Expression, purification, and characterization of a carbohydrate-active enzyme: A research-inspired methods optimization experiment for the biochemistry laboratory.

The development and implementation of research-inspired, discovery-based experiences into science laboratory curricula is a proven strategy for increasing student engagement and ownership of experiments. In the novel laboratory module described herein, students learn to express, purify, and characterize a carbohydrate-active enzyme using modern techniques and instrumentation commonly found in a research laboratory. Unlike in a traditional cookbook-style experiment, students generate their own hypotheses regarding expression conditions and quantify the amount of protein isolated using their selected variables.

Sustained Benefit Over Four-Year Follow-Up of Michigan's Project Healthy Schools.

Objectives: We determined the sustainability of effects of a school-based intervention to improve health behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors among middle school children.

Methods: We administered a questionnaire and health screenings to 5 schools in Ann Arbor and 2 schools in Ypsilanti, Michigan. We assessed demographics, physiological factors, diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors from 1126 students who received a health curriculum (Project Healthy Schools) in the fall of sixth grade in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

The Project TALENT Twin and Sibling Study.

Project TALENT is a US national longitudinal study of about 377,000 individuals born in 1942-1946, first assessed in 1960. Students in about 1,200 schools participated in a 2-day battery covering aptitudes, abilities, interests, and individual and family characteristics (Flanagan, 1962; www.projectTALENT.

Understanding childhood obesity in America: linkages between household income, community resources, and children's behaviors.

Background: Understanding childhood obesity's root causes is critical to the creation of strategies to improve our children's health. We sought to define the association between childhood obesity and household income and how household income and childhood behaviors promote childhood obesity.

Methods: We assessed body mass index in 109,634 Massachusetts children, identifying the percentage of children who were overweight/obese versus the percentage of children in each community residing in low-income homes.

Health status and behavior among middle-school children in a midwest community: what are the underpinnings of childhood obesity?

Background: Childhood obesity is one of the nation's foremost health challenges. How much of this is due to lifestyle choices? The objective of the study was to determine health behaviors that contribute to obesity in sixth-grade children.

Methods: To assess which health habits contribute to childhood obesity, we studied body mass index, blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose, and heart rate recovery after a 3-minute step test among sixth-grade children enrolled in a school-based intervention study from 2004 to 2009, comparing health behaviors and physiologic markers in obese versus nonobese children.