Certified Healthy

  Can you smell it in the air?  It's the smell of the fair.  About a month or so out we always invite youth who are showing large animals (goats, heifers, lambs, and steers) out to the fair grounds to meet with a very important person.  Dr. Bruce Akers is our representative from the state vets office.  He was kind enough to spend a couple of hours at the Robeson County fair grounds to examine these animals and make sure they have health certificates.  This service is offered to our 4-H members showing animals so they can comply with the rules and regulations are various fairs including the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair.  We appreciate Dr. Akers coming out to check our animals and ensure they are healthy.  We also appreciate those who came from other counties to receive their certificates.

Getting Sharp

                             

The second Tuesday of the month must mean its time for the Dirty Rascal Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club meeting.  Tonight's meeting was missing a little of its pizzazz as club leader Tayna Underwood was taken in.  Stepping in our 4-H Agent did her best to update us on what is coming up and what has been going on over the summer.  We talked about our upcoming fair booth project and got excited about set up.  Then it was time to get down to business.

  Tonight we learned about tie dye.  No we didn't make a mess.  We used sharpies to make a design and dropped rubbing alcohol on it to make the pigments in the ink spread out.  When the alcohol had evaporated it left a really cool design that looked like we had tie dyed it.  It was awesome!

  Due to the fair our schedule may be adjusted slightly so we can set up our fair booth.  We will keep members updated via email.  Please contact Mrs. Tanya if you have any questions.

The Votes Rolled In

Each September we hold our election for 4-H County Council and Volunteer Leaders Association officers.  This year our current officers wanted to try something different.  Since traditionally, this meeting has the poorest attendance of all four meetings the officers put their heads and budgets together to come up with a plan.  Each group voted during their last meeting to take $100 out of their budgets to hold the election at Mr. P's Skateworld in Lumberton.  Their goal was to increase the number of meeting attendees, number of possible officer candidates, and voting groups.  Boy did they succeed.  We had almost 60 people show up to the meeting which is three times the normal number that usually attend this meeting.

Just after 6:30 we had enough officers and members present to call the meeting to order.  Shabreya Vample, President of the County Council, called the meeting to order and with the help of Megan Hurst, the Sergeant at Arms enlisted the help of two 4-H members to lead the pledges.  After the pledges, our 4-H Agent shared some exciting no with everyone.  Megan Butler of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony  Club qualified at the state horse show for regionals held in Monroe, Louisiana (yes, home of Duck Dynasty).  She did a fantastic job representing our state at this National event.  Also we have had a team place first at state in Poultry judging and they will be going to Louisville Kentucky for National competition in November.  Also she talked with the volunteers about Rock Eagle which is coming up and made sure to let them know that they need to state their intentions by Wednesday this week if they are going so we can get them registered in time.  Rock eagle will take place in Georgia this year October 3-6.  Also volunteers were encouraged to nominate someone for the volunteer of the year award, and to get those forms in before October 1.

After getting the news out of the way. It was time to get down to the real business of the meeting, elections.  With Dillon McCartney moving up to President and Joshua Moore the only person declaring his intent to run for a position (Sergeant at Arms) the other three positions were opened to the floor for nominations.  T'Asha Shelby was nominated for President Elect, Tyron Alford was nominated for Secretary/Treasurer, and K'Shawn Cooper and Megan Hurst were nominated for Reporter.  T'Asha, Megan, and Joshua all got up and spoke on why they would like to be elected to the various positions they were nominated for.  

  After the speeches it was time for the Volunteers to start up.  Veronica Powell, President of the County Volunteer Leaders Association stood up and opened the floor to nominations.  Vanessa Moore will be moving into the President position and Veronica will be moving into the Past President or Advisor role which left four positions open.  After much pointing and cajoling the slate came down to Joyce Peay for President-Elect, Pam Walton for Secretary, Katherine Bethea and Jessica Drake for Treasurer, Jane Hurst for Reporter, and Marilyn Merriett for Parliamentarian.  

  After all the nominations were made representatives of each club were called up to get a ballot and the voting commenced.  We had representatives from 9 of our 11 active clubs.  Each club discussed their votes and turned them in to Veronica Powell who counted each and every last ballot.  Of course by this time you could not hold the kids back from the skating rink so they had donned skates and were rolling around as Marilyn Merriett made the motion to destroy the ballots, which was seconded by Pam Walton.  Everyone in attendance at that part of the meeting voted in favor and Veronica destroyed the ballots.  At that point the meeting was concluded.

  While our skaters, of all ages hit the rink the music person of the night announced our officers.  For the 4-H County Council our 2014 officers will be: Dillon McCartney, President; T'Asha Shelby, President-Elect; Tyron Alford, Sectary-Treasurer; Megan Hurst, Reporter; and Joshua Moore, Sergeant at Arms.  The officers will be inducted as part of Youth Achievement Night in December.  For the 4-H Volunteer Leaders Association the 2014 officers will be:  Veronica Powell, Past President/Advisor; Vanessa Moore, President; Pam Walton, Secretary; Katherine Bethea, Treasurer; Jane Hurst, Reporter; and Marilyn Merriett, Parliamentarian.  These officers will be inducted during Volunteer Appreciation in October.  Cheers went up from around the rink as the officers names were announced.  Quickly after the music cranked back up and the roller rink was filled with squeals of delight as the wheels rolled across the floor.

 A Big Thank You to Mr. P's for allowing us the opportunity to hold our meeting at your business, and providing us with a ton of fun!  Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone who was willing to run.  Our first 2014 County Council and Volunteer Leaders Association meeting will be in February.  I am sure these officers will do everything they can to meet the goals and fund created by the 2013 officers.

A Stroke of Genius

 

Tonight marked the monthly meeting of the All Around All Stars 4-H Arts and Crafts Club.  As you also know September is often the last meeting for our clubs before the fair.  So we can tell you much of the meeting can not be discussed because 4-H club fair booth plans are top secret.  This is tough competition and our youth and volunteers take the educational fundraiser seriously.
  So the club called their meeting to order and the first point of business was to discuss the booth.  After working together to come up with a stroke of genius, they got down to business.  They made phone calls to make sure it could happen and people were in place to help create their work of art.  As part of their booth many canvases will need painting.  We can't tell you the theme, what, or why they are doing things the way they are but we can tell you art and creativity ensued and by the end of the meeting they had some awesome works of art.  As a matter of fact we think their creativity will spill over at home.
  Although we would love to tell you more we can't divulge the plan.  What we can do is invite you to the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair on October 4-12 to check out this and all the other 4-H Club booths.  Stay tuned, these will be a revolution in creativity.

Sewing 4-H into State Fair Fabric

  Many people think fairs and animals are synonymous with 4-H.  It is true for more than 110 years 4-H has been the prevalent youth organization that has been able to market their skills at fairs around the world.  With such a strong historic partnership the North Carolina State Fair offered 4-H and FFA organizations the opportunity to sew the past, present, and future together in a single project.
  The North Carolina Fair asked 4-H and FFA programs to create an 8x8 quilt patch that represented their county program.  There were not many requirements except that it had to be a specific size with at least half inch borders all around and it had to be made of a heavy muslin cloth.  They asked that the squares represent your county program and be as colorful as you like.  The event is open to the first 100 counties that submitted a square.  During the state fair quilters will piece the quilt together and will be seen sewing in the Village of Yesteryear.  This is the area where crafters and artists often wear period costumes and sell time honored homemade crafts.
  We were given a week to get this project together and turned in.  So with the help of our official Extension Quilter Janice Fields (yes, she also happens to be a Family Consumer Science Agent in our office as well) the fabric was purchased and a design was painstakingly created.  Actually we went through three designs before settling on a collage of photos that represent our programs, youth, volunteers, community service, and our funders.  With Janice's help we were able to get the square put together and shipped with a couple of days to spare to the state fair.
  So if you head to the state fair stop by the Village of Yesteryear and check out the quilters.  You might just see the mark Robeson County 4-H will leave for another 110 years.

Once Upon A Time....

  Once Upon A Time is more than the start to a great fairy tale with a happily ever after ending, it was our theme for the last day for 4-H Cloverbud day camp.  Our 5-8 years olds had the opportunity to dress up today as their favorite character.  We had a princess and teenage mutant ninja turtle as well as a bunch of characters as we worked our magic on this last day.
  After coloring and talking about what we had learned with Mrs Janice and Mrs Christy yesterday it was time to get down to the business of stories.  We started by playing a big game of telephone.  For those of you not familiar with this old fashioned sort of game it involves a verbal message being passed around in a circle by whispering in a person's ear.  Often by the time it gets to the other end it is a mangled and funny mess.  After game time we took a brief break for a snack then split into two groups to play with story cubes.  Story cubes have pictures on them the idea is to roll the nine cubes and make a story out of the pictures that are face up.  First the groups worked together to come up with one story then each camper got to roll the cubes to make their own story.  Needless to say their imaginations run wild.
  Once our creative juices were flowing we made our own fairy tale.  Each time a camper said and they had to pick another camper to continue the story.  The original Las Vegas Fairy Tale went something like this..."Once upon a time in the far away Candy Village there was a Princess and a mean, big, slobbery giant.  The giant ate all the flags in the town and he looked for the princess and then got sick.  The giant found the princess and the prince came up behind him then scared the giant out of the village.  A year latter the giant came back and the king, who had a red crown, put it on his head.  Then he told the giant to go away and never, ever come back.  Right after the giant left an uncontrollable mean red dragon showed up.  Then they shot a cannon ball and ran back in the village and the police came and asked questions to find out who shot the cannon ball.  Right after the police left everyone tried to locate the cannon ball shooter and find the princess.  They found the princess in the castle and she went outside.  She got in her car, drove to town, caught a plane, went to Las Vegas and the dragon came back.  So the princess saw a magician at a Las Vegas magic show.  She asked the magic man,  "How do you get rid of mean, red dragons?"  He said, "That's easy.  Abracadabra, Kalamazoo, let's put that mean red dragon in a zoo?"  From here to eternity there is a place called X-caliber where the dragon performs with the magic man.  the dragon is nice now because he gets to live in Las Vegas and be with people that care about him and come to visit often.  The princess went home and everyone lived happily ever after."

  After creating such a tale we had worked up an appetite and we needed some lunch.  Thanks to our volunteers Mrs Margaret and Ms Danielle we had pizza and corn.  Yum Yum!.  Then we took a little  break and got ready to hold court.  We had a few people with tickets for their behavior over the last couple of days.  The jury worked together with the judges to determine if infractions had been made and what the fine should be.  Once court was over payroll for the last day was completed and accounts were handed out.  Then it was time for shopping at the Candy village General Store.  We used our Peyton Bucks to buy everything from school supplies to toys.  It was a great shopping day and lots of fun in how to manage money.
  After taking a shopping trip it was time to work with Mrs. Tamika.  We reviewed all the cools stuff we talked about relating to my plate.  My plate is the new food guide that gives us healthy suggestions for grain, meat, vegetable, and dairy consumption.  When we got done working it was time for another treat.  We made a healthy trail mix and tried a new fruit paw paws. When we got done it was time to spend the rest of our money in the store and head home.  We said goodbye to our friends from this year and headed home to get ready for our next big adventure, heading back to school on Monday.
  We would like to give a special thank you to Jessica Drake, Margaret Crites, and Danielle Parnell who took an enormous amount of their time out of their schedules to help us execute an incredibly wonderful week of hands on fun and learning for these 5-8 year olds.  We would also like to thank our teen volunteers Megan and Al'Drique for spending their week mentoring and being role models for our youth. We have said it before that 4-H Volunteers are incredible, and each day they prove it.  Thank you for all your help!

Measuring Up

It's Thursday also known as Chef Academy Day for our 4-H Cloverbud Day Campers.  We are so excited to get into the kitchen and get cooking but first we needed to take care of our daily business.  As always we started the day with coloring and then moved forward to talk about what we learned on Wednesday.  After completing all that hard work we talked about our upcoming schedule for the day.  Then with much anticipation we headed to the bathroom to wash our hands and hit the kitchen.

We split into two groups for the day.  One worked with Mrs. Janice to start with the other with Mrs. Christy.
For those of you not familiar with our Cooperative Extension Staff, Janice Fields and Christy Strickland are Family Consumer Science Extension Agents.  Both work with children on healthy eating, healthy habits, as well as families and adults.  One group hit the kitchen to start mashing strawberries, make flour, and learn about pectin (an important ingredient to make jams and jellies thick and jell).  Working with Mrs. Christy our youth learned about measuring, cracking eggs, and helped make some whole grain chocolate chip cookies.  After a brief snack our groups switched so everyone got a chance to do everything.  After so much work it was time to take a break for lunch.  Mr. Larry brought his cooker by and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for us while Mrs. Margaret made us French fries.  We also had some carrots and celery on the side.  After making sure we were really full it was time to get back at it.

We worked with Mrs. Janice to make our own biscuits from scratch and we learned how to use spoons to divide up cookie dough so we could bake our cookies.
 We worked so hard it seems like our day flew by.  Before we knew it Mrs. T was there to work with us on our EFNEP lesson.  We talked about our daily servings and played games trying to figure out what makes a healthy meal.  Then she made us healthy strawberry smoothies using real strawberries, yogurt, ice, and apple juice.  they were so good some of us even had two.
  When it was time to go home we had some awesome strawberry jam, buscuits, and cookies to take home and share.  Tomorrow is our last day of 4-H Cloverbud day camp and we are looking forward to having a happily ever after ending.

Mr Roboto Science Adventures

  Today marks the halfway point of our 4-H Cloverbud Day camp and it was a much anticipated day for our campers.  We started our day like we do with all of them.  We do a little coloring and then its time to review what we learned the day before.  Our campers have had fun with their Candy Village city and earning Peyton Bucks that they will spend at the end of the week.  After reviewing the day before we talked about our schedule for today and then hit the ground running by tackling our first experiment of the day.
 

Did you know it is possible to make a rainbow in a jar?  Well our cloverbuds did it.  It was actually a lesson in liquid density.  We started with our homemade lava lamp that was made with cooking oil and water that has red food dye in it.  Since the water and oil don't ever really mix it didn't matter how hard we shook it up it all started separating.  Understanding that concept was pretty easy so we did it again in a little more complex method.  Using a variety of liquids ranging from Kayro Syrup to Rubbing Alcohol we were able to layer the liquids to create a rainbow.  We even learned about Roy G. Biv so we would always know the colors of the rainbow.

After all that hard work it was time for a quick break for a snack.
 Then we broke into two groups.  Once group worked with Ms Wendy and our robotics while the other group worked with Miss Shea Ann putting together Lego creations.  One thing we all learned from the adventure is that we should at least try everything in front of us because we might find out things are better than we think or at least not as hard as we think it will be.

We got a chance to play our favorite game, the freeze game then it was time for lunch.  Mrs. Margaret and Ms. Danielle made us chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese.  We also had celery sticks as a side.  After lunch we continued our scientific fun.  We had the opportunity to learn about plant science by making our very own plant person.  By recycling a knee high we were able to create our own people that will grow green hair.  We gave them facial features and they will be awesome when we take them home and get them their own water to grow tall green hair.

 

Before we knew it it was time for Mrs. T and our EFNEP lesson.  Today we learned where our vegetables come from and all about trying new things.  She played a my plate game with us then we made an awesome snack.  Using grapes, pineapple, and strawberries we made our own fruit kabobs.  Using a marshmallow as a stopper we made awesome and healthy creations, then devoured them faster then we made them.

  After our stomachs were full it was time to head home and plan for tomorrow.  We can't wait to starting cooking up a new adventure.

Ages and Stages

Ages and Stages is the 4-H shorthand for a class that all volunteers and 4-H professionals take in relation to working with you.  It is also a class needed to obtain the bronze ACE Master Volunteer certification.  For our fourth 4 County 4-H Volunteer Revolution volunteers from Cumberland, Hoke, Moore, and Robeson Counties met in Hoke County to hold our last training workshop before meeting to put our notebooks together.

  Hoke County 4-H Agent Cathy Brown taught the workshop which covered the different learning styles and capabilities of youth between the ages of 5-8, 9-13, and 14-18.  The training gave insights on how to create programs for youth that would best engage them in learning as well as help them gain life skills.

  It was a great night of volunteer togetherness and learning.  The last workshop in this series will be held in Hoke County on October 22.  Please contact your 4-H Agent if you would like to attend.

Cutting Up

Our second day of 4-H Cloverbud day camp got our creative juices flowing.  Our theme for Tuesday was arts and crafts day and its fair to say we got pretty crafty.  As will be our daily schedule we started the day by grabbing crayons, markers and coloring pencils and coloring away on coloring sheets.  When it was time we moved to the carpet and talked about what we learned yesterday.  Our plans then move to the schedule of the day and what we have to look forward to.

Our first crafty activity involved rubbing alcohol, ink, tiles, and cotton swaps.  A project you can find on our 4-H Pinterest board, essentially you paint a ceramic tile with rubbing alcohol then drop ink on it and swirl a design together.  Let the tile dry then spray it with clear acrylic.  Makes great coasters and no two are exactly alike.  

We took a quick snack break then worked on our next project which believe it or to involved food.  Not people food, but bird food.  Using Popsicle sticks we made our own bird feeders.  They were awesome.  When they dried Mrs. Jessica tied string to them so we can hang them from a tree.
Our next project was really cool!  We used glue to make a design then sprinkled salt on the glue.  Using cotton swaps and water colors we lightly touched the wet paint to the glue and the salt sort of sucked up the paint.  It was really awesome.  We could do designs and the different colors would blend together where they met.  When it dried it sort of looked like a puffy paint.

  After working so hard we needed a little sustenance.  Thank goodness Mrs. Margaret and Ms. Danielle came to fix us lunch.  We had the most awesomest grilled cheese sandwiches, chips, and carrots.  Lunch was great.

  After lunch it was time for us to hold court for the first time.  Our law enforcement officers from Candy Village had written almost 8 tickets to campers for infractions that ranged from talking when we shouldn't to leaning back in the chairs.  Our judges determined fines based on the jury's recommendations.  In some cases campers were found not guilty, some had to offer apologizes, others were put on probation and some were even fined Peyton Bucks.  It was tough but our jury and judges did a great job.

  When court was over it was time for Mrs. T and our EFNEP lesson.  Today we talked about germs.  We learned the meanest and baddest germ is called bacteria an
d we don't want to mess with that germ.  Mrs. T showed us the proper way to wash our hands then we tested it by seeing our germs under a black light.  Then we washed our hands using soap and water and she checked them again before we we got to make our snack.  Today we made taco salad.  Even though some of us did not like it, if we tried it we got a hundred Peyton Bucks added to our Candy Village Bank accounts so it definitely made it worth it.  

  Before we knew it it was time to head home.  We are looking forward to a futuristic day tomorrow.  Stay tuned for all the fun we will have.

Revolution of Responsibility

Revolution of Responsibility is more than the 4-H slogan it is the theme for the first day of our 4-H Cloverbud day camp.  4-H volunteer, Jessica Drake has joined us for a week of fun and excitement as we have theme days and get our youth back into a school type schedule.  For those of you not familiar with the terminology in the world of 4-H Cloverbuds are our 5-8 year old youth.  On our first day of Cloverbud camp we did something really special with this group we created our own town that will carry through to the end of the week.

  The first thing we did was learn about a really big word, democracy.  Our youth learned that they would all equally have a say in every thing we did by voting.  Our first task for the day was to come up with a name for our town.  Suggestions ranged from Holly Springs to Robotonicsville and even 4-H is Awesomeville.  When it was all said and done the majority went with Candy Village.

  Our next order of business was to create laws.  Our fist two involved being respectful and having fun.  After that we decided to make them up as we needed them.  After snack we had a special visitor, First Sergeant Larry Russ came in and talked with the campers about law enforcement, laws, and helped them understand the responsibility that comes with building a town.

  We stopped to make our own flag and our own money. The citizens of Candy Village voted on both.  When we were done Our officials flag was designed with google eyes and candy while our official money was known as Peyton Bucks.  

  Mrs. Margaret and Ms Danielle came in to fix us and awesome lunch.  We had spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread.  Everyone got their fill of it.  Then we got a few minutes to let our food digest as we watched Tangled. 

  After lunch we had to decide about our jobs.  We decided we needed a mayor, judges, jury, candy factory workers, law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters, clean up crew, zoo keepers and a few other odd and ends jobs.  Each person had the chance to vote on salaries and who would receive what job.  In some cases we had ambitious citizens who held more than one position.  We also created the Candy Village bank with an account for each citizen.  At the end of the week they will be able to use their funds to buy items from the Candy Village General Store.

  Our group also decided they would hold court based on tickets that the law enforcement officers wrote.  The tickets would be based on the laws created and we would add talking when other safe talking and sitting incorrectly in your chair to the list of infractions on the tickets.  The jury would determine guilt or innocence and the judges would determine if someone got probation, a fine, or other actions based on the facts of the case.

After working so hard all day it was time for Mrs. Tamika.  Mrs. T, as she likes to be called, is our Expanded Foods and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) Assistant.  She teaches youth about healthy eating, physical activity, and balancing their diets.  Using Chef Carl, a puppet that reinforces these messages, Mrs. T took these youth on an adventure with a passport that teaches them all about fruits, vegetables, and grains.  One of the neat things about her program is that the youth also make a healthy snack while they are with her.  Today their snack involved taking a whole wheat tortilla, spreading peanut butter on it, then filling up a banana in it.  The campers got to eat their creations and thoroughly enjoyed them.

At that point it was time to go home.  We had a full day creating Candy Village and tomorrow we would start to decorate it with Arts and Crafts day.  Stay tuned for more fun as Cloverbud day camp unfolds this week.

A Day of Fun and Learning

The reason our 4-H day camp program is called Summer Fun is because it is in the Summer and its lots o fun!  A call went out for an unscheduled day of summer fun to take place at the 4-H office.  Everyone met for the first time and set the tone for the day.  After a few team working games and name games it was time to have fun.

Some friends from Campbell Soup working with different United Way organizations joined us for the experiential activities and together we had a ball!  We had several stations set up and let our guests pick any station they wanted.  We had robotics, health and fitness (Twister was involved), science, plant science, and a community service section making bookmarks.  Every 10 minutes we switched stations and had a ball!

  When our special guests left we settled in for a snack then headed back out to the activities.  About 4 o'clock we settled in for a few more games like the Hershey's personality test and two truths and a lie. Of course the biggest hit of all of our day camps is the silent game.  This was a highly competitive group, some had to forfeit when their adult arrived to pick them up.  However everyone got a little present when they left.

  It was a lot of fun and a great way to ring in the United Way Campaign that is going on right now in Robeson County.  If you would like to know more about giving to United Way please contact our 4-H staff at (910) 671-3276 or the United Way of Robeson County at (910) 739-4249.

Getting our Thumbs on the Pulse of Creativity

  The second Tuesday of the each month marks the monthly meeting for the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club.  This one was one to put in print.  The group called their meeting to order and then shared all of their summer experiences.  Boy did this group have a lot of fun!

  When it came time for the activity Mrs. Tanya, the club leader worked with the group on really cool Butterfly facts.  Do you know if butterflies eat?  How fast do they fly?  Well our JMG's are just about experts.

  After learning the facts it was time to get down to the messy business of fun.  Using handkerchiefs, paint, fabric markers, and our thumbs we created our own, one of a kind bandannas.  Using different color paints. Used our thumbs to leave paint prints that would make bees, flowers, hearts, ants, ladybugs and other cool stuff.  Using the fabric markers. Filled in the details and no two bandannas were alike.  The club members did an awesome job!

  The club will meet September 10th at the 4-H office.  If you would like more information about tis or any other club please contact the 4-H Staff at (910) 671-3276.

Robot Science

  It might be our last day of Biotech day camp but don't think we slacked off.  Friday was probably the busiest day with the most hands on learning opportunities, so it's probably a good thing we had some extra hands and arms on hand.

  All the counties met at the Robeson County Extension office today to have some fun learning.  We started the day with some team building and listening exercises to set the stage for what was coming up.  After a brief snack break we broke into five groups to start a rotation at nine different stations.  Each group had youth from each of the three counties, of different ages, and different science backgrounds.  Before the day was over everyone was able to determine each others strengths and found a way to use them during the day. 

  The first station was a robot arm.  There each team member got a chance to operate the arm and move dice and place them in a cup as well as stack (and destack which might have been more fun) cups into a pyramid.  With five different motors the youth had to learn about how to move and pivot the arm to accomplish their task which they said sounded easier then it was, but they had fun practicing.

  The second station was as challenging as the youth had to read a blue print and snap connectors together to make a remote control (RC) car.  The first group on the car assembled the remote and started to figure out how to snap pieces into place while the second team had the opportunity to work it out and make it run.  Blythe end of the day everyone had a chance to make to run, put it together and learn about the circuitry behind it.

 
The third station made the mind work hard.  The trivia station had the youth creating questions about the different things they had earned during the week.  Everything from why do orphan elephants need to wear sunscreen (since they don't have mothers to hide under their ears are susceptible to burning) to what created the Carolina Bays (possible meteor shower).  

  Next it was time to take a turn at creating the doodle bot.  When completely put together it would create designs by vibrating and moving in a circular pattern thanks to the pens on its exterior.  Every group worked to put it together and ten last group to work with it was determined and even spent extra trek getting it put together and working.

  Station number five had an environmental theme going on.  The youth worked to turn a normal empty soda can into a robot.  When done it walked on its own.  It even had its own personality with straw arms and google eyes that bounced as it moved across the table.

After all of the electronics it was time to explore alternative energies that might be used to power some of our creations.  First up our groups created a solar oven which had two possible experiments to try.  One was to use two bottles and create a solar water heater.  The second one had to do with melting chocolate.  Something that everyone offered to clean up after.

  With so many heady projects going on project number seven wasn' t really a project but it was very hands, and feet, on.  Our youth got a chance to kick off their shoes and play Twister.  Something that several had not seen until they played today and or acted moving their hands and feet to the commands of the spinner board.  There was groaning, stretching, falling, and laughter which even included a volunteer and or staff member.

  After getting the wiggles and giggles out it was time to tell time.  An old fashioned potato clock gave everyone a chance to hypothesize and create a fun scenario.  Using a potato they were able to make the clock work.  What about with Coke, orange juice, sprite, or any combination of the above power sources?  Hmmm you would have to aka our scientists, but I can disclosed they had fun and stay on time with the rotation of stations.

Up last was a really fun project, using different things to filter and clean water.  The groups created an entire system that included gravel, sand, charcoal, and a coffee filter to turn mud into water.  It might not have been the fastest system, but being that it only used gravity as a power source it was pretty awesome.

  Somewhere with all of the activity we stopped for a pizza lunch and had a very special desert.  With three Birthdays among our Biotech campers this week and celebrating our fifth anniversary of the program, we had a ginormous homemade birthday cake for dessert.  William, whose birthday it was was gracious enough to cut our official cake as we all partook in some.  After lunch we finished rotating through our nine activities.

  When we were done we stayed in our groups to answer our trivia questions.  It was a close call on which team won so we settled in to complete our camp evaluations and sign thank you cards for all those that hosted us and spent time with us this week.  With all that hard work behind us it was time to celebrate once more with the opportunity to make our own ice cream sundaes.  A that was going on our own theater was created so we could watch a slide show featuring our smiling faces from our week of adventures.

  At the conclusion of our day it was time to head to our respective counties and go home.  We said goodbye to all our new friends and asked our 4-H Agents if we could do it again next year.  W also gave a very special thank you to Megan Hurst and Rachel Maynor for helping us out today.  They rocked. Until we meet again they said they would take good care of our robotics until we can find a need to experiment with them again.