Valley site to learn how to do a fixed plot timber cruise. These 6th graders did an excellent
job tackling this difficult task. They learned a new way to apply math skills to natural resources.
Educators, I am here to work with you in facilitating/delivering programs/curriculum for your classroom. If
you have something you would like to have presented or developed, give me a call at 572-5263.
Jonathan Martz, Forestry Instructor
Cooking with Leaves
This project involves everyone’s favorite “CHOCOLATE”! Have fun with this and be
creative with the leaves you choose. It’s best to use Alder leaves, Myrtle, Small Leaf
Maples, or even different fruit tree leaves.
Levels: K-12
Subjects: Science, Visual Arts,
Home Economics
Skills: Compare and Contrast,
Classifying and Categorizing,
<Identification work>, basic cooking knowledge
Getting Ready: Have about fifty leaves for your class to work with.
You could have students bring their own leaves, but it would be better to
collect the leaves yourself. This way you will not end up with poison
Objectives: Students will learn
oak leaves or any other unwanted leaves.
basic types of deciduous trees in
the Pacific Northwest. Students
Doing the Activity:
will also learn some safety meth1. Have students work the first day on identifying leaves.
ods when working in the kitchen
2. Students need to wash and dry the leaves. If the leaves are not dried
enough the chocolate will not stick.
Materials:
3. To prepare chocolate: partly fill the bottom of a double boiler with
• Tree Leaves
water and heat it to steaming hot. Put the chocolate in the top pan
• Paper towels
and set it over water. Turn the heat to low and stir the chocolate
• Cookie Sheet
with a spoon until it melts. Remove chocolate from the heat.
• Heating Mechanism
4. To coat leaves: line the cookie sheet with waxed paper. Make sure
• Wooden Spoon
and only coat the underside of the leaves (with the veins). Take the
• Waxed Paper
rounded blade knife and coat the leaves to the edge of the leaves.
• 6-12 oz. Package of semiMake sure you put on a thick coating.
sweet chocolate bits
5. Let stand for at least 15 minutes
• Small knife with a rounded
6. Peeling off the leaves: Make sure your hands are clean! Grasp
blade (like a pallet knife)
your individual leaves by the stem and pull the leaves backwards.
Don’t pull straight up! You may break off the stem.
Project Time: preparation 20
7. After all the leaves have been removed, place the chocolate leaves in
minutes
the refrigerator to cool.
Activity: 40 min. to 1 hr.
Be creative and have fun with this project.
Page 2
OSU HANDS ON
PASS THE PLANTS, PLEASE
People and other animals eat parts of many different plants. For example,
people eats roots (carrots); above ground and underground stems ( asparagus,
onions, potatoes); leaves (lettuce, spinach); leaf stalks (celery); flowers (broccoli,
cauliflower); fruits( apples, tomatoes, cucumber); and seeds (wheat, rice, beans,
walnuts).
Skills: Discussing, Identifying Attributes and Components, Organizing
Information, Researching Analyzing
Objectives: Students will identify edible plant parts and give examples of
each, describe how plants are used to make various kinds of foods, discuss the
importance of plants in people’s diets.
Preparation: One hour Activity: Two 50-minute period
Inserts: “Veggie Plate” and data collection sheet
PLANTS IN THE PIZZA?
ANALYZE YOUR LUNCH
Part A: K-8
Doing the Activity:
Part B: 3-8
Doing the Activity:
1. Have the students brainstorm a list of foods
that come from plants. The foods can either be
plants themselves (such as potatoes) or made
from plants (such as french fries). Write the
students’ ideas on the board.
2. Point out that many plant foods are not obvious. For example, tortilla chips are made from
ground corn. Bread is mad from wheat or other
grains. Even pizza, with its wheat crust and
tomato sauce, is made mostly from plants. As
the students if they can think of others, and
add their suggestions to the list.
3. Examine the list and have the students try to
identify the plant parts each food comes from.
On the board, write the plant part categories in
with each the foods belong: Roots, leaves, stems
(above or below ground), leaf stalks, fruits or
seeds.
What animals also eat these plant parts?
4. Hand out copies of page 53, “Veggie Plate,” to
each student. Have them fill in the name of
the appropriate plant part on the blank line below the word identifying the food.
5. Older students can research the vitamins and
minerals provided by each of the veggies on the
plate.
1. Have each student make a chart and
tell the students they are going to take
a close look at their lunch from Monday
through Thursday. They will fill in the
chart with information about the plant
foods they eat for lunch each day.
2. Go over the chart initially with the students. Each day after lunch give them
time to add information to their charts.
3. On Friday, discuss the data with the
students. Did some plant parts show
up in their lunches more often than
others? If so, which ones?
4. Have the student create a bar graph
showing the occurrence of different
plant parts in their lunches during the
week. How might this change from
season to season?
5. With older students, discuss what a
balanced meal is. Have the student
create a balanced diet of plant foods.
Introduce or review concepts of sound
nutrition and human health.
NOTE: It is important to make clear through
discussion that not all parts of an edible plant
are safe to eat! Sometimes we may eat one
part of a plant while another part is poisonous.
Animals can often eat plant or plant parts that
are inedible or even poisonous to people.
Volume 5, Issue 3
Answers for Veggie Plate
cashew : seed
onion : underground stem
asparagus : aboveground stem
cherry tomato : fruit
spinach : leaf
broccoli: flower
apple : fruit
celery leaf stalk
carrot : root
Page 3
Website
Insights
Sprawl + Old Farmers = Obesity An interesting article regarding the rise in
obesity and the usage of cheap corn as a building block of the ‘fast food nation.’
Also discusses loss of agricultural lands on the suburban-rural interface zones,
housing affordability, the suburban ‘car-centric lifestyle’ and the correlation to
obesity. [email protected] October 21, 2003 Derek Reiber
“Child Nutrition: School Breakfast” Connect for Kids
Oregon ranks among best performing states in the School Breakfast program.
We’re 5th out of 51. Get a concise look at how this program impacts Academics,
Absenteeism, Participation, and Discipline.
http://216.198.222.116/childnutrition/slide1C.htm
Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation http://AITC.oregonstate.edu
Excellent source of lesson plans developed by Oregon teachers.
HAZELNUT HOORAY!
The hazelnut is the State Nut of 0regon.
Hazelnuts have existed for over 4,500 year.
Hazelnuts are gathered and dried from September thru November.
Oregon produces 99% of all hazelnuts grown in the U.S.
The first hazelnut tree was planted in 1858 in the Umpqua Valley.
Hazelnuts should reach bearing age in four years and have a life
expectancy of 50 years.
Washington County is the leading producers of hazelnuts.
Oregon State University Extension Service offers educational programs, activities, and materials without regard to race, color, religion, sex,
sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, disability, and disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran status as required by Title VI of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Oregon
State University Extension Service is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
OSU Hands On
Oregon State University
Coos County Extension
Ohlsen Baxter Building
631 Alder St., Myrtle Point, OR 97458
Telephone: 541-572-5263
FAX 572-5963