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Polk County 4-Hers hunting for agriculture

 

Although this Summer was more than a little unusual for Polk County 4-H, some things stayed the same. The focus was still on hands-on learning, and youth still had the opportunity to discover how important agriculture is to their daily lives.

The challenge for 4-H director Helen Blackwell this year was coming up with creative ways to teach important life skills to youth ages 5-18 while remaining socially distant. Two different month-long programs were offered via Zoom: a babysitting class and a kid-friendly health and nutrition course.

But another exciting option that 4-Hers had this summer was to take part in a county-wide Agriculture Scavenger Hunt. All participants were given a checklist of agriculture-related items to find, along with important facts about the ways those animals, plants, buildings, and equipment contribute to the agricultural economy of North Carolina.

To document their findings, each 4-H member taking part in the hunt brought along a 4-leaf clover they designed and took a picture of their clover with each of the items from the checklist. Families uploaded the pictures to a shared online bulletin board so that students could view not only their own pictures, but those of their 4-H peers.

Eight Polk County 4-H members completed the entire challenge and located every agricultural item on the checklist : Katelyn Ruff, Taylor Deel, Connor Carnahan, Rebecca Cannon, Joshua Cannon, Jacob Cannon, Kendall Taylor and Evan Taylor. These students will each receive a prize for their efforts, but the biggest reward is that of recognizing how agriculture affects their everyday lives in ways they may not have even realized.

For more information on the 4-H youth program in Polk County, visit polk.ces.ncsu.edu or call Helen Blackwell at 828-894-8218.

 

Submitted by Kerry Jones