DES MOINES, IA (07/07/2014)(readMedia)-- Six Iowa farm families will be honored as recipients of The Way We Live Award at the 2014 Iowa State Fair. Each family will be recognized for their love of the land and the product they produce in award ceremonies during the Fair. "Nothing Compares" to the Iowa State Fair, August 7-17.

The Way We Live Award recognizes Iowa families for their hard work and love of farming. The families each exemplify dedication to animal agriculture and strong farm values. Each entrant was asked to submit a short essay describing how the occupation of farming and living on a farm has shaped their lives. Six families were chosen out of 38 entries from a variety of commodities and areas in Iowa.

Each family will receive a prize package including $250 cash, Fair tickets, free parking and recognition in the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center during the Fair at 10:30 a.m. on various days. The Way We Live Award is sponsored by WHO NewsRadio 1040 and Tractor Supply Company.

Adams Family, Waucoma

Sunday, August 17

The Adams Family Farm has been operating in Waucoma since the early 1900s. Scott Adams, the current owner, was preceded by his father in the late 1940s after his return from World War II and Scott's grandfather in the 1900s. In 1981, Scott and his wife Jeanie took over the operation full-time after working alongside Scott's father for several years. In 2009, they began Adaway Dairy with their oldest son, Nathan. Nathan currently lives on Adams Century Farms, which was the first dairy to have a DeLaval robotic milking system in the state of Iowa. Nathan handles the dairy management with his wife, Annie, and two children. Scott and Jeanie's oldest daughters, Nicole and Jackie, often return to the farm to help out, and their younger children, Katie and Joey, plan on running the family farm one day. Katie graduated from Iowa State University (ISU) in 2013 with a degree in dairy science, and her brother, Joey, currently attends ISU and is also studying dairy science.

Clemsen Family, Brayton

Tuesday, August 12

Bryan and Shari Clemsen and their five boys, Dillion, 25, Aaron, 23, Emmet, 21, Garnner, 18, and Jarrid, 16, live on a farm that has been in their family for 59 years. They currently own 1,700 acres of land, 1,500 of which are used to grown corn and soybeans, and the rest is for hay and pasture. They also feed out approximately 1,000 head of beef cattle and have a herd of 40 cows. When they are not farming, the Clemsens take time for church, school and family meals. They also like to perform music when they can. Often hosting children without farming backgrounds, the family tries to educate them on the importance of hard work and agriculture.

Feldman Family, Honey Creek

Saturday, August 9

Thomas and Janna Feldman, along with their children Matthew, 22, and Mia, 19, are owners of Doe's and Diva's Inc., a goat and sheep dairy. The family purchased a goat to aid in Mia's health-related digestion issues and, over time, more goats and sheep were added until they had an excess of milk. They found an outlet in cheese making and built their own goat and sheep dairy. The milk from Doe's and Diva's does not contain any artificial growth hormones or antibiotics, and their goats and sheep are raised using natural herd management. The Feldmans also create natural goat milk soap products. The family provides tours of the dairy and takes goats and lambs on the road to Omaha and local stores to demonstrate farm life.

Grier Family, Guernsey

Saturday, August 16

Ron and Christine Grier and their son, Ryan, began their farming journey in 2005 when they decided to buy a farm and go back to their roots. Ryan had goats for a 4-H project and those goats soon developed into a 77 Boer goat operation. The Griers also have three bee colonies and grow corn, soybeans and hay on their 154 acres of land. In addition to the farm, both Ron and Christine have full-time jobs away from the farm. They keep the operation going with hard work and help from family members. Ryan, a computer science major at Iowa State University, often comes home to help out when needed. Ron is currently the vice president of the Tall Corn Meat Goat Wether Association, and both Ron and Christine are youth leaders and members of the American Boer Goat Association, the Iowa Meat Goat Association, the Iowa Honey Producers Association and the Farm Bureau.

Randolph Family, Goose Lake

Friday, August 8

Seven generations of Kruse family members have lived and worked on the same plot of land, a Heritage Farm, in Goose Lake. Now the Randolph Family Farm, its day-to-day operations were maintained by Leroy and Hannah Kruse until 1955 when they handed the reins to their son, Wally, and his wife, Joan. The two raised four daughters, Barb, Lynn, Kelly and Julie, on the original farm and continued living there until 2000. Today, farm operations are handled by Barb, her husband Todd, their son Daniel, his wife, Laurel, and their four children, Brandon, Sean, Joana and a new baby. Daniel's sisters, Jessica and Emily, also help out. Todd farms 115 acres of corn, soybeans, hay and oats. Forty-five acres of Todd's pasture are rented to his son Daniel for his cows. Daniel has 95 head of stock cows and farms more than 330 acres of corn, soybeans and hay. Over the years the Kruse family members have been involved in Farm Bureau, 4-H and church.

Van Regenmorter Family, Inwood

Sunday, August 10

Chad and Jody Van Regenmorter and their two daughters, Rebecca, 16, and Emily, 13, farm approximately 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans and oats and manage a 160-sow farrow operation. The farm has been in their family for three generations beginning in the 1950s. Chad and Jody have been members of Farm Bureau, the Corn Growers Association and the Pork Producers Association as well as several church groups and local and state boards. Rebecca and Emily both attend West Lyon Community Schools and are active in 4-H and showing hogs Rebecca also serves on the county council and participates in FFA.

"Nothing Compares" to the 2014 Iowa State Fair, August 7-17. The Fairgrounds are located at East 30th and East University Avenue, just 10 minutes east of downtown Des Moines. For more information, call 800/545-FAIR or visit www.iowastatefair.org.

 

* * *

Why Our Industrial Age Schools are Failing Our Information Age Kids
Educator, Researcher Describes 4 Ways to Reboot

In spite of the billions of dollars spent on educational reform since "A Nation at Risk" was published in 1987, more than half of America's high school seniors are not proficient in reading, and 75 percent can't do math, according to the recently released National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"Clearly, the current approaches to educational reform are failing," says notes educational researcher and consultant Charles M. Reigeluth, author of "Reinventing Schools: It's Time to Break the Mold" (www.reigeluth.net). "The problem is that major aspects of our educational system were devised to meet the societal needs of a bygone era."

"We need to change the paradigm - we need to move from Industrial Age 'factory model schools' to accommodate and reflect Information Age needs and realities."

The Industrial Age in the United States, roughly 1830 to 1960, was shaped by machinery and mass production. Many jobs moved from farms to factories, which required workers - and therefore students - who would follow instructions and endure repetitive, boring tasks, he says.

"We did not need to educate many people to high levels, so Industrial Age schools sorted students, promoting the few needed for managerial and professional work, and flunking out the many needed for the assembly lines," says Reigeluth, a former high school teacher and Indiana University professor.

"Today, knowledge work is more common than manual labor, and our systems are far more complex. All adults need a higher degree of knowledge just to function in society, so we can no longer afford a system that is designed to leave many children behind."

Here are four Industrial Age educational artifacts, according to Reigeluth, and how to update them for the Information Age:

•  Time-based student progress: Currently students in a class move on together to the next topic according to the calendar, regardless of whether they have learned the current material.  Slower students accumulate learning gaps that make it more difficult for them to master related material in the future, virtually condemning them to flunk out. The system is designed to leave many children behind.

A paradigm designed to leave no child behind would allow each student to move on as soon as he or she has learned the current material, and no sooner.  This requires "personalized learning'' and "learner-centered instruction" that is both high-tech and high-touch.

•  Standardized and other broad tests: Rather than evaluating a student based on how much he or she has learned in a certain amount of time, such as a 9-week period, each student should be evaluated to determine when the material has been learned, so we know when the student is ready to move on. This is called "criterion-referenced assessment," a different paradigm from "norm-referenced assessment."

"A big test with 20 different topics, as we use now, shows only how much a student knows compared to other students," Reigeluth says. "In the Information Age paradigm, all students are expected to finish learning whatever they undertake to learn. Like a Boy Scout working on a badge, each student continues to work until the material is mastered."

Assessments, then, are incremental and cover a single competency, or a small set of competencies. They certify mastery while also helping guide learning by showing students what they need to continue working on.

•  The traditional grading system : The traditional grading system indicates how well a student performed compared to the other students in a class - a tool that is only effective in sorting students. It's not an effective way of guiding and ensuring individual student learning, and it tells you little about what the student has learned.

"Rather than achievement reflected as grades on a report card, it would be reflected as lists of skills and concepts that the student has mastered," Reigeluth says.

•  Locking students into grades: Grade levels are incompatible with the Information Age model because students learn at different rates and become ready to move on to different material at different times. Grade levels are a key feature of the time-based, sorting-focused paradigm that served us well during the Industrial Age, but are detrimental to meeting Information Age educational needs.

Instead, group students into similar developmental levels, which typically span three to four years.

"Grouping developmentally, rather than based on age or rigid levels of content learning, accounts for the different rates at which children develop socially and emotionally," Reigeluth says. "Children can remain in their social-emotional peer group while working on projects typically tackled by students of a higher or lower age."

About Charles M. Reigeluth

Charles M. Reigeluth is a distinguished educational researcher who focuses on paradigm change in education. He has a B.A. in economics from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in instructional psychology from Brigham Young University. He was a professor at the Instructional Systems Technology Department at Indiana University, and is a former chairman of the department. His new book, "Reinventing Schools," (www.reigeluth.net), advocates and chronicles a national paradigm change in K-12 education. He offers presentations and consulting on this topic.

June 29, 2014 - January 25, 2015

Since 1855 when the first railroad line was constructed in Muscatine, the City has laid claim to over 35 named railroads. Some helped the City prosper while others were merely proposed or were new names adopted by active railroads as they grew or came out of bankruptcy. The exhibition, "Railroads of Muscatine County", includes artifacts, photographs, and artwork to explore the histories of the local railroads. Among the railroads features in the exhibition are the Rock Island Lines, the Muscatine City Railway Company, and the Muscatine & Iowa City Railway, which did not survive its first year from incorporation.

"Railroads of Muscatine County" contains interesting facts such as the details that earned the Muscatine, Burlington & Southern Railroad Company the nickname, "The Maimed, Burned & Scalded Railway". The exhibition features engaging components for the young and the 'young at heart' including a toy train table, a step-on caboose, and working "O and S Gauge" model railroads.

The 1850s brought some of the first railroad milestones in the Midwest. The first land grant railroad in the United States was completed with the arrival of the Illinois Central in the area of East Dubuque, Illinois. The first railroad bridge to span the Mississippi River connected Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, and was completed in 1856. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 to authorize construction of the first transcontinental railroad.

Leaders throughout Iowa recognized that the railroad would be an important tool in transporting goods, raw materials and passengers into and out of their communities. Towns competed with each other to attract railroad lines. Considerable capital and years of planning and constructing were required to launch a new railway line. Mississippi River towns like Muscatine relied on the river for the transportation of goods, but the railway system greatly expanded the town's ability to quickly reach new markets, especially those to the west.

The supply of fresh produce from the Muscatine Island was a key factor in launching the Muscatine North & South Railroad. There was a constant shortage of railcars to haul produce by the Rock Island System and as a result, produce rotted while waiting for shipment. The Muscatine North & South Railroad incorporated on February 15, 1893 with the first train running on January 20, 1899.

The Muscatine North & South Railroad, like other railroads in the area, faced receivership (corporate bankruptcy), multiple reorganizations, buyouts and breakups of the railway line. Rail lines were marginally profitable, and as better roads and more affordable automobiles were introduced, many rail lines were scrapped. Even the longest-lived lines in Muscatine, such as the Rock Island Lines, underwent consolidations, bankruptcy and buyouts. The Muscatine & Iowa City Railway was the shortest-lived interurban in the State of Iowa, running for only six months in 1916, while other lines were started and abandoned unfinished.

Since 1855 when the first railroad line was constructed in Muscatine, the City has laid claim to over 35 named railroads. Some helped the City prosper while others were merely proposed or were name changes employed by active railroads as they grew or came out of bankruptcy. In the early 1900s, Muscatine had four active railroads, two inter-urbans and a city trolley system.

"Railroads of Muscatine County" opened at the Annual Ice Cream Social on Sunday, June 29^th with activities from 1 to 5 p.m. The exhibition will run through January 25, 2015.

 

EVENT DETAILS:

Activity: Opening of Exhibition, "Railroads of Muscatine"

When: Sunday, June 29

Time: 1:00 - 5:00 PM (During the Annual Ice Cream Social)

Where: Muscatine Art Center

Admission to this event is FREE.

 

Activity: "Muscatine Railroad History" Talk and Guided Tour will Bill Lindsay

When: Sunday, July 20^th and Sunday, August 17

Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM

Where: Muscatine Art Center

Admission to this event is FREE.

Description: Join local railroad enthusiast, Bill Lindsay, for a talk and guided-tour of the exhibition, "Railroads of Muscatine County". Bill will share his knowledge of the seven main lines which serviced Muscatine such as the Rock Island Line; Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern; Muscatine North & South; and the Muscatine City Railway. This program is FREE.

 

Activity: "Grass Between the Rails" by Denny Rehder

When: Thursday, September 4th

Time: 5:30 PM

Where: Muscatine Art Center

Admission to this event is FREE. This program is sponsored by Humanities Iowa.

Description: "Grass Between the Rails" celebrates Iowa's railroad heritage with a unique blend of stories and original folk songs about the development of railroads in Iowa. The subjects cover events of national importance such as the race across Iowa to connect with the transcontinental railroad to the West, and local history, including the poor service offered by the "Slow Norwegian." Other topics include the somber "Worst Wreck Ever," a farm boy's remembrance of "The One Elephant Circus," and the rollicking "Doodlebug."

 

Denny Rehder, is a local historian. His avocation for nearly fifty years has been music. Now that musical ability is combined with another avocation - Iowa railroad history - to offer a program on this overlooked part of Iowa's past. Rehder has been involved as author, editor, publisher, photographer or researcher in the publication of seven books on subjects from Iowa history. He is a native of Gladbrook who grew up watching the trains of the Chicago Great Western mainline.

The Muscatine Art Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday from 10 AM to 7 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 PM Admission is FREE.

Last week, Bruce Braley took his Protecting Social Security and Medicare Tour to eight cities across Iowa to speak with voters about the clear choice in the US Senate race on retirement security. On one hand, Bruce Braley is fighting for working families to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. On the other hand, Sen. Joni Ernst supports privatizing Social Security, ending guaranteed benefits and putting Iowans retirement in the hands of the Wall Street billionaires supporting her campaign. Read all about it below:


Iowa Public Television
Reporters' Roundtable
July 3, 2014
Reporters Jennifer Jacobs, O. Kay Henderson, James Lynch, and Kathie Obradovich discuss the Senate race, highlighting the important role Social Security has come to play in the race.

Full video: http://www.iptv.org/iowapress/episode.cfm/4142/video


Sioux City Journal
Sioux City Stop: Braley Continues Social Security Defense
July 3, 2014
"It's a promise we made to people that if you work hard and invest your hard-earned money into these programs, they're going to be there for you when you need them," said Braley, a Democrat, during a meeting with local seniors at UFCW Local 222 in Sioux City. The topic has become a major campaign issue between Braley and Ernst, who are seeking the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Tom Harkin.

Full article: http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/sioux-city-stop-braley-continues-social-security-defense/article_15c30639-2c12-551a-ae68-9e35c82a181a.html


Omaha World-Herald
Bruce Braley Stops in Council Bluffs, Advocates Minimum Wage Increase
July 3, 3014
Braley also said he is against proposals to privatize Social Security, which he said would put benefits at risk during a recession.  Senior citizens, many of whom have lived through several economic downturns, "have seen why this safety net is so important," Braley said.

Braley's stop in the Bluffs was the last of nine round tables he held recently across the state to discuss the future of Social Security and Medicare.

Full article: http://www.omaha.com/news/iowa/bruce-braley-stops-in-council-bluffs-advocates-minimum-wage-increase/article_61587db1-a385-5d0c-924c-9fa96688265a.html


Telegraph Herald
Braley, Ernst Air Differences on Social Security
July 3, 2014
Bruce Braley, northeast Iowa's U.S. representative and the Democratic candidate for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, has campaigned on Social Security recently, discussing the program with residents in 11 cities. Braley advocates for preserving Social Security, making only minor adjustments.

Full article: http://www.thonline.com/news/tri-state/article_15feec46-6f3c-5f8c-aab4-1e16cc2dc4fe.html


Mason City Globe-Gazette
Braley Cites Differences with Ernst
July 2, 2014
Braley said privatizing Social Security would eliminate one of the three legs of the retirement stool -- Social Security, pension and savings. He said scrapping Social Security and setting up individual investment accounts relies too heavily on the stock market.

Full article: http://globegazette.com/news/local/braley-cites-differences-with-ernst-in-talk-with-seniors/article_e43e77c2-ea88-5fa7-8822-7e118b11709c.html


Ottumwa Courier
Braley: 'Stark Choice' in Senate Election
July 2, 2014
Braley said Iowa voters have "a stark choice," in the election. He cast himself as someone capable of defending Social Security and Medicare, while working with Republicans when the two parties have common goals.

"We want someone who can work across the aisles and solve the problems we have," he said. "I have a proven record of doing that."

Full article: http://www.ottumwacourier.com/local/x1927835986/Braley-stark-choice-in-Senate-election


Burlington Hawk Eye
Braley Holds Roundtable on Social Security and Medicare
July 2, 2014
The Waterloo Democrat held a roundtable discussion with local seniors to discuss the importance of the programs to their retirement security. He also talked about the importance of honoring the promise of Social Security and Medicare to current and future retirees.

"When people think about the economy, retirement security is on a lot of peoples minds," Braley told a group of about 15 people Tuesday. "All you have to do is look at the numbers in Des Moines County. Almost 10,000 people in Des Moines County get Social Security benefits of some kind."

Full article: http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Braley-070214


Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
Braley Holds Roundtable on Social Security
June 27, 2014
The Waterloo Democrat didn't give the usual talking points on those issues sensitive to aging Iowans. Instead, he sought greater understanding of the issues and, barring that, a renaming of those political buzzwords.

"One of the things people are always raising objections to is calling these programs entitlements because it creates this false perception that you're getting something you don't deserve, and maybe we should just adopt the language of the investment community," Braley said.

Full article: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/braley-holds-roundtable-on-social-security/article_bbaf22ee-8dea-5527-89aa-3d2a45491250.html