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Samantha Beattie: Food BM1

Posted by Samantha Beattie in Science and Society - Best on
​Healthy Pasta

Serving Size: 12

Ingredients:
- Water
- 2 Boxes Whole Wheat Rotini Noodles (Whole Grain has more taste if preferred)
- 1 Big Pot
- 2 Small pots
- Strainer
- 1 Jar Ragu Light Tomato and Basil Sauce
- 1 Alfredo Cheese Sauce

Making the Rotini:
1. Get a big pot (big enough to fit two boxes)
2. Fill pot ¾ with water. (You don’t have to measure directly, but you will need to fill it at least a full finger from the top to keep from boiling over.)
3. Put pot on stove and heat pot on high.
4. Wait until the water boils rapidly, then pour in the two boxes of rotini. (It should take at least 10-15 minutes to boil rapidly.)
Stir routini at from time to time to keep from sticking.
5. When routini is done, place strainer in the sink. By using oven mitts, pick up the pot carefully and tilt it over the strainer until half the rotini is in the strainer completely drained of water.
6. Cover noodles with sauce.
7. Repeat step 5 for the other half of the noodles and cover this half with the cheese.

Making Ragu & Alfredo Sauce (don’t start this when you start your noodles, because the noodles will take longer than your sauce, it is better to start this when your noodles are becoming soft):
1. Place two pots on the stove, with a low light under them.
2. Pour the Ragu into one pot and the Alfredo sauce into the other.
3. Add ¼ cup of water to the sauce ONLY IF you would prefer your sauce creamy instead of thick.
4. Stir sauce to keep from sticking. 
5. When sauce and cheese starts to boil (the cheese may pop, if the cheese pops.. then lower the light and heat until hot), turn off the light. If noodles are done, you can move to step 6.
6. Pour the sauce onto half of the noodles and the cheese onto the other half.

Recipe Analysis

For this recipe, there was a certain type of Rotini there were two types of Rotini that could be used; whole grain or whole wheat. Whole wheat has 3.5 fiber opposed to 1. Whole grain is very close in the fiber amount and tastes better. Fiber slows the rate that sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream, makes your intestines move faster, cleans your colon, and helps keep bowel movements regular. I would say 30% is processed, because of the alfredo cheese and sauce. The bread and the Rotini are whole foods, because they aren't purified. "its like eating table sugar, that's how your body processes it", was stated in an article when talking about white versus whole grain. The body doesn't digest fiber but types of fiber can be fermented by the bacteria in the colon. Together, all the ingredients costed $7.29 which is very good with the serving size being twelve. Ragu, the sauce comes from Rochester (country).  It is a very simple recipe and is good for the body (e.g. fiber prevents colon cancer). 

Reflection: What I Learned
From this unit, I learned a lot of things. I learned about foods and connections with diseases. I learned about long and short term effects of what we eat, and I learned about processed food (how its made) veruses organic food (is it really better). In this unit we watched a movie about food, called Food Inc. In the movie, there was a chapter called Dollar Menu. In this chapter is what left an impression. Here they talk about how a low income is unable to afford healthy food and be able to buy other things they need. They know that the food is buy is bad for them, but it's what helps them be able to afford other things they need. This isn't something I directly learned, but something that I realized while the chapter was on.  Another thing we looked at in class was the western diet, which was a chapter of In Defense Of Food. What was shown in this was how the change of diet caused better health ( lost weight (avg. 18 lbs), blood pressure dropped, tryglycerides fallen to normal, lower cholestoral). One more thing we looked at was diabetes, which is a result of things we put into our body. If we were to make healthier choices, we would be a lot healthier. If we ate less salts and sugars, obesity and diseases wouldn't be as much of a problem. As myself? No, I woudn't say I am ready to make these changes, because of how our system has adapted to eating poorly. We are used to eating low priced candy as opposed to fruits and vegetables. Our food system has been skewed to eating poor for low prices and growing in obesity and diabetes and other diseases. It would be hard for anyone to make these changes. 

My Food Rule:
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Music Instrument Blog #2

Posted by Samantha Beattie in Physics - Echols on
When playing a xylophone, the sound is produced by the strike of the sticks on the bars, which transfer energy to the bar, causing vibrations. The force of the strike to the different bars plays a part in the sound as well as the size of the bars. My thoughts on size of the bars is that with smaller bars there is less room for air particles to travel, making it more concentrated, causing different pitches. Different sized bars are very important with xylophones. Smaller bars cause higher pitches while larger bars form lower pitches. In order to reconstruct a xylophone, I will be using a certain type of material for the bars. My ideas are either wood or pipe. This is because with an actual xylophone the bars tend to be wood, but I'm thinking pipe will making a louder sound. When you hit a pipe with something, it ends up being very loud, as if you can hear the vibration themselves which i think would be very useful in making a xylophone. the  For the stick that will strike the bars, I plan on using wood. For the stand, I would like to have it wood. My idea is to have two large pieces of wood standing up and being nailed to two pieces of wood that will be placed flat underneath the pipe bars to be played while standing. And of course nails and screws in order to keep things in place. 

Questions That I Have:
- Is there a certain size I will need to make the bars in order to create the notes that I want to play?
- Are the sound waves effected by how I decide to play the xylophone? (i.e. if I hit two different sizes or I hit at a certain speed, will it effect the sound waves and will the sounds mash together or not?)

Music Instrument Blog #1

Posted by Samantha Beattie in Physics - Echols on
A xylophone is a very interesting instrument. 

To play a xylophone you have two sticks made of either rubber or wood. The instrument consists of bars ranging in size from large to small. The longer the bar is, the lower the pitch. The smaller the bars, the higher the pitch. As seen in the video, this xylophone was made like a piano type instrument, where there were also bars located above the bars that are mainly played. These bars are for flat and sharp notes. They are in sets of either two or three. The sticks that are used to be played with, also, effect the sound the bars play. Harder sticks make sharper sounds, unlike with softer sticks that play more gentle sounds. The shape of a xylophone is actually pretty simple. It is shaped in a line, from larger bars to smaller bars. The sticks are normally thin with a ball shape at the top (the part of the stick that strikes the bars when a xylophone is being played). This makes me think about how you interact with a material can create sound and the size of that material may also effect it. Like on a guitar, the strings are different thicknesses. What I know about a wave, is that when energy is transferring through it, you can change how fast it pulses or how long its wavelength is. So in other words, if you play with how hard you hit an instrument, it will effect the wavelength and the frequency depends on the size of the bars. 

xylophone2
xylophone2
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