The Sky is Truly the Limit Today

Day four of 4-H Biotech Day Camp had us travelling to Bladen Community College in, of all places, Bladen County.  Our campers took a great walking tour of the campus and were able to see the offerings of this campus.  After enjoying a walk on such a pretty day it was time to head to building 3 where we made science history.

Working with the BioAg Network we started our morning learning about colors, reflection and absorption, and engineering.  We used materials such as cupcake boxes, tin foil, construction paper, and markers to adapt those principals and create a solar oven.  Each 4-H camper worked diligently to engineer what they thought would be the perfect solar oven.  The catch is these weren't just prototypes, these would be working ovens with the goal of making a wonderful s'more.  After design was complete our campers took their ovens out to trafficless walkway for testing.  A graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallow on top were placed in the oven and left for about an hour, as we headed over and ate lunch.

We had a Bladen County Legend for lunch.  Melvin's is a place that folks drive from all around to have and today the Bladen county staff delivered, literally.  We had hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, drinks, and a lot of conversation with all of our new friends.

After lunch it was time to head back to the solar ovens and checked out the melty, gooey. chocolaty mess of a s'more.  Our campers saw some design flaws and things that worked well in other ovens.  Overall they found out they could be engineers and chefs in one project.

It was time to head back inside to save the world from the Zombie College and learn lab safety rules.  Then our campers used combinations of antacid, vinegar, yeast, water, and baking soda to create a fuel to get our fictional stranded astronauts back from space.  Our campers worked diligently on different combinations to come up with the right one.  In the end each formula had its merits and they tested them all against each other by pouring their formulas into bags, forming a hypothesis, and seeing which ones worked best to solve the problem they were presented.

  This was just the backdrop to the next project.  The engineers built their very own rockets.  They engineered the design (some had wings, others fins, and even streamers), decorated them and prepared them for launching.  Of course that meant going back outside.  There our youth used a rocket fuel made of water and alka-seltzer.  The gas that was created gave serious lift to their creations.  We had rockets popping up all over campus.

  It was an uplifting day of learning.  We are looking forward to being at our home office tomorrow and hosting our friends on our final day of Biotech Day Camp.