Today's camp theme tackles Energy. Campers explore renewable and non-renewable energy sources and have fun with solar power.

Day 3: Energy

What does it mean to live sustainably? How do we protect our natural resources? Oxnard educators will help youth understand sustainability concepts this summer.

Rio School District in Oxnard conducts a district-wide summer camp for their K-6^th grade students. This year, the district is partnering with the Hansen REC education team and will deliver the 4-H Sustainable You! Summer Camp curriculum to sixth grade campers. The goals of the camp are to help youth develop respect for their natural environment and learn what they can do each and every day to lessen their impact on the environment and conserve resources. To help enthusiastic teachers prepare, the HAREC team held a Sustainable You! Train-the-Trainer last week. The hands-on training covered the concepts and fun activities for the five sustainability themes: land, air, food, energy, and water.

HAREC educators created activity kits for each sustainability theme. These kits will be on loan to teachers to support implementation of the program at a Rio school site. As an added bonus, over sixty campers will experience “food day” at the Center. Students will explore Ventura County agriculture and as well as harvest, prepare, and sample farm fresh fruits and vegetables.

 

Summer is here! School is out and HAREC summer camps are in full swing. This year 4-H Sustainable You! Summer Camp has expanded to two weeks. Campers arrived ready to learn why it is important to conserve resources, what actions to take and choices to make to ensure resource conservation. This camp teaches youth what it means to be sustainable through fun, interactive activities based around the five major areas: land, food, energy, air, and water.

4-H All Stars, Hannah Hassien, Frankie Cherry, and Harrison Haregleroad kicked off summer programming last week.They did an amazing job of mixing facts and fun as well as including a service learning project for 4-H community club youth. With help of adult leaders, the busy All Stars planned, organized and delivered the Sustainable You! Summer Camp program to 17 campers ages 9-12.

A new group of campers arrived today. This week, we have the pleasure of partnering with the City of Ventura environmental educators. Jill Santos and Lorri Peterson, a dynamic team, will deliver the program open to the community.

Day 1: Land--Campers learn the value of preserved open space, differentiate between trash, recycling, and composting, and create a vermicompost bin to take home.

4-H Youth Development Program staff at HAREC will collaborate with the City of Ventura Environmental Sustainability Division and the Ventura Water Department to conduct a week-long 4-H Sustainable You! Summer Camp at the Center. Trained environmental educators from the City of Ventura will deliver the program June 22-26. Youth will explore what it means to be sustainable through fun activities based around five major themes: land, water, food, air, and energy. Combining educational resources with the city will enhance the camp, ensure success and most of all bump up the fun factor for youth participants ages 9-12. Registration is now open.

John Fischer, Life Lab Director of Programs, UC Santa Cruz will be the featured trainer on July 17 for a Next Generation Science in the Garden Educator Workshop at HAREC. Using activities from the award-winning Life Lab Science curriculum, participants will learn how to lead engaging, hands-on science lessons outdoors, link garden activities to Next Generation Science Standards, use garden-based science lessons to reinforce Common Core Math and English Language Arts, and much more. Teachers, administrators and garden educators are encouraged to attend. Optional education credit from the University of the Pacific will be available. Registration is now open.