We Are All Athletes, We Just Have to Train!

We're all athletes!  To some degree, we are all capable to perform athletic feats.  Unfortunately, we see various stages of conditioning.  Our health conscious neighbors train constantly to remain fit, while others have detrained to produce an epidemic of obesity.  The typical couch potato believes a lie that they are not athletes.  It just takes a little bit of work, okay, a lot of work.

The finale of Biggest Loser shows us what our bodies are capable.  They take the most de-conditioned individuals and train them into marathon runners.  At the beginning of their journey, the contestants can barely run a mile, much less 26.2 miles.  Twenty to fifty years of a high-calorie, low-activity lifestyle does not erase 6 million years of athletic evolution.  There is truth to the saying, "Train like an animal".

With proper education and motivation, the human body can accomplish almost anything.  The recent Child Nutrition Act certainly helps, but we must do more to teach our kids about healthy choices and physical activity.

I am struggling through my own journey.  Two things have really helped me: counting calories and exercising.  We don't need fad diets, just a better understanding of our biology.  I have two apps on my iPod that assist me and maybe they could assist you.  MyFitnessPal helps to track the calories I eat, burn and the water I drink.  Couch to 5K has helped me become a better runner, by starting with short easy runs and walking to running for 30 minutes without stopping.  You never know what can happen until you try!

A Teacher on Evolution

Perhaps no topic intrigues me more than evolution: the theory and the controversy.  During my time in Grad School, I studied the impact of religion in schools and eventually the Christian teachers who teach evolution.  One major assumption shows through any discussion of evolution and creationism: there are no Christians who accept evolution as a scientific explanation.

I grew up in Winton-Salem.  This is where I went to school and I went to church.  My first encounters with evolution were a joke.  My "science" teacher did not believe in evolution and refused to discuss it.  At that time, I was okay with not learning anything new.  Now I am disgusted that I allowed that lack of education to occur.  It was my church that introduced me to Darwin and evolution.  Many of the arguments that I learned were based on a misunderstanding of evolutionary theory, misinformation, or poor logic.

As I graduated high school with my Southern Baptist Church as my only source of information about evolution, I took off for college.  I was effectively armed with a distrust of evolution and many arguments to defeat any evolutionist.  In high school, I did not think of myself as an eager anti-evolutionist, but my freshmen biology course proved me wrong.  However, the fascination with evolution was just beginning.  When my professor began the chapter on evolution, I went so far to write an angry email (my only correspondence with this teacher) using the arguments that had been engrained in my head.  I even made a speech in my English class against evolution.

I continued taking biology courses, in particular every evolution course that I could get into.  The more information that I uncovered, the more logical evolution came to be.  At first I realized that it was impossible to deny natural selection.  Sometimes, the individuals with the best adaptations will be more likely to survival.  The allele frequencies would change, thus the populations could change over time.  Even with my newfound acceptance “microevolution” I was still whole-heartedly against “macroevolution”.  It took more time and more evidence for me to change my mind and to finally accept that populations of the same species can be separated from each other long enough to be considered different species.  Either they will not mate with each other or they cannot, either way they are now two separate species.

How does evolution affect religion?  The truth is, I don’t know.  I know that as a teacher, I will not tell other people what to believe.  In the science classroom, I am going to teach the scientific theory of evolution.  If you want your child to learn creationism, go to Sunday school; but science should be reserved for science.  I will agree that a specific, literal interpretation of the Bible leaves no room for evolution.  But not all Christians believe that the Bible is literal.   But once again, that is a theological argument that should be made in either Church or a comparative religions class.  We should realize that there are Christian science teachers, who will continue to teach evolution.  Evolution does not have to destroy your faith, it may require you change your view of your faith.  Faith is what we believe in the absence of evidence, not in spite of evidence.  Once again, why would God give us the ability of reason, and expect us not to use it.

Hans Rosling Makes Statistics Interesting

I have seen Hans Rosling a few times on the TED website.  He takes data and applies them in rather unusual ways.  By compiling UN statistics, he creates amazing and amusing graphs to help us visualize how the world has changed in terms of wealth and health.  This might be his best video yet!

The Downside of Evolution

Smithsonian.com put up this article by Rob Dunn (from North Carolina) about the disadvantages we all face from having evolved.  I enjoyed Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish and this list covers many things from his book.  It is important to show these interesting side effects to evolution.  Our bodies show the hallmarks of our past and disprove Intelligent Design "Theory".

I will summarize the list by giving the list, but I will let you go to the original article to find out more:

1. Cells (endosymbiont theory)
2. Hiccups
3. Backaches
4. Hernias
5. Choking
6. Naked Body
7. Goosebumps
8. Wisdom Teeth
9. Obesity

Honorable Mentions: Male Nipples, Blindspots in the Middle of the Eye, Muscles for Ear Wiggling, Tailbones

Evolution acts as a tinkerer remodels upon an existing structure.  New species do not appear out of nothing (de novo), but through the incremental changes of successive generations.

Modern Students and Modern Technology

Okay.  So, I am not really all that old.  I'm only 27.  But when I was in high school, texting had yet to take hold.  I even graduated college just as Facebook exploded onto the scene.  As I stand before a class full of students, I find myself in a constant battle against text messages.  I may feel addicted to internet connection, but modern students are umbilically linked to social media.  Teenagers spend hours online with Facebook or XBox games.  Some kids rack up $1000s in cell phone charges as they send and receive 100s of texts a a day.  No more "Check Yes or No" notes in homeroom, they just post it on somebody's wall.

The New York Times wrote a piece on the topic this weekend.  They also posted this video about teachers battling for student attention in the classroom at Woodside High School in New York.


Modern teachers must take advantage of these new technologies to engage students.  Many teachers use Facebook, Twitter, Wiki Pages, Chat Rooms, Blogs, Google Docs, etc.  We can find benefits and consequences to the surge of technology in student lives.  Information becomes immediately accessible, while steady stimulation prevents mental synthesis of ideas.

Louisiana's Biology Textbooks Teach Evolution

Are you ready for a shocker?  The biology textbooks in Louisiana teach evolution to the high schools students.  For an even bigger shock, some people are not happy with that.  Louisiana may become the next battleground state in science education.  For a dose of irony, their governor, Bobby Jindal, actually majored in biology in college.


A complaint has been filed against the proposed biology textbooks by Winston White and others who said, "It's like Charles Darwin and his theory is a saint. You can't touch it." Besides the horrible grammar of the sentence, it also sounds the common refrain of anti-evolutionists.  They seem to think that "Darwinism" exists as a religion and tend to use such language to justify their points.  Less than a Saint, scientists revere Charles Darwin because of the enormous contribution he made to biology.  Such language also pretends that evolutionary biology has remained the same since 1859.  Countless experiments continue to confirm and refine Darwin's original theory- much of which eluded 19th century scientists.


Specifically, the complaint references the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act which calls for science educators to instruction their classes in "critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."  White's group, Louisiana Family Forum, helped to push for the law under the guise of "Teach the Controversy".  They actually want us to teach Intelligent Design/Creationism in place of the science or simply to introduce warning labels to the textbooks.


If the science textbooks teach Darwin's dangerous idea, then they already adhere to the LSEA.  Any critical analysis and objective discussion of the data plainly dismiss Creationism and point to Evolution.  The writers of the LSEA meant to encourage doubt in the scientific process and rely on the ignorance of the population.  The side of science and education can win by using their own "ideas" against them.  On a good note, the advisory panel endorsed the biology textbooks, but the fight is far from over.

Your Universe in 6 Minutes

The American Museum of Natural History has an awesome video about the universe. Beginning at the Himalayas it takes you through the known universe out to the cosmic horizon (edge of the universe-13.6 billion light years away) and back to planet Earth. The universe truly is one amazing place.

Surprising Secret to SAT Success

More and more universities and colleges continue to decrease the importance of the SAT in their admissions process.  While all potential college students take either the SAT or ACT, most studies find that such scores have little implications to undergraduate success.  On the other hand, undergrads with higher high school GPA's and more extracurriculars tend to do better in college.  


The SAT has taken a beating in recent years.  The SAT that I took in high school was dramatically different then my parent's SAT.  The score scale had changed dramatically as money, grades, and SAT scores all saw great inflation over the decades.  Now students take a different SAT that I did at the beginning of the decade.  Students must write an essay worth an extra 800 points, making 2400 a perfect score.  Now, the SAT faces a new controversy.  


A high school student named Milo Beckman (14 year old prodigy) conducted a study of the SAT with his classmates.  He asked 115 fellow SAT-takers to count how many lines they wrote in their essay and to report their score.  You can probably guess his results.  Students who wrote longer essays received higher scores.  The strong corelation is not very surprising, but not great news for the College Board, who denies the coincidence.  An MIT professor has even confirmed his results- adding weight to the young man's study.  The more words you write on your SAT essay the higher the score.


But wouldn't smarter kids just write longer essays anyways?  Milo had the same thought.  He also compared the scores of students who took the test multiple times.  No one who wrote a longer essay received a lower score.  


Clearly, if taking the SAT, you should attempt to write as long an essay as possible.  But be sure to keep to the topic and pick one side of the argument.  Add more details not ambiguity.  The College Board says that the writing section predicts college success.  Maybe so.  Adding more BS to my papers did not hurt my chances of earning my Bachelor of Science degree.

Here is the ABC News story:



On a serious note, when I took the GRE to get into grad school I did poorly on the writing section.  I was deeply disappointed and committed myself to become a better writer.  At that point, I began going to internet blogs and newspaper forums to work on my writing and my ability to make an argument.  I also wrote a few letters to the editor as practice.  The effort paid off.  I wrote an article that appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal and received the second-highest score on the MCAT writing section 4 years later.  This blog continues my practice to improve my writing.  Hopefully, my articles will continue to improve.  To me the secret to better writing is to write more and write for a purpose.  Write about things you care about and try to convince other people of your positions.  We could all, SAT takers and the general public, afford to become better writers.  We just need to practice.

Racial Literacy and the Power of the Illusion

Follow this link and take the Race Literacy Quiz.  You can test your knowledge of race in science, history, and society.  After the test, you can follow the links to the PBS website called Race: The Power of an Illusion.


There you can learn about the dynamics of race.  In the scientific sense, race does not exist.  Our species shows too little variation to have genetically divided races.  Every person shares roughly 99.9% of the same DNA, while any population of people contain over 80% of the variation in our species.  Because of this, races can be very difficult to define.  The website also has an activity for you to sort people into different races.


They give you pictures of 20 people and ask you to place them into the "appropriate" race.  This used to be the same method census takers defined your race before we began self-identifying.  As you perform the task, you find it incredibly difficult.  Some pictures could fit in many categories.  When you think that you have put them in the right places, you click to find out the answers.  If you get more than 50% correct, then you have done better than anyone I have ever witnessed.  Go ahead and try it.


The website also features many facts about races and how we developed the idea.  Explore the website to learn more about human races.

The Daily Show Takes on Education

A documentary called, Waiting for Superman, is coming out slamming the American school system and features a lottery that gets kids into charter schools.  The Daily Show had Lewis Black do what he does on the topic.  And he makes some great points.

We love to complain about public eduction, but we never do anything about it.  TDS mocks NBC for spending one week highlighting education, but spends every other week in the year with shows about incarceration.  We have serious problems in our schools, but no one does anything serious about it.  At least we got some serious satire about it.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Education Crisis
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Stick Figure Science- Teach the Controversy

The Florida Citizens for Science had a contest to make an educational cartoon using stick figures.  Here is a link to the winners and this is one of my favorites:

In this spectacular challenge, some very smart people drew some incredible comics.  I don't understand the teach the controversy point of view.  If I were required to teach intelligent design, I would have to also explain how it does not possess credibility as a scientific idea.  As a science teacher, I teach science, based on experimentation and logic.  If I didn't have to do that, I might as well teach astrology, alchemy, or phrenology.  I wouldn't mind talking about them, but not teaching them as scientific alternatives to astronomy, chemistry or neurology.

What's Really Going on with ADHD?

In the last 20 years, the number of kids diagnosed with Attention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder has skyrocketed.  People seem to know what ADHD is, but rarely understand it.  John Leher describes the reality of ADHD in a recent article on his website.   Instead of lacking the ability to pay attention, people with ADHD lose focus on stuff that they do not find interesting.  Leher calls is Attention-Allocation Disorder.  Before we go further, we must understand that ADHD is a real neurological disorder- but is often misunderstood and over-diagnosed.


Kids with ADHD can pay attention.  They will play video games or with other toys for hours at a time.  In school, however, their brains search for something more interesting than the task or lecture at hand.  As always, brain chemistry causes the problem.  Our brains use dopamine to trigger or rate important activities.  When dopamine surges through our brain, we provide our full attention to the issue- especially for pleasurable activities.  In ADHD, the dopamine system fails to rate an algebra lesson or photosynthesis highly on our list of things to pay attention to.  In layman's terms, our brain doesn't like to pay attention to boring things.  Unfortunately, photosynthesis and FOIL are requirements for passing certain classes.  If you can't/won't pay attention, your education suffers.


How should a teacher address ADHD?  Well, to keep it simple: don't be boring.  We all suffer from some ADHD.  We don't like boring things- those diagnosed with it respond at a higher rate.  A boring class lowers the dopamine, increases ADHD, and increases behavioral problems.  An exciting, fast-paced class can help students with all levels of ADHD.  Find interesting and relevant examples to the student's lives to make your point.  The best teachers have always done this without acknowledging the importance of dopamine.  They use engaging activities and when they must lecture provide interesting stories or connections to the topic.  This is the art of teaching.  

Dr. Tyson on Good Teachers

Here is a snippet from an interview with Neil Tyson at Big Think.  He answers several questions, including this one about good teachers.

Futurama Takes On the Evolution Debate

I don't usually watch Futurama, but I couldn't miss the new episode last Thursday called "A Clockwork Origin".  The show begins with a Creationist protest at the local high school.  In a great line, the protestor at the podium says, "I don't understand evolution, and I must protect my children from understanding it too!"

Futurama	Thursdays 10pm / 9c
Evolution Under Attack
www.comedycentral.com
Futurama New Episodes Big Lake A New Comedy from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay

The show was quite funny as the crew went to another planet and witnessed the rapid evolution of robots.  Beginning with nanobots, the previously barren planet replayed the history of life on Earth concluding with hominoid robots in a Robotic America at a Robotic Museum.

I can't find the episode anywhere, but maybe you can catch it on TV.  It was very funny.  Also, in the end, the human scientist and an orangutan creationist get along and find peace between the two perspectives.

The Importance of Education

We all know the US continues to struggle through a Great Recession with high-unemployment rates at 9.6%.  David Leonhardt notes that "almost 45 percent of today’s unemployed workers have been without a job for at least 27 weeks."  He also shows that  this downturn has not affected the population equally.  Some states have survived much better, like Nebraska with unemployment at 4.5%, while others with mostly manufacturing jobs or large housing bubbles have suffered the most.  


Perhaps the biggest disparity in unemployment can be seen in levels of education.  We, as teachers and others, say that education is important for getting a job and living a life.  We have cute quotes like "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance".  We know that education can be the silver bullet to poverty and remains the greatest opportunity to change your economic status (unlike music, sports and the lottery).  But most of the time, students hear these messages and dismiss them as just another slogan, another phrase to get them interested in something that doesn't interest them.  Some students think, these old teachers don't know what they are talking about, this is a waste of time.  But know I have factual evidence to back up our statements.


Using BLS data (Found Here), Andrew Sullivan created a chart to truly show the importance of education.  His accompanying post can be found here.

As shown, unemployment remains highest for those without a high school education.  Those with a Bachelor's Degree or higher have the lowest unemployment throughout the country at about 4.5%.  For the highly educated among us, we really don't see a recession going on.  Not only have the college-graduates retained their jobs, but their salaries have risen as well adding to the disparity of educated vs. uneducated.


Hopefully, something like this can help show students the value of an education.  Maybe this can show parents, the community, and the politicians the importance of fully funding and supporting education.  Graphs can really make me smile sometime.

The Benefits of Preschool

Jonah Lehrer details the benefits of a Pre-school education from a long term study on Wired.com.  While children receive a small increase in IQ, pre-school students tend to show greater academic success than their non-pre-schooled classmates.  So if not a major increase in intelligence, what happened?  Called non-cognitive traits, the pre-schooled children excelled at "self-control, persistence and grit."  These attributes contribute to the success of the students.  As a society, we blame dropouts on "stupid kids".  As a teacher, I have seen many smart kids fail in and eventually out of high school.  Those students suffered from the rigidity of the school experience and gave up with adversity.


The benefits of Pre-school extend past high school successes.  In the highlighted study, the pre-schooled group were more likely to keep their jobs and less likely to become divorced.  Even pre-school children that did dropout of high school are paid the same or more than non-pre-schoolers that received a GED.  Self-control and persistence impresses most employers and can help everyone.  These attitudes must be taught early and often.  Pre-school seems like a great place to start the road to success.

Not Much Has Changed Since the Scopes Monkey Trial

Jerry Coyne analyzes two essays directed at the 85th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee.  Immortalized in the movie Inherited the Wind, we often forget that evolution actually lost in that trial.  However, it did start the process of promoting evolution education and dismissing creationism as a non-science.


While science has prevailed in the classrooms (most classrooms) and in the court of law, the public still lacks a basic understanding of evolutionary theory and in some places the majority prefer creationism.  Coyne's article critiques an authors approach to how we can help teach evolution to our students and a public that fears the subject.  The original author favors a more accommodating approach to science and religion, while Coyne is much more direct.


I will outline the original author's suggestions as categorized by Coyne below and make my own comments:

1. Distinguish between science and scientism.  Too often, people claim that science, and evolution specifically, is itself a religion.  In most ways, they are wrong, but in others they are right.  We must understand the difference between a methodological naturalism and a philosophical naturalism, as Genie Scott describes.  The first uses science to explain natural phenomena, while the second believes that nothing exists but the natural.  All scientists use methodological naturalism when experimenting through the scientific method, but a great number of scientists do believe or accept the supernatural, or God.  The philosophical naturalists make up a subset of the first group and include the New Atheists seeking to explain everything in natural terms.  In these terms, we can fully accept science and religion as they coexist.  Such a distinction helps allay the fears of the deeply religious that science attempts to destroy their faith.
2. Humanize Darwin and the other scientist.  While most scientists revere Darwin, Einstein, Newton, Galileo, we understand them to be mere mortals.  They were people who saw the world differently than anyone else at the time and changed the way WE see the world.  For Darwin in particular, many groups defame the character of the man in an attempt to attack his brilliant insight.  Charles Darwin grew up in a moderately religious home, where he planned to become a doctor and then a priest.  Given the opportunity to explore the world, the 22-year-old Darwin jumped on the HMS Beagle.  Portrayed as anti-religion, Darwin viewed the world through a religious prism.  Only after witnessing the horrors of slavery and later the death of his young daughter, did he put aside the God question to refer to himself as an agnostic.  Shortly before his death, the admitted that he would have to consider himself a theist.  Darwin, like all important historical figures, lived a complicated, and interesting, life.
3. Question bifurcations of the religious and the secular.  Society readily divides science and religion, at the expense of both sides.  This is the point of this blog.  Maybe, we can find a common ground.
4. Cultivate more careful readings of scriptures, not their dismissal.  This is the important thing.  As believers, we must understand the history of the Bible and the history of the interpretations of the Bible.  Once you understand how heavily edited and pieced together the Bible is, it becomes incredibly difficult to read it literally.  The importance of scriptures comes from the message and meaning, not the specific words.  You don't have to completely throw out Genesis 1 to accept evolution, but you do have to look at it in a different light.

Overall, I actually think some of these are good ideas.  Jerry Coyne does not like most of them, which would be expected if you have heard of him.  I, however, will always promote both science and religion.  I truly believe that both offer something to human understanding.  Unfortunately, too much distortion exists in the public about evolution that the message gets lost.  

Since the Scopes trial, public opinion has not changed very much.  I hold out hope that rational argument will win out.  An analysis of the data clearly points to evolution.  Too many people seem prepared to reject solid evidence to protect their particular interpretation of Scriptures.  We surely should base our interpretations of God's Word on what we know about God's Works.

Lessons of Colombine

Last Sunday, I saw a video which brought back the Colombine shootings to my mind.  On a sunny day in April, 1999, two boys walked into Colombine High School and began shooting their classmates as they roamed the halls.  This is the most well-known of all school shootings.


The short clip praised Cassie Bernall for standing up when one of the two shooters asked the crowd if anyone believed in God.  She said yes and she was then shot and killed.  The example is used over and over again to promote her as a hero and a proud Christian.  Some even attempt to USE her death as proof that Christians are persecuted in the United States.  The notion of Christian persecution is laughable in the US as we are in control of every branch of every level of government.  Sadly, such comments take away from places in the world where Christians truly are persecuted for their beliefs.

But let's look at the story of Cassie Bernall specifically.  In this story, she is a brave little girl who should be praised for her faith and courage.  However, the shooters (will not give them the honor of mentioning their names) not only targeted Christians, but jocks and popular kids.  Why?  Well, they told us.  Those were the kids that made fun of the them, bullied them.  Bullying has always been a serious problem in schools, and the Colombine story is an example of two kids taking out the ultimate revenge on others.  Some kids, who called themselves Christians, had harassed these kids enough that their delude minds decided to take revenge.  In this light, I don't think the Columbine story benefits our message.  


From such a tragedy, we should learn that bullying must stop.  No one deserves to be bullied.  NO ONE!  You never know how the kid might react- whether violently towards others or turn that violence on themselves.  Even "mild" instances of bullying can trigger major changes in the personalities and emotions of the victim and result in a suicide or a shooting.


Interestingly, as I did some research for this article, I learned something.  Conflicting stories suggest that the whole encounter between the girl and the shooters never took place.  She may have been shot and killed under a table.  No matter the circumstances, she died in a tragedy that took many other classmates.

Creationists in the Classrooms

The Creation/Evolution Controversy does not just exist on our continent.  Recently, England has seen a rise in creationism.  But it hasn't gotten as far as it has in Australia.  Queensland suffers from Fundamentalists getting into the Primary (Elementary) Schools.


They have taught the students:

1. Noah collected dinosaur eggs and put them on the ark.
2. Adam and Eve were protected by a spell from the dinosaurs.
3. The Great Flood skewed the data of carbon dating (explaining why dinosaurs only appear to be much older than people).
4. DNA wasn't invented in the time of Adam and Eve (explaining why there was no inbreeding in the beginning).

Thankfully, these were not science classes, but Religious Instruction.  The school system says that students can opt out of the classes.
Things like this highlight my opposition to Creationism.  They seem to think that they can just make stuff up to answer questions, whereas science requires observation, experimentation and data.

Fighting Obesity and Hunger at the Same Time

As a nation, we face a two-fold problem of feeding our children: hunger and obesity.  One in five children live below the poverty line, most of whom do not receive nourishing meals throughout the day.  Think about it.  In the most advanced country in the world, we still have kids who go to bed hungry.  On the other hand, one in five children suffer through obesity.  This comes from poor eating habits and too little exercise for our kids.


Hunger/Obesity does not just affect the physical health of the child, but also academic performance in the classroom.  Hungry students struggle to pay attention, just as obese students do.  We have tried many things to help.  Cafeterias provided free/reduced lunches to qualifying students and many schools/school systems have implemented healthy food choices at school.  This becomes an expensive proposition as Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) states in an article promoting The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, but it is necessary.



The breakfast and lunch programs help millions of students prepare for a day of school where they don't have to worry about what they will eat.  Because healthy eating tends to be more expensive, schools require more funding to more to more healthy options for students.  


The Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act is a good start to the problem.  We also need more and better health education.  Most health classes focus on scaring kids about strangers, drugs, and sex.  We must teach our kids about healthy eating.  Bring in a nutritionist to talk to students.  Teach them about carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.  For an easy assignment, have students create a food diary for the week listing everything they ate.  Give them either the internet or diet books so they can add up the number of calories they ate each day.  And for the final twist, show them how many calories they should be eating. Many kids will be shocked and maybe a few will think about what they are eating and do something about it.  We can do the same things in PE classes.  Don't just roll the basketballs out or open up the weight room, but teach the kids about exercise and healthy living.  Some PE teachers do this, but not enough.


Too many kids go to bed hungry each night.  Too many kids wake up overweight each morning.  We should definitely do more to fight these issues.