Planting Pattern and Cultivar Effects on Flax Yields in Northwestern Iowa

In the United States, consumption of flaxseed and flaxseed oil is increasing both by direct consumption and as processed foods. Flaxseeds are high in alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 essential fatty acid, which is important for cardiovascular health. Whole-ground flaxseed in livestock diets can raise the level of these “healthy” fatty acids in meat and eggs. A new facility for organic flaxseed oil processing in Iowa has the potential to attract production to Iowa. Other grain buyers in the Upper Midwest are also increasing their purchase of flaxseed for animal feeds

Evaluating the adaptability of forage species and varieties

Iowa\u27s harsh climate can make forage establishment and maintenance difficult. This project examined which forages might be best adapted to growth and survival in northwest Iowa

Seeding Rate for Flax, 2005–2006

Demand for certified organic flax has increased due to a rise in human consumption of food products rich in omega-3 oil and due to the recent construction of a certified organic oilseed expelling facility in Cherokee, IA.Challenges exist to raising organic flax in the upper Midwest, including a lack of region-specific production guidelines, adequate weed management strategies, and seed availability. Contract requirements stipulate specific flax cultivars to be grown, but seed for these is not available locally. Seed shipped from Canada can be expensive,so accurate seeding rate recommendations are needed. Seeding rates may need to be increased for organic production over those suggested for conventional production to aid in weed suppression. In 2005 and 2006, ranges of seeding rates were evaluated to assess the effect on flax grain yield and oil quantity

Tinkering With Testing:Understanding How Museum Program Design Advances Engineering Learning Opportunities for Children

Using a design-based research approach, we studied ways to advance opportunities for children and families to engage in engineering design practices in an informal educational setting. 213 families with 5–11-year-old children were observed as they visited a tinkering exhibit at a children’s museum during one of three iterations of a program posing an engineering design challenge. Children’s narrative reflections about their experience were recorded immediately after tinkering. Across iterations of the program, changes to the exhibit design and facilitation provided by museum staff corresponded to increased families’ engagement in key engineering practices. In the latter two cycles of the program, families engaged in the most testing, and in turn, redesigning. Further, in the latter cycles, the more children engaged in testing and retesting during tinkering, the more their narratives contained engineering-related content. The results advance understanding and the evidence base for educational practices that can promote engineering learning opportunities for children

Mothers’ and Preschoolers’ Mental State Language During Reminiscing Over Time

Mental state language during conversations about the past was assessed in a shortterm longitudinal study. Twenty-one mother-child dyads discussed several previously experienced events when the children were 30 and 42 months old. Over time, children’s mental term use—although quite low—did increase, and both mothers and children talked more about the process of remembering in their references to mental states. Neither mothers’ nor children’s mental term use correlated with measures of the children’s verbal abilities. Only the children’s and not mothers’ early use of mental terms uniquely predicted children’s later mental term use. Associations were also found between children’s mental term use during reminiscing and their deliberate remembering of objects in a strategic memory task performed at 42 months

STEM Learning and Transfer in a Children’s Museum and Beyond

This study addressed whether providing mothers and children with engineering information would promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talk during interactions in a building-construction exhibit and later when remembering the experience at home. A total of 40 mothers and their 5- to 6-year-old children (M = 5.87) were randomly assigned to one of two groups that either did or did not receive specific information about a simple engineering principle prior to building at the museum. A subset of the dyads (N = 21) also recorded memory conversations at home at two delay intervals. The engineering information supported transfer of learning from the demonstration to building in the exhibit, as well as to memory reports at least 2 weeks afterwards. Implications for museum-based research and practice are discussed