Ames, Iowa — Third-graders at Edwards Elementary School on Friday combined lessons in literacy and geometry to stage a theater using sets and scripts developed with the help of Iowa State University students.

As the stainless steel bowl full of veggies is set on the table, the toddlers start exploring. Through sight, smell, touch, and taste, they’re learning important lessons about local foods.

The project is part of an ISU Child Development Laboratory School initiative to bring more locally grown food to the school’s children. By purchasing a share in Iowa State University’s Good Earth Student Farm, the laboratory school receives a shipment of local produce each week, up until the first frost.

A weeklong celebration of the College of Human Sciences will this year showcase how the college’s people and programs are joined by a common bond of helping others.

In the 1976 film "Rocky," boxer Rocky Balboa tells his girlfriend Adrian that he fights because he can’t sing or dance. Elizabeth Stegemöller, an assistant professor in kinesiology at Iowa State University, is helping people with Parkinson’s disease do all three.

In her latest outreach effort, Stegemöller, a neuroscientist who leads Parkinson’s singing groups and music and movement groups, has formed a research partnership with Olivia Meyer, a National Collegiate Boxing Association national champion in 2014 and 2015.

Research released from Iowa State University details running’s positive effects on longevity — and today received an international award for its worldwide impact.

An eight-week program this summer paired undergraduate students with Iowa State professors in food science and human nutrition to conduct research related to food safety, food security, and childhood obesity. The Cyclone Scholar Summer Research Program, directed by assistant professor Shannon Coleman, is open to any college-aged student interested in the area of food science and human nutrition. This year’s program attracted students from as far away as New York, Arizona, and Georgia.

Iowa State University food and nutritional scientists are at the heart of an initiative to create food security around the world by improving the nutritional value of existing foods.

One of those concerns is iron deficiency, the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world — including both developing and industrialized nations — according to the World Health Organization. Manju Reddy, the Doris A. Adams Endowed Chair in Food Science and Human Nutrition, is focused on making iron more available with natural iron compounds and foods.

Melha Mellata, assistant professor at Iowa State, began looking into how E. coli from chicken eggs and meat cause disease in humans and poultry while she was working at Arizona State University in 2011. Her research, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), was a collaboration with Roy Curtiss III of Arizona State University (now at University of Florida), James R. Johnson of University of Minnesota and John M. Fairbrother of University of Montreal.

Interdisciplinary research at Iowa State University in the College of Human Sciences is improving the safety of those who wear protective clothing.

Iowa State University is growing its presence in China and sparking new relations with India.