Editor's note: Today is "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" and we'd like to highlight a 4-H'er who is already an engineer!

On February 7, Amanda Cantwell participated in the 2017 Imperial County Science Fair.  Her project, Piano Stairs, won first place in the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Division.  After all the division winners were announced, the Best Overall winner was announced and to her surprise, she won!  Next, her project will compete in the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering fair on March 15^th. 

A piano staircase

Amanda got the idea for her project from her science club advisor.  Her high school is going to build a new science building to get more students interested in the STEM initiative and her teacher asked her if I wanted to build a prototype of a piano staircase. She said that if it was well made and doable that it may be used in the future building.  She instantly became drawn to the idea of designing the staircase for her school's building and became excited to start the project.

Her ultimate goal was to build a musical staircase to play piano musical notes as people walk up and down the stairs. This is a two-year project, and this year she built a prototype and tested several sensors and possible solutions to use in the piano stairs.  Her mini piano stairs can play different musical tones as the different sensors are triggered or steps are pressed. Next year, she will build a life size staircase and play real piano sounds.  “It was fun and I learned a lot form it,” she said.  “In the future, I hope to become a mechanical or bio-medical engineer.”

 

About Amanda

Amanda is a sophomore at Central Union High School and she has been a 4-H member for 7 years. She is the President of the McCabe 4-H club and one of her favorite projects is the Robotics project. Her 4-H Robotics group just got done designing mini battery powered electrical cars with an on/off switch that will be submitted to the fair in a few days! They will also submit a Lego Mindstorms “Humanoid” robot that moves its arms, legs and hands. 

Watch Amanda's project in action!

Over the past few years Color Runs have gained popularity with young people. The original five kilometer run was designed to encourage novice runners to improve their physical activity while also having fun.

Colors Runs are inspired by India's Holi Festival, which creates a celebratory environment during the run. Participants are showered with colored dye as they pass through each marker. The race is all in the spirit of fun and the dye stations serve to celebrate each success in completing the run. The intention is to build excitement and enjoyment around being physically active. The theme, "Color Me Green" refers to the green powder used to splash runners who complete the run, in the spirit of "color runs." For areas that do not allow the powder, "Color Me Green" can still be used as a theme for showing support and pride in 4-H in the community.

Combining Service Learning and Healthy Living

The Color Me Green 5K Runs provide youth with a statewide service learning opportunity specific to the improvement of health. With the support of adult leaders, youth organize and execute 5K runs in their communities. Youth are trained in nutrition and physical activity best practices and also develop partnerships where they aspire to increase the health habits of their community through participation in the Color Me Green 5K Run. 4-H Clubs may choose to host a Color Me Green 5K Run as a county fundraiser. Additional funds from individuals and local businesses can be raised to underwrite costs related to the event. These funds can also be leveraged to aid clubs in securing additional funds at the local level for future runs and health promotion efforts.

Healthy Living Officers

Currently, 4-H has nearly 100 youth serving as Healthy Living Officers in local clubs, serving as the club's ambassador for health. Healthy Living officers are the leaders for all health activities including: providing ideas on how to incorporate physical activities and healthy eating into each club meeting, writing Healthy Living articles for the club newsletter, and adopting and promoting a club Wellness Plan. In this role, teens act as role models while also growing into confident leaders and educators themselves. This process supports teens with opportunities to practice leadership in the arena of health. These officers will be beneficial in the promotion and planning of the Color Me Green 5K Runs. These Officers will also support the continuation of these runs in future years.

Engaging youth, adults and the community at large

The Color Me Green 5K Runs provide California 4-H with a multigenerational, statewide health advocacy project that will engage youth, adults, and the community at large.

County sites receive promotional materials (posters and flyer templates); a Host Guide; and health education materials. These materials will include basic information about injury prevention when running, hydration, the MyPlate dietary guidelines, and tips for staying motivated.

Color Me Green 5K Run planning resources

It is our hope that through participation in the Color Me Green 5K Runs both individuals and communities will aspire to increase their health habits.

Be a health advocate for your community and host a Color Me Green 5K Run!

This year, Color Me Green Runs will take place in the following counties:

El Dorado	April 1, 2017	Shingle Springs Wellness Center
Fresno	March 18, 2017	California State University, Fresno5241 N. Maple Avenue Fresno, Ca 93740 http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=19853
Imperial County	February 12, 2017	Imperial High School
Santa Clara	March 19, 2017	Martial Cottle Park 5285 Snell Ave, San Jose, California 95136
Sutter-Yuba	March 11, 2017	Sierra Foothills Research Extension Center (REC), 8279 Scott Forbes Road | Browns Valley
Kings	April 23, 2017	TBA
Monterey	March 25, 2017	2004 Fairgrounds Rd, Monterey, CA Monterey County Fairgrounds and event center
Sonoma	May 7, 2017	Sonoma County Fairgrounds
Mendocino	May 13, 2017	Nelson Vineyards 550 Nelson Ranch Rd Ukiah, CA 95482
Humboldt	TBA	TBA

When you hear the term “Avian Bowl,” it may conjure up images of rolling a frozen chicken or turkey down a lane to knock down pins. If you are a 4-H member you probably know what Avian Bowl really means, and it is an admirable and challenging event!

The California team was composed of four teens from El Dorado County, members of the Dusty Dividers 4-H club. The four-person team was made up by Zachary and Kyle Schnetz from Georgetown and Hannah and Jesiah Neff of Greenwood. Months of hard practice and study paid off as they competed in the national event at University of Kentucky on November 17^th. What is significant is that the California team came in second in the nationals. In the final championship round, California lost to Wisconsin. 

What is Avian Bowl?

Avian Bowl is a 4-H quiz game to encourage youth to expand their knowledge of avian facts. The competitors study from a large manual, often creating sample questions and conducting practice rounds. They learn about ratites, embryology, poultry and egg markets, the commercial poultry industry, breeds, and more. Competitors buzz in and answer questions, thus they either receive or lose points depending on their answers. The team with the highest points is the winner. The teams can range from 2-4 members. The current team members have been competing in Avian Bowl for around three years, with their older siblings previously attending the national competition.

Getting to the National Competition

The process of getting to the nationals is quite daunting as well. After winning the State title in the qualifying competition in Fresno, they advanced to the national competition held at the National Poultry and Egg Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  California seeded second in the written test. In the first round where they participated, California played New York with a win of 35 to 5. They moved on to play Kentucky winning 10 to 0. In the third round they played Wisconsin, the team that had seeded first. They lost 10 to 45. They tied (making everyone nervous) but Wisconsin broke ahead and won the tiebreaker round and championship. This put the California team in second to the very competitive and deserving champions.

Congratulations Avian Bowl Team!

 

Note: The State 4-H office was able to help with funding the team to attend the national competition because of the generosity of donors to the California 4-H Foundation. Thank you for your support! 

Welcome to our new blog! We want to share the stories of our 4-H'ers in California. Hear first-hand from teams that attend national competitions. Find out what different counties are doing. Best of all, get to know the volunteers, staff, alumni and especially youth involved with 4-H in California!

For our first story, we wanted to share what's been happening in Sonoma County with a new club model - Afterschool Clubs. It's being tested as a new delivery model to reach families who have not traditionally been involved in 4-H, such as the Latino families in James Monroe Elementary School.

Introduction to 4-H

In Sonoma County, youth and their families are being introduced to 4-H through afterschool programs at elementary schools. Most of the families at the schools are unfamiliar with 4-H, but when they hear that it helps kids learn new skills, they become very interested.

"Our afterschool clubs meet one to two times a week during the on-site afterschool program. Anywhere from 20-40 kids are signed up to participate in each club,” says UCCE Sonoma 4-H Program Assistant Diego Mariscal.

In this club model, all youth are enrolled in 4-H and follow 4-H program and curriculum guidelines, with hands-on learning and youth-adult partnerships to advance youth in their projects.

To get started, Diego surveyed families and youth about what activities and subjects were interested in. Many families and youth were interested in sports activities - things that would get kids outside and moving around. From there, Diego started introducing them to different projects. 

4-H youth running to start their game of Capture the Flag.

This past summer, afterschool club members could participate in week-long, 1/2 day camps to stay in contact with the 4-H club. At the day camp at James Monroe Elementary School, after their outdoor game time, the 4-H'ers went inside to finish their projects learning about community, part of a civic engagement lesson. They mapped out their world from the largest to smallest on the board - the world, continents, country, state, city, town, neighborhood and home.

Volunteers from the Community

Diego actively recruits volunteers from the local community college as well as current families. "I ask the families and kids if they have other relatives who might be able to volunteer," says Diego, "I let them know that the only way we can grow the program and include more kids is to have more volunteers."

Jason, a 4-H volunteer leader for the afterschool clubs since January, feels that 4-H helps him "feel like I'm making a difference in getting kids to realize that everything they do can make a difference."

Expansion for Afterschool Clubs

Families and youth in the program have had such a positive introduction to 4-H that they are spreading the word. Principals at the current four schools with 4-H Afterschool Clubs are happy to be a reference to other principals who are considering the program. Diego has plans in the works to double the number of schools to eight. Two are launching in early 2017.

For more information about Afterschool Clubs in Sonoma County, contact Steven Worker, 4-H Youth Development Advisor, at smworker@ucanr.edu.