Dirt, Worms and Stuff

One of the great things about 4-H is that you learn by doing. You can gain public speaking skills by taking part in a public speaking contest or demonstration speech contest. You learn about animals by taking care of an animal. You learn about the environment by getting in there and getting dirty. That's right getting dirty and that is exactly what we did with about a dozen Scotland County youth on Wednesday.
Kerri Roach, the Horticulture Extension Agent in Robeson County was brave enough to travel over to Scotland and help in the get dirty process (which did not seem like a problem at all for her). The youth were part of the Scotland County 4-H Summer program and seemed eager to see what we had planned.
We started the day with some buggy activities. We learned about the different senses the bugs use by playing the smell game and making bug eyes. Then it was time to address the big black canister in the room. We learned about vermicomposting (composting with worms) and everyone got to see our worms in our worm bin and stir the food that is turning into really rich compost. They learned that worms are vegetarians and all about their habitat. Then we got down and dirty and recycled paper to made paper pulp to make grow cards to give to others. The youth made enough for two cards a peice and even had some extra. So they graciously gave those grow cards to the Scotland County Extension staff to have and plant.
After lunch (and a kinda neat video about tropical rain forests) we went outside and did some selective pruning of plants so that we could make some plant pounding artwork. Who knew that hammers in hands would put such a smile on their faces? After the dust and smells settled from that project we devised our own hamburger plants and learned that every part of a hamburger is derived from a plant. Then we checked out some bugs and played a few more games before calling it a day.
We had a lot of fun and everyone learned something new to take home with them. What more could you ask from a dirty wormy kind of day?