Author Archives: rose4vt

Rockets to the Rescue!

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rocket

ROCKETS!

I love when we are teaching students STEM without them even knowing it because they are having so much fun!  Using the 4-H curriculum guide Rockets to the Rescue is an easy way to do this!  Participants are given materials to create their own rocket-but no instructions on specifics of the design.  May sound a little daunting huh?  Nope!  These kids LOVED creating their own rocket by design and were making friends with their partners that they had never met.  The final test was to see if their rocket could launch 20ft away into a hula hoop (the target).  They were given a test run and if their design didn’t seem to work they were back to the drawling table to redesign!  Interested in learning more about Rockets to the Rescue?  Contact me!

*This was a workshop that I helped with for the Augusta County 4-H Program

rockets

Career Day

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milk

Colored milk?  You may ask what this has to do with career day at South River Elementary that I attended today.  First off, let me start by saying that besides myself I had my co-worker Jeremy Daubert (Dairy Extension Agent) come along to talk with the kids.  Virginia Cooperative Extension has MANY areas of help and support to offer besides the 4-H Program.  In our office we have specialists that can help you with horticulture, crops, food & nutrition, finance, and livestock questions.  Since Jeremy and myself grew up on dairy farms we both decided to combine our extension jobs and love of milk into a fun activity.  I spoke to kids about the fun lessons and activities I have with kids and hopefully inspired some future educators!  Jeremy went straight to the heart’s of all animal lover’s when he spoke about his visits to farms and cute pictures of cows with their baby calves.  I have a feeling that we could have earned best career presentation in the eyes of the kids and out done the fire trucks and police cars if we would have brought a cow and baby calf.  However, with the dreary morning and persistent rain showers we stuck to the indoors.

Want to learn more about the job of a 4-H educator and what we have to offer?  Contact us !  Not only do I go to career day’s-I can also present to your faculty and staff!

Milk Experiments

The above presentation of colored milk was achieved by simply mixing powdered Jell-O mixes with milk.  Check out this website below for a cool science experiment with milk:

Color Changing Milk Experiment – Magic Milk Experiment

Fun with the Enviroscape Model!

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This week I visited Lacey Spring Elementary to teach 1st grade students about water quality using the Enviroscape Model.  Students have the opportunity to interact with the model by helping me “pollute” the community and see the negative effects it has on water quality.  Students reviewed the following points during the lesson:

  • compare and contrast ways of conserving resources. This includes recycling, reusing, and reducing consumption of natural resources.
  • classify factors that affect air and water quality.
  • describe ways students and schools can help improve water and air quality in our communities.
  • determine some basic factors that affect water quality by conducting simple investigations in the school environment. Students should be able to make and record observations of what happens to runoff water on rainy days. (Related to 1.3.)
  • predict what would happen if natural resources were used up, and explain ways to prevent this from happening.

The Enviroscape Model lesson is available to Pre-K through 12th grades and is a great interactive way to teach your students about the water cycle, erosion, weathering, pollution, recycling, water quality, and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  If you are interested in having 4-H come into your classroom to present on this topic please contact us!

Calf Visit

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Throwback Thursday to when I went to Lacey Spring Elementary School to teach 1st graders about the importance of agriculture, butter making, and visited with a newborn calf!  The class decided to name her Rosie.

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Butter!

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Yesterday I made a visit to Ms. Liskey’s 4th grade classroom to teach the students about the history of butter to help them review their native American history lesson.  We made fresh butter and corn cakes….yummy!

shaking butter 1 corncake pic rose butter pic