Newsletter of Bal Sabha of Columbia, MO May 2000 Summer Issue Volume 3, Issue 2 Welcome New Officers! EDITOR’S NOTE New officers were elected at the April 2000 meeting of the Bal Sabha per the newly ola! (Spanish for Hello) choosing and staying with a foreign approved Bylaws of the Bal Sabha of ¡H Welcome to another issue of language, and later reaping the benefits. Columbia, Missouri (Page 11). The slate Columbia’s very own Indian Literary The usual dose of riddles, poems, and includes: Magazine. As usual, we have a melange of general knowledge has also been included many subjects, contributed by our readers to make this issue a great read for President: representing a wide range of ages. This everyone. We received many outstanding H. R. Chandrasekhar issue’s lead article is a report on Calcium articles for this issue; and it was necessary Vice President: Deficiency. We all know how important it is to hold some of them back for the Narendra Khengar to keep healthy and strong, and this article upcoming issue, which will be published as Secretary/Tresasurer: points out exactly how to do so. In addition, a part of the India Nite booklet. We hope Sandhya Sharma we have two articles on yoga to help us you have an enjoyable and relaxing Cultural Secretary: relax in the last few weeks of school, and summer, with the help of our yoga articles. Durba Chatterjee to keep our inner peace undisturbed. Till then, Au revoir (French for goodbye) Bal Sandesh Coordinator: Included in this issue is an article on and happy reading![ Shailesh Vengurlekar choosing the right foreign language in high Runjhun Misra school. We hope that this article will Junior Hickman High School Our congratulations to the new team! provide the readers with critical pointers in India’s Green Revolution Vaishnavi Palavalli Eighth Grade, West Junior High School here was not enough food being grown Norman Borlaug, who is from Mexico, tons of wheat in 1967-1968, 5 million tons T to feed the increasing population in visited India and sent in 100 kg of four more than the previous year. The next India during the mid 1960’s. A large different types of wheat for trials. Only two major problem farmers faced related to number of people especially women and of the four actually survived and grew well, grain storage. Several schools were children were suffering from starvation. Lerma Rojo and Sonora 64. Following the closed and used to store the abundant Half of all children under four were success of these two seeds, 250 tons of produce. malnourished and 60 percent of women Sonora 64 and Lerma Rojo were sent to Today India harvests more than 70 were anemic. Anemia is a condition where India for seed multiplication in 1965. Mr. million tons of wheat every year. India is either your red blood cells or the amount of Subramaniam, the minister for agriculture, one of the hemoglobin (oxygen-carrying protein) in wanted to import a large amount of HYV world’s your red blood cells are low; the leading (High Yielding Variety) seeds from Mexico biggest cause of anemia is iron deficiency. India because it grew in a significantly faster agricultural was in a major food crisis. Most of India’s pace. Though there was much opposition, producers. food was imported from the United States. Mr.Subramaniam steered through the India is Ten million tons of wheat was imported and problems and imported 18,000 tons of HYV topping the only 12 million tons were produced by wheat seeds in 1966. charts for India’s farmers, this was not enough to The result was phenomenonal. The new the growth feed India’s rapidly varieties had more of soybean, growing population. than doubled the pulses, India was in a severe existing yields. There guava, famine by 1975, which was such a jostle for green peas, could have claimed as seeds that in some Boom in food production linseed, many as 10 million lives. places farmers had to after the green revolution garlic and Efforts were being made pay ten rupees for one all oilseeds. to raise grain production seed. Some farmers India also since the early 1950’s, that did not get seeds became an exporter of grains. No other but without much went to the extent of country in the world that attempted the success. stealing seeds. India Green Revolution had as much success as In March of 1963, Before the green revolution harvested 17 million India[ 2 Bal Sandesh Tri-Yearly Newsletter of the Bal Sabha of Columbia, MO eCalKids : Be Calcium Smart! Rajni Chandrasekhar, Indu Chandrasekhar, Prashant Katwa, and Aditya Srinath Seventh Grade, Smithton Middle School Finding more and better ways to involve students in their communities is a critical challenge for the nation. To help bridge the gap, Bayer Corporation, National Science Foundation and Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation offer an exceptional opportunity to all U.S. middle school students, challenging them to experience real-world community problem-solving by entering the Bayer/NSF Award for Community Innovation. The Bayer/NSF Award takes students in grades 6-8 through a rewarding process, teaching them how to use science and technology to identify a community problem and develop a solution. The students step beyond the classroom and into the community, working in teams to identify an issue, develop and test solutions and tap community leaders and experts as resources. To prepare their Bayer/NSF Award entry, students work in teams of four under the guidance of an adult coach. They test their ideas, refine them, and use their own creativity, curiosity and critical thinking skills to develop an innovative solution. This year we had two Columbia teams from Smithton Middle School compete for the Bayer/NSF Award: eCalKids: Be Calcium Smart! team comprising Indu and Rajni Chandrasekhar, Prasanth Katwa and Aditya Srinath and Teens against Road Kill (TARK) team comprising Vellore Arthi, Shruti Saran, Zoe Welch and Kate Virkler. This article on the importance of calcium to good health was chosen by the editors for its potential interest to Bal Sandesh Readers. Hopefully the article will also stimulate interest amongst other youngsters to compete in the Bayer/NSF Award program in the years to come. Further details can be found at the award web-site <http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/events/bayernsf/start.htm> The Issue Research layers of bone and tearing down old ones. he main issue our group is trying to Resources: Our resources include the If the body tears down bone faster than it internet, and books, including the replaces it, bones can become brittle and T address is the adequacy of calcium intake among children in the age group Complete Food and Nutrition Guide by R.L. break easily. This starts a disease called 12 – 14 years. Our objectives in this Duyff (American Dietetic Association, osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a slow and project are to find out if students between 1998). Medical professionals, parents, and silent disease that usually strikes when the ages of 12-14 years in the Columbia a computer programmer were the main people are older. Prevention, however, Public School District have enough calcium people who helped us. We also used has to begin at a young age. Osteoporosis: Osteoporosis means in their diet, to increase their awareness of information from The Mayo Foundation for "porous bones." It is a disease that causes calcium deficiency problems, to encourage Medical Education and Research. Some web sites we used were: bones to become weak and brittle. Even them to assess their own calcium intake, www.calciuminfo.com, mild stresses, like bending to pick up a and to motivate them to make changes in www.got-milk.com, newspaper, lifting a vacuum cleaner, or their eating habits that will prove beneficial www.whymilk.com, coughing can cause a fracture. About 10 in the long term. www.milkmarketingsw.com.au/ million Americans have osteoporosis, and About a year ago, a health administrator www.osteofound.org and 18 million have low bone mass. More than came to our class to talk to us about how www.nof.org one million spine, hip, or wrist fractures important calcium is for our bodies. During occur every year. The lifetime risk of that period, she told us that not drinking Calcium: Calcium is a mineral in our fractures is 40% in women and 13% in enough milk, or eating enough dairy bodies that makes bones strong. Two men. products could affect us in the long term. other minerals that we need to keep bones Calcium sources: The largest supply of We have noticed advertisements in healthy are phosphorous and vitamin D, calcium in our food comes from milk. Dairy which are needed in smaller quantities. magazines, and some commercials that products are the best source to meet the Ninety-nine percent of the calcium in the talked about the importance of calcium. body’s calcium needs. The food guide body is stored in bones and teeth. The pyramid is an outline of what to eat Sometime ago, the department of Health remaining one percent of calcium is in the Sciences conducted a week long health everyday to get the nutrients we need. The blood and soft tissues. This calcium helps pyramid recommends 2-3 servings from awareness event on the University of muscles contract, heart beat, blood clot Missouri campus. Again, the role of the milk, yogurt and cheese group every and our nerves function normally. day. This is one part of the pyramid that calcium, especially for children and youth, The calcium was highlighted.