Caroline's Albemarle/Charlottesville VCE Internship

Friday, August 12, 2016

A Day in the Great Outdoors

Yesterday, the 4-H Program Assistant, and I went to Camp Albemarle and taught a day camp, A Day in the Great Outdoors. We did all sorts of fun activities! We went on a nature walk, did a scavenger hunt, made a campfire and roasted smores over the fire (as well as we could, the wood was a little damp from rain the previous days, so it was kind of a small fire), made bird feeders with sticks, yarn, peanut butter, and bird seed and put them in the trees for the birds to enjoy, studied and drew animal tracks, and played outside on the rocks, played soccer in the grass, and had some fun looking at all types of creatures from bugs to lizards!
Although the weather was hot and the humidity was high, we had a successful day! Fun was had by all, and spending a day surrounded by nature was a good break for the kids as well as the adults. :)

Friday, July 29, 2016

LIFT Class 7/29

Today, Ian had a program in Greene County during the same time as the LIFT class. So Shania (the other intern) and I taught his LIFT class! It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be! I could never be a fitness instructor! The hardest thing was not the workout, it was keeping people on rhythm so they would actually get a workout and not just be moving random limbs. We rushed the class a little bit and finished a little early, but overall it didn't go too badly. I got some good pictures of our workout, so take a look below! :)

Michie Market Round 2!

Hey there!
So since we did not get out to the Michie Market last week, we went yesterday evening! The thunderstorms waited until after the market, which was perfect! We always look for recipes for our food demonstrations that include local fresh vegetables or fruit. This week, our vegetable focus is fennel.
Although I have seen chefs prepare fennel in different dishes on TV, I am not sure if I've ever actually tried fennel. We went to the grocery store to get ingredients for a recipe I found for Orange and Fennel Salad. We shared this recipe with people so they could learn one way to use fennel since there is so much of it ready around at this time of year!
We got lots of compliments on the fennel salads and I personally liked the version with peaches better than the orange recipe, although they were both good! I was pleasantly surprised with the fennel flavor as well. It smells a lot like licorice, but the flavor was much more mild than I was expecting.

The recipe is pretty simple! I am attaching it below.

Orange and Fennel Salad
Total Time: 10 min
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 medium oranges, peeled (or peaches)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons sweetened dried cranberries (or raisins)
(optional) Feta Cheese for topping

Directions
Place the sliced fennel in a salad bowl. Slice oranges to divide flesh sections and add to bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper. Toss, top with sweetened cranberries and serve.

Our Finished Products

Our Table Display

Fennel Salad with Oranges

Fennel Salad with Peaches

Fennel

Serving Samples

Showing what ingredients we used in our dish.

Customers at the Market

Happy Customers :)

We had a good turnout!

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

STEAM Workshop at the Boys and Girls Club

We had the opportunity to go to the Boys and Girls Club and introduce the children to some new science concepts! We discussed physical changes and chemical changes as we turned our liquid mixture into a gooey slimy blob, we watched as Mentos were dropped into Diet Coke bottles and we saw the reaction to the Mentos hitting the Coke caused a fountain of soda to go straight up in the air over 10 feet, and we did Bubbleology! With Bubbleology, we made mixtures of dish soaps and water and then put a little of our solution down on the table before putting a straw on the table with the mixture and blowing through the straw to create a bubble. We used three different dish soaps: Palmolive, Dawn, and Gain to see which made the biggest bubbles. Each child did five trials in each solution and documented the diameter of each bubble they blew. Then we averaged the diameters to decide which soap brand makes the largest bubbles. We used the Scientific Method during this experiment. Each child had a hypothesis of which soap brand would make the largest bubbles, and then we did multiple trials using different variables, and then documented our results to prove whether our hypothesis was correct or incorrect.
The kids loved the experiments and had a great time learning all about STEAM!

Bubbles are fun!

Diet Coke and Mentos!

Using Palmolive dish soap to make bubbles!

GAP Preparation

Yesterday, I spent all morning with Ian putting together and organizing a binder with all of the necessary GAP information in it for produce growers. He had a meeting in the afternoon, and I helped him get everything ready for his meeting. He printed off all of the documents and I tried my best to organize them and put them in the correct places in the binder. The table of contents was helpful, but it was numbered incorrectly in one place which made it confusing for me. Luckily Ian helped me figure out how it was supposed to go for the most part, but there are A LOT of rules and regulations for produce production and distribution! I did not know about all that went into growing crops. No wonder it is not done by everyone! It was cool to help with this and learn a little about GAP certification!

Friday, July 22, 2016

Wrapping Up 4-H Summer Camp 2016

We finally finished unpacking and repacking all of our camp materials and bins, which means 4-H Summer Camp 2016 has officially come to a close. We had a great time and the campers this year were awesome! We look forward to next year with another awesome group of campers!
We were able to offer new classes, make new friends, and even join camp with another county, Cumberland, this year which was a good experience! If you are interested in reading a little about our adventures, feel free to check out this newspaper article that was written about our camp week!
We hope to see you at Albemarle/Charlottesville/Nelson/Cumberland 4-H Summer Camp at Holiday Lake next summer!

http://www.newsadvance.com/nelson_county_times/news/positive-peer-pressure--h-camp-offers-new-experiences-for/article_81010323-9fab-580a-b2eb-9fd03db4aa9b.html

Monday, July 18, 2016

4-H Summer Camp 2016!

Hello!
We're back!
Last week was wild! Everyone was so busy running around and having fun at camp! The wifi was super spotty down at Holiday Lake so I didn't have a chance to do any blog posts during the week. Each morning the campers went to four different classes. A few options: canoeing, fishing, cooking over the campfire, leathercrafts, high ropes, and super sports. There were many more too! The campers loved their classes! We also had recreation time where the campers could hang out with friends, play volleyball, play four square, go swimming, or get covered in sand in the GauGau pit.
We saw some cool animals and bugs (including a Hercules beetle), only got rained on a little bit, and everyone stayed hydrated during the 95+ degree weather! It was a good week! I walked over 33 miles in four and a half days, and when I got home Friday afternoon, I slept for 15 hours straight!
Thanks to everyone who had a part in the planning, preparation, scholarships, and attendance at 4-H summer camp! :) Another successful year in the books!

Enjoy the pictures below!