The Missouri State Journal, a weekly program keeping you in touch with Missouri State University. 
Macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. Some things just go together, but geology and cooking? Cheryl McClease says they do too. She's a per course instructor in the geology department at Missouri State. She began her career teaching home economics in the public schools, then came to Missouri State to get an advanced degree in her other interest, geology. I'm Nicki Donnelson, and McClease is my guest today on the Missouri State Journal. 
The why is my big question. I find that earth science answers everything I wanted to know about the big why. 
Now she has combined these two interests in one cookbook called Earth Changing Recipes. 
It is a book that has a geology lesson and also an accompanying recipe that explains that particular geology idea. I was teaching eighth grade, and I had a classroom teacher helper for my special students. We always did a report and a project, a model to explain geology. It's a concept that's a little bit more difficult. We were talking. How can we have our special students be more involved. We said, "What if we made their project out of food?" It was so popular, that we started having all of the projects, all of the models being made from food. For example, one of the recipes in here has to do with the New Madrid earthquake in the Bootheel area of Missouri, 1811, 1812, so strong that it rang bells clear into Boston. It also changed the course of the Mississippi River, caused waterfalls on it, buried the original town in New Madrid, made Reelfoot Lake. A perfect recipe to go with this is Mississippi Mud Cake. That was our first idea, and it was so much fun that it expanded through the years. I have now way more than 33, but 33 are in my book. 
Don't be mislead. This is not a book of science experiments in the kitchen. The end result is always something edible, and a deeper understanding of the science lesson. 
They are foods that accompany the lesson and reinforce what you've learned. For example, one is called Surprise Earth Cakes. It is talking about the interior of the earth, a basic concept in earth science of crust, mantle, core. When you make the cupcake there is a filling inside. There is the cake, and then the frosting, so you can do crust, mantle, core. These are reinforcement lessons. For example, you could work with them with your children at home. If you're a teacher you could use them in the classroom, make cupcakes for your kids at the classroom. If you're interested in geology, you can read the short, condensed geology lesson. Then the next page has the recipe that goes along with it. It would be great to use in a home school situation, if that is the way you're being educated. You could say, here's a little bit of knowledge, here's your reinforcement. Now you go find out more yourself, so an older child could use it. 
Earth Changing Recipes which is available on Amazon is a labor of love for McClease. She elaborates. There are four different sections on the interior fossils, volcanoes and earthquakes. What's very interesting to me and very special that I got to make this book is that my grandchildren are models in here, and my niece, my nephew. My daughter who is a graphics art major here took the pictures and arranged the book. My sister who is an English professor was my editor. It's got beautiful color pictures about the geology or the recipes. I dedicated it to my mother. She was a superintendent's secretary for schools for years and loved kids and cooking. 
As an educator and scientist herself she's an advocate for making science fun and fulfilling. She hopes this book will wet your child's appetite for exploring the STEM fields. 
It seems to be that science can be so stiff and dry, if it's presented in the wrong way, whereas, to me geology and science is a constant search for knowledge. You're always wanting to find the why, the answer to the why. This is a fun, tasteful way of learning about geology. 
That was Cheryl McClease, instructor in the geology department of Missouri State University. I'm Nicki Donnelson for the Missouri State Journal. 
For more information, contact the Office of University Communications at 417-836-6397.