Grandparents University is a summer program where alumni can bring their grandchildren to UW-Madison to learn about different CALS courses and try fun activities while bonding with family. The faculty of the Department of Nutritional Sciences was featured in an article about the program. Read here: https://grow.cals.wisc.edu/departments/features/honorary-degrees-and-deep-connections
Ice Cream Innovation
All the kids have access to the soft serve machine in the cafeteria during their time at GPU, but the really lucky ones get to make ice cream in class, and they get a chance to “work” at the Babcock Dairy Store.
Scott Rankin, professor, chair, and extension specialist in the Department of Food Science, leads a class where kids and grandparents design their own ice cream flavor, make three gallons, and take pints home to share with their families. Rankin says the class often leads to cross-generational sharing, with grandparents reminiscing about old-fashioned flavors, such as sweet cream and butterscotch, that the kids might not be familiar with.
Each group can experiment with mixing flavors, swirls, and add-ins to invent and name a new ice cream. They get to try several versions and present the best one to the class. One group mixed maple syrup, waffle cones, and bacon to come up with “Sunday Morning Breakfast.”
“It’s fun to let them try different ideas within the matrix of ice cream,’’ Rankin says. “It’s hard to make a big mistake with ice cream. It’s about them making ice cream as grandparents and kids. It’s been a fun tradition, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
The Fate of Your Favorite Foods
Kids who took the GPU nutritional sciences class with Joe Pierre BS’08, PhD’12, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, can tell you what happens to those hot dogs, ice cream scoops, and chicken nuggets once they disappear down your gullet. After watching an episode of The Magic School Bus about digestion, the class builds a 22-foot replica of the human digestive system out of paper and yarn, stretching it down a hallway.
“It’s kind of mind-blowing to them how long it really is,’’ Pierre says. Next, they take turns “feeding” the system with candies and wet newspaper, starting at the “mouth,” where one student spritzes it all with a spray bottle of “saliva.” Some kids move the “food” and water along the tract. Others assigned to the “small intestine” get to pull out the candy while those working the “colon” remove the wet newspapers. Pierre keeps the class moving with different activities because the attention spans of his small students are much shorter than those of undergrads. With a solid understanding of the digestive system as a first-day foundation, the second day focuses on healthy food choices.
“I ask them what they had for breakfast,” Pierre says. “It’s surprising how many kids had ice cream — about half the class.”
After a short lecture on the history of vitamins and the basics of nutrients, kids and grandparents go outside to play a running game based on the five food groups. The grandparents spread out on the lawn holding signs that say “fruit,” “vegetable,” “protein,” “grain,” or “dairy.” Kids yell out their favorite food and then run to the sign for what they think is the matching category.
After that, they go back inside and consult with their grandparents on a mock grocery shopping exercise (again featuring their favorite foods) and draw a theoretical lunch on a paper plate.
“Pizza winds up on multiple plates,’’ Pierre says.