Human Environmental Sciences Extension’s mission goes to the heart of humanity — to develop and nurture human potential
and to apply knowledge
for the betterment of all.
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During the last fiscal year, 3,659 individuals or families saved approximately $731,800 in tax preparation fees and processed $2.95 million in refunds through the program’s Missouri Taxpayer Education Initiative.
Human Environmental Sciences
Source: MU Extension Annual Report, FY 2008
Human Environmental Sciences Extension is committed to developing educational programs “to create better living for Missourians.” Each program addresses the needs of the state’s residents. Using face-to-face contact, the Web, interactive television and other technology and media, faculty members are able to meet those needs when and where people are ready to learn.
Janet LaFon, MU Extension family financial education specialist in the Southwest Region, teaches a class for first-time homebuyers held in Neosho.
Programs address family and financial education; design of living and working environments; family and human development; community support systems; and nutrition, health and physical activity. They annually reach more than 275,000 individuals, with an additional 4.2 million-plus Web users. Whether dealing with health or health care, personal or family relationships, asset development, or housing, every program outcome is designed to make Missourians’ lives better.
The HES faculty is dedicated to enhancing the lives of all Missourians by collaborating extensively with local, state and national partners to provide seamless educational opportunities to families across the state. While all of the programs strive to maximize the quality of human and family life, HES pays special attention to the needs of Missouri’s socially and economically vulnerable populations.
In FY 2008, more than 9,500 Missourians attended programs or received information on homeownership, alternative home energy systems, weatherization and healthy homes. The target audience for these programs includes first-time and long-term homebuyers, renters, and children and families in homes with problems including lead paint, radon, second-hand smoke, mold and carbon monoxide. There was a significant increase in the number of Missouri families who attended workshops on home energy efficiency and alternative energy systems due to the rise in home heating, cooling and electricity costs.
MU Extension Human Environmental Sciences Web site
Missouri Families Web site
Success story
Fitness Program Puts Activity Guidelines Into Action
For Missouri youth, good health is literally a hop, skip and jump away, thanks to the MyActivity Pyramid offered through MU Extension.
Extension health and fitness specialist Steve Ball led development of the pyramid, which complements the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPyramid and the government’s comprehensive Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, a document that recommends at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily.
Using an easy-to-understand graphic is a fun way “to show kids, rather than tell kids, how they can be active,” Ball says. “We’re not trying to prescribe an exercise program. We’re trying to provide teachers, parents and kids ideas on how they can be active and accumulate more activity throughout the day.”
According to Mary Smyser, coordinator for MU Extension’s Family Nutrition Education Program, the activity push is working. Smyser, who works with nutrition educators in 16 counties in Northeast Missouri, says schools using the program “realize the importance of physical activity breaks and how they benefit students physically and mentally so that they can be better learners.”
Developed primarily for kids ages 6 to11 with input from youth in rural and urban areas throughout Missouri, the MyActivity Pyramid recommends a two-hour limit on TV and video game playing as well as a minimum of 60 minutes of regular activity daily.
“Teachers appreciate the nutrition and physical education activities because a lot of times schools are strapped with getting in all of their educational programming,” says Smyser. “Teachers are seeing improvements in physical ability, coordination and, best of all, an increase in concentration.”
Missouri teachers and students aren’t the only ones seeing the value of the MyActivity Pyramid, which is being used in 26 other states from New York to California. More than 70,000 hard copies of the pyramid have been distributed nationally and internationally.