The Impact of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 on National School Meal Participation Rates

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010 is the most recent child nutrition reauthorization bill. It authorizes $4.5 billion in new funding for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s core child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Public focus and attention with regard to the HHFKA has chiefly been focused on the dramatic changes implemented in nutritional requirements for all food served in schools, including new restrictions on the amount of calories, sugar, fat and sodium in school meals. Nutrition advocates have lauded these efforts to address rising rates of childhood obesity, but school meal professionals are concerned with the financial cost of implementing these new standards. Their concerns stem from the question of whether the HHFKA has reduced children’s participation in both school meal and a la carte programs, thereby reducing revenues for many school districts, as well as from the fact that the increase in federal reimbursement rates for these meals does not fully cover the cost of implementing the new standards. These debates are still playing out, with many supporters of the Act arguing that efforts at improving nutritional standards in school meals have typically resulted in a temporary decrease in participation rates as children and schools resist change, but that over time, school food professionals’ challenges with food procurement and menu planning will decrease and that participation rates and revenues will rise again. This paper will focus on a different aspect of the HHFKA that has too often been over-looked. As the following graphs demonstrate, this is the too little noted fact that while the total number of meals served has decreased since the implementation of the HHFKA, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of free meals served during the same time period. Looking only at the overall decrease in the number of meal served fails to note the increase in participation in free meals, which is a significant sign that the HHFKA is serving low-income populations more effectively. This is corroborated through the experiences of the School District of Philadelphia, one of the nation’s poorest cities, with nearly 200,000 people or a third of the city’s population living in deep poverty, or at half the federal poverty line. The success of Philadelphia’s Universal Feeding Program in the 1990s and its continued success under the Community Eligibility Provision of the HHFKA has allowed for an immense increase in school meal access for students

One Epic φf Stardusts

A long time ago in a far away galaxy, there was a star shining alone in the deep darkness. The beautiful star aged and exploded into a supernova, where her golden light scattered into the tiniest sparkles of dust, pouring down to Earth. Made of Stardust, humans naturally have responded to the divine light that they carry inside their souls, through diverse acts of enlightenment such as art, religion, and science. . . . As a Stardust, an artist, a Korean, and a woman, I keep walking in between opposing forces and varying perspectives until I transcend their boundaries and reveal their glittery metaphysical bonds

Enhancing teacher learning from guided video analysis of literacy instruction: An interdisciplinary and collaborative approach

The technological infrastructure for the use of instructional and professional videos is common in today’s educational venues. However, there has been a dearth of awareness and training to help teachers critically analyze and effectively utilize video recordings of authentic classroom instruction for their professional development. This self-study examined the teaching and learning process, particularly knowledge and lessons that we, as teacher educators, learned from commentary regarding video analysis and pre- and post- surveys completed by the candidates in a graduate level special education course. The investigation explored the extent to which the guided video analysis process facilitated the candidates’ learning of literacy instruction in order to teach high needs students by examining teacher-candidates’ analysis of video-recorded lessons, followed by discussions with peers and further reflections on their own teaching

Korea’s first unified Olympic team is an uneasy truce of diplomacy and sexism

First paragraph: TheXXIII Olympic Winter Gamesin PyeongChang provides a fascinating opportunity to consider the complex relationship between sport and national identity, especially as North and South Korea will be fielding a joint women’s ice hockey team. The last-minute teamdecisionwas announced on January 17 as part of theOlympic Korean Peninsula Declaration, and generated considerabledebate, especially among younger South Koreans who view the move to be North Korea hitching a ride on the coat-tails of their own team

Out-of-school STEM Program for Students with Visual Impairments: Adaptations and Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Although previous research exists on making adaptations for students with visual impairments in online settings, there is limited research on the teaching and learning dynamics of students with visual impairments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since responses to the pandemic made it difficult for students with visual impairments to participate in educational opportunities that require hands-on experiences, gaps have been identified in gaining access to educational opportunities. The current project was originally planned with programs based on in-person modes, aimed at increasing motivation and awareness of science, technology, engineering, and math of students with visual impairments. Due to limitations of in-person participation, substantial modifications and adaptations were required for the programs to be meaningful and effective when delivered in online environments. It was found that proficiency in the use of technology options, specific instruction and guidance for access of information, and program planning in advance were the three key elements for successful implementation of the programs. This article documents 1) existing research on the impacts of the pandemic, 2) meaningful adaptations and modifications, 3) essential elements for developing online programs in STEM, and 4) identified strategies in program transition for students with visual impairments. Some skills may not be most efficiently taught through online interactions, however participation of family members, careful modifications of existing activities, and sufficient level of technology support allows many skills to be acquired through online learning. Most importantly, strong collaboration of participating team members makes it possible for students with visual impairments to participate equitably in online environments

Experimental validation of large-scale simulations of dynamic fracture along weak planes

A well-controlled and minimal experimental scheme for dynamic fracture along weak planes is specifically designed for the validation of large-scale simulations using cohesive finite elements. The role of the experiments in the integrated approach is two-fold. On the one hand, careful measurements provide accurate boundary conditions and material parameters for a complete setup of the simulations without free parameters. On the other hand, quantitative performance metrics are provided by the experiments, which are compared a posteriori with the results of the simulations. A modified Hopkinson bar setup in association with notch-face loading is used to obtain controlled loading of the fracture specimens. An inverse problem of cohesive zone modeling is performed to obtain accurate mode-I cohesive zone laws from experimentally measured deformation fields. The speckle interferometry technique is employed to obtain the experimentally measured deformation field. Dynamic photoelasticity in conjunction with high-speed photography is used to capture experimental records of crack propagation. The comparison shows that both the experiments and the numerical simulations result in very similar crack initiation times and produce crack tip velocities which differ by less than 6%. The results also confirm that the detailed shape of the non-linear cohesive zone law has no significant influence on the numerical results

Numerical modelling and experimental validation of dynamic fracture events along weak planes

The conceptual simplicity and the ability of cohesive finite element models to describe complex fracture phenomena makes them often the approach of choice to study dynamic fracture. These models have proven to reproduce some experimental features, but to this point, no systematic study has validated their predictive ability; the difficulty in producing a sufficiently complete experimental record, and the intensive computational requirements needed to obtain converged simulations are possible causes. Here, we present a systematic integrated numerical–experimental approach to the verification and validation (V&V) of simulations of dynamic fracture along weak planes. We describe the intertwined computational and the experimental sides of the work, present the V&V results, and extract general conclusions about this kind of integrative approach

Influence of morphology on photoluminescence properties of methylammonium lead tribromide films

The morphology of hybrid perovskite thin films plays a crucial role for their photophysical properties. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. To gain further insight into this phenomenon, methylammonium lead tribromide films of different morphology were investigated using photoluminescence spectroscopy. Photostability measurements demonstrate three mechanisms: (A) reversible degradation of the photoluminescence, depending positively on the grain-boundary density, which is presumably caused by photo-induced bromide vacancies, (B) enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity in the presence of oxygen and moisture and (C) destruction of the perovskite after several minutes of ultraviolet illumination with excitation power above 100 W/cm(2). Both the intensity and the lifetime of the photoluminescence were significantly smaller in films with micrometer-sized crystallites compared to granular films. This is ascribed to crystals being partially isolated in the former, causing smaller diffusion lengths, whereas the carriers in the granular films can diffuse from grain to grain resulting in higher photoluminescence lifetime and intensity