From birth to age eight is a critical learning period for a child’s mental, emotional, and social development. The Head Start initiative, that began in 1965, is among the earliest early childhood education programs. It was created to assist children from low income families with access to early education programs.

Today, homeless families are challenged to participate in early education programs. More than 50 percent of children living in homeless shelters are younger than 5-years-old. It is not uncommon for states to enact their own early education programs. New York City is the second city in the United States to offer a full-day of preschool to 3-year-olds.

The expectations and outcomes for children are different for some parents and for some educators. Oklahoma’s Science Museum offers many programs that help engage young minds. Candace Barrios heads the early childhood program, Storytime Science at the museum. In this program, a story is read to children and then they participate in a hands-on scientific activity that has to do with the story.

Barrios says that early childhood education has long-term benefits and reflects how well students perform in middle school, high school, and beyond. “Offering opportunities like this will help to wire their brains in order to set them up for future endeavors in school,” she said. “A lot of children don’t necessarily have the opportunity to get experiences like Storytime Science at home and so, it’s very important for the Science Museum to reach out to those families when they’re here and offer those opportunities for them to learn.”

Science Museum Oklahoma also includes an Early Explorers program as part of the early childhood education experience. Researchers and experts agree that learning through play and activity helps children develop multiple motor skills, positive emotional development, mental functions, morals and social skills.

LU GOAT RESEARCH PODCAST

For more than thirty years, Langston University has been a goat performance and development catalyst for goat producers all over the world. Its E (Kika) de la Garza American Institute for Goat Research is recognized as a leader in goat production technologies. The university’s goat research center manages four farms. The farm areas house a variety of goat breeds: Alpine, Spanish, Boer, Boer crossbred, and Angora.

The research conducted yields information about dairy analysis and goat Dairy Herd Improvement. Dr. Steve Zeng is the chair of the School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences at Langston University. He is an educator who involves his students in a number of notable research opportunities like the U.S Department of Homeland Security Summer Research Program.

The Institute’s goat extension leader, Dr. Terry Gipson manages the feeding and nutrition for the goats. In the United States goat meat and dairy products are not in high demand but in other countries goat products are preferred over the meat and dairy products from cattle.

Goat milk is easier to digest than milk from a cow. Most infant milk formula producers use powdered goat milk. The demand for goat products is increasing in the United States as more immigrants travel here and the global goat milk market is also showing increases mainly because of awareness and digital marketing. Revenues of the global goat milk market are estimated to reach about 15 billion dollars by 2024.

Hydroponics Vertical Farming: Grow Healthy Eat Healthy

Climate change, pollution, soil degradation, and over use of chemical pesticides are just a few reasons why sustainable farming is on the rise. Hydroponic gardening is growing in popularity all over the world because of the system’s mass production of healthier and more nutritious produce.

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using nutrient infused water instead of soil. The Upward Harvest farm in Edmond, Oklahoma is among the innovative farmers using a vertical grow technology system. Founder Travis Flatt started as a sod farmer – growing turf with no soil. “Through the process of innovation, we discovered the need and the desire for organic produce grown more sustainably,” Flatt said. “So through the process of creating new growing systems, we got into food and realized the potentials for vertical farming.”

The Upward Harvest farm went through an intense pilot program to showcase the technology that they had developed. Part of the process was growing the plants and selling the plants sustainably on a smaller scale. The Upward Harvest farm is a producer for many of the local restaurants with healthy foods menus.

The technology’s advantages are realized through water conservation, energy conservation, nutrient conservation, and maximum food production per square foot. China has opened the largest hydroponic technology plant factory. It spans over 11,000 square meters providing their customers with environmentally safe produce options.

The vertical farming system uses overhead pumps for irrigation. Water flows through the towers filled with grow stones that provide nitrogen and nutrients to the plants. The water is used efficiently through bio filters and a recycling system that allows the water to fall cleaner. Seeds and starter plants are used before the plants are placed in the greenhouse tower pods. This system also allows farmers to grow year round.

The Oklahoma City Ballet stages one of the most popular holiday performance events danced all over the world, “The Nutcracker”. The company will have eight performances for six days this December at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. The dream performance promises to fill the hearts of the whole family. The Oklahoma City Ballet’s professional dancers along with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and nearly 100 student dancers from the Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School are featured in this year’s performance. The Christmas story showcases many young dancers and presents opportunities for them to dance with the career dancers.

One of the talented young dancers from the school is 12-year-old Julien DeJear. He is dancing the role of Fritz, Clara’s little brother. Ballet Master and Director for The Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School, Penny Askew, said that he also performed as the Junior Male Card in the production of Alice in Wonderland. “This role performs a solo with very difficult steps that are usually in men’s variations, and Julien was fantastic in it,” she said. “He is doing an excellent job as Fritz with both the dancing and the acting necessary for the role.”

The Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School is Oklahoma’s only American Ballet Theatre Certified School. Myra Yvonne Chouteau and her husband, Miguel Terekhov, organized the school. Ms. Chouteau was one of Oklahoma’s prima ballerinas. She was also the youngest dancer ever accepted to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Ballet Master Penny Askew said she did not know Ms. Chouteau personally but feels she was very passionate about her work. “Because she and her husband not only founded what is now Oklahoma City Ballet and its school, and the dance program at the University of Oklahoma,” Askew said, “I think it’s very clear that she was passionate about bringing high quality ballet to Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City community.”

The Oklahoma City Ballet features artists representing seven countries including Brazil, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Venezuela, and 15 states within the United States. Three company dancers will perform the role of Clara in this year’s production: Principal Da Young Jung, Soloist Amada Herd-Popejoy, and Corps de Ballet dancer Mayu Odaka.

The history of the Classic Christmas Story dates back to December 1892. It was a fairy tale ballet about a family’s celebration on Christmas Eve. Since the ballet’s 1940’s premiere in the western countries, it has become the most performed ballet during the Christmas season. In 1944, the San Francisco Ballet was the first to perform the Christmas ballet in the United States followed by the New York City Ballet of the Nutcracker in 1954. The Tchaikovsky version is the performance audiences will see at the Oklahoma City Civic Music Hall.

The continued financial support of Devon Energy has afforded new wardrobes and spectacular sets for the Oklahoma Ballet performances. The company has toured the production to Colorado Springs, and Ada, Oklahoma.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton