Description: An Action Demonstration is a fun way to share what you know about a topic with others. “Action” means you need to get the audience involved in doing what you are doing, not just showing them. Use this video program to introduce the Action Demo idea. Its fast paced entertaining format is designed to get youth excited about doing an action demo.

Objectives: An action demo is an excellent way to help youth develop communication and life skills.

Target Audience: Grades 4 and up

Resources: Lesson plans and video tape

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the program.

Contact Person: Randy Brown - 4-H/Youth Development Extension Educator

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Adventures with Mighty Egg

Description: Welcome to Adventures with Mighty Egg, an integrated curriculum unit for grades K through 3. With its whole-language, hands-on approach, this unit was designed to encourage students to want to know more about eggs and other subjects as they develop math, science, language arts, creativity and other skills. Lesson by lesson, as students come to understand the link between experiences and ideas, we hope they’ll enjoy learning how to learn.

Objectives: Students will discover that eggs come from different animals and in different sizes and colors. Students will explore how eggs come from farm to table, the cooperation required to successfully bring a high-quality food to market and egg-preparation preferences. Students will identify the unique properties of eggs. Students will explore food safety measures and recipe variables and apply math to eggs. Students will discover the Food Guide Pyramid and the importance of the five major food groups in planning healthful daily meals. Students will discover international egg customs and express themselves through egg art. Students will apply the five-step writing process to creative writing about eggs. Students will review and evaluate their knowledge of eggs.

Target Audience: Grades K - 3

Resources: Integrated curriculum with 8 lessons

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the program.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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Ag Days

Across the United States, serious efforts are underway by educators and professionals to raise public awareness about agriculture and the many difficult challenges facing our nation's most vital and vulnerable industry. Research has shown that most Americans know very little about agriculture, its social and economic significance in the United States, and particularly, its links to human health and environmental quality. Likewise, most students have very little knowledge of the growing number of exciting career opportunities available within the agricultural industry.

Vanderburgh County Ag Days is an opportunity to raise 4th grade students' awareness and education about agriculture in America and most importantly in Indiana. We get rave reviews from teachers stating that this is the best field trip they take! It's well organized, and one of the most hands-on, educational experiences the students enjoy.

All fourth graders in Vanderburgh County are invited. Each teacher and principal will receive information in December. Reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis.

We have enrichment programs that will greatly enhance your Ag Days field trip. It's a PUZZLEment!; FACES of Agriculture; Farm Facts; SLICE; and Gee Whiz in Agriculture.

When and Where: Annually held in April at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Center. Invitations are

sent to all elementary principals and 4^th grade teachers in early winter.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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Amazing Space:

Education On-Line from the Hubble Space Telescope

Description: Do you want to take your class on a field trip to the edge of the observable universe? If so, join Professor Wifpic and the cadets of the Hubble Academy as they count, classify and analyze objects from the Hubble Deep Field, almost 12 billion light-years away. In this lesson, students will examine the Hubble Deep Field image and simulate the process astronomers use to count, classify and identify the objects in their image. These objects include spiral, elliptical and irregular galaxies, as well as a few individual stars.

Objectives: After completing this lesson, the student will be able to: generate questions that can be answered using scientific inquiry; collect and interpret scientific data; describe the characteristics used to classify galaxies and explain the relationships between those characteristics; apply estimation skills to scientific data; begin to conceptualize the vastness of the universe.

Target Audience: Grades 6-8

Resources: Teacher’s Guide, four classroom activities, lithographs, and posters. Free loan is available.

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the program.

Contact Person: Randy Brown - 4-H/Youth Development Extension Educator

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The American Promise

Description: This teaching guide is consistent with the NCSS, civics, and U.S. history standards. It provides teaching materials and resources for the nine Acts of The American Promise series. It is an exciting resource guide, a toolbox of ideas, teaching activities, strategies, and resource from which teachers can pick and choose.

Objectives: This program suggests ways to use the video series in social studies, U.S. history, and government courses. Like the series, it also covers topics and exercises related to work history, geography, law, and economics. The program provides discussion-starters, exercises, cases, assignments, class projects, and service learning projects. This program is also cross-referenced to the major textbooks in these areas.

Target Audience: Middle and High School

Resources: Each video Act, which runs 20 minutes or less, tracks a challenge, faced by our democracy. The series uses more than 40 documentary stories to communicate to students how everyday people can make democracy work for them and their communities.

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the program.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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Arbor Day/Tree Care

Description: A program designed to educate either small groups or large assemblies.

Objectives: Students will learn the importance of trees, what trees need to survive, how to plant trees, how to care for trees, and how to protect trees.

Target Audience: Grades 2-6

Resources: Slide set, construction paper and classroom activity

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the program kit.

Contact Person: Larry Caplan - Horticulture & Agriculture Extension Educator

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Chef Combo’s Fantastic Adventures

Description: This program is packed with hands-on tasting and nutrition activities including many simple recipes. Chef Combo helps children learn basic nutrition concepts and encourages them to be “food tasters”. Chef Combo’s Fantastic Adventures is organized around seven themes: shapes, farms, transportation, rainbow/colors, seasons, dinosaurs, and ABC’s.

Objectives: To learn new foods in a fun way.

Target Audience: Pre-school and Kindergarten

Resources: Several theme units with 3 to 7 activities per theme; Chef Combo Puppet and rubber stamp; teacher’s guide.

Materials/Cost: FREE loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the program.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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Chickens and Piglets and Lambs, Oh My!

Gee Whiz in Agriculture

Description: This program introduces students to the science of embryology, pre- and post-natal growth and development. The births of several species are shown along with the hatching of eggs. Chickens and Piglets and Lambs, Oh My! is one of nine programs available with the Gee Whiz in Agriculture series.

Objectives: This program is designed to provide students with some practical applications in basic math, the metric system, nutrition, and scientific method. Introduces students to agronomy, anatomy, animal science, aquaculture, chemistry, ecology, engineering, entomology, food processing, forestry, horticulture, hydroponics, microbiology, physics, and physiology.

Target Audience: Grades 4 and 5

Resources: A thirty-minute tape, teacher’s guides and student activity sheets.

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of the videotapes.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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4-H Composting

Description: The United States is often called the throwaway society. Why? Some people cite the figure of 2.6 pounds of solid waster per person per day in rural areas; others that of 4.6 pounds per person per day used by the Untied States Environmental Protection Agency or that of 7.1 pounds per person per day in industrial areas. Whatever figure is quoted, it is certain that a lot of materials are discarded every day. The enormous volume of waste thrown out is causing serious problems.

Objectives: Students will be focusing on the following: Reduction, which is using fewer disposable materials; Reuse, which is using items in their same form after they are used for their original purpose; Recovery, which is recapturing the material or resource value of the item at its highest point. Well-planned and organized composting programs benefit the environment, the community and individuals.

Target Audience: 3^rd grade – High School

Resources: Video – on yard waste recycling, teacher’s guides and student activity sheets.

Three main manuals: 4-H Demonstration Project: Backyard Composting; Teaching Your Community About Composting; and Teaching Family and Friends about Backyard Composting.

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office.

Contact Person: Larry Caplan - Horticulture & Agriculture Extension Educator

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Crazy About Corn

Description: Crazy About Corn is intended to teach students about the role of corn in the early history of our country, the impact it has had on our culture, and the nutritional and economic value of corn in our modern society.

The video can be used in conjunction with the Teacher's Resource Book by providing background information for the lessons and activities. The video segments can also stand alone with discussions and activities built around them. The songs can be enjoyed during activities or break periods.

Objectives: This package playfully teaches children about corn in early American history, the impact it has had on our culture, and the nutritional economic value of corn in our modern society.

Target Audience: Kindergarten – 3^rd grades

Resources: CD-ROM (songs and computer activities for students) and Kid’s Activity Book

Materials/Cost: Free loan is available

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office based on availability of program.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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Cross-Cultural Awareness

Description: One of the problems with cross-cultural education in the past is that is has been viewed as only for people of color – which tends to isolate multicultural programs as a “special” part of the school curriculum and not integral to basic education. It is important to teach all youth and adults that they have culture – to understand culture as it relates to self – then they can accept others as having a culture different from their own. This is the beginning of self-respect and the acceptance of cultural diversity.

Objectives: To increase awareness of our own cultural identity; To increase understanding of “culture” and its function in interpersonal relations; To understand the problems of adapting to a new environment; To stimulate thoughtful discussion about differences in values, attitudes, and communication styles across cultures.

Target Audience: 7^th grade – High School

Availability: Program not for loan. As scheduled through the Extension Office. No cost.

Contact Person: Randy Brown - 4-H/Youth Development Extension Educator

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Cycling Back to Nature

Soils Alive! From Tiny Rocks to Compost

Environmental Stewardship

Description: In Soils Alive! we provide an opportunity for you and your students to examine the concepts and issues related to soils and soil organics. We create a learning environment that blends critical thinking with exploration of the environment. The activities in Soils Alive! are experience-based. This encourages participants to explore, reflect, and apply the knowledge and skills acquired. Our goal is to produce better informed and responsive decision makers for the future!

Objectives: The 4-H Environmental Stewardship program is designed to foster responsibility for the future among youth. The program encourages young people to recognize and appreciate the earth’s limited resources, from wetlands to forests to prairies. The earth’s finite riches include the fragile layer of topsoil covering the earth’s surface. This topsoil contains living organisms, dead plant and animal material, and nutrients that are essential to life as we know it on the planet.

Target Audience: 4^th – 8^th grade

Materials/Cost: No Cost

Availability: As scheduled through the Extension Office.

Contact Person: Rochelle A. Belt - 4-H Program Assistant

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Cycling Back to Nature - Food Production and Pesticides

Environmental Stewardship