Green STEM Learning: September 2013

Friday, September 27, 2013

Garden Adventures - Grow Eat and Learn in your Schoolyard - presentations at two upcoming conferences

Here is Garden Adventures, a ten-week after-school schoolyard gardening program focused on growing food and healthy eating that I co-facilitated at Arlington Traditional School Garden in 2011.

Here below is the powerpoint on Garden Adventures I am presenting at two upcoming conferences:
Virginia Association of Environmental Educators (October 16-18)
and Virginia Association of Science Teachers (November 14-16).

Garden Adventures Grow Eat and Learn in your Schoolyard VAEE VAST 2013 reduced file size from MaryVanDyke

Click here for registration and details for VA Environmental Education Conference - October 16-18 at Shrine Mont, VA.

Click here for registration and details for VA Association of Science Teachers Annual PDI Conference - November 14-16, Norfolk VA.

I based the Garden Adventures program on the session framework from Project PLANTS (from University of Kansas, fall and spring after-school food and nutrition programs) and activities from the Junior Master Gardeners curriculum.

See details on the Garden Adventures spring program at my archive blog: ATS Gardening, March - May 2011.

Project PLANTS will soon be online!

Cool Tools: Leaf Scoops...The Scoop on How to Pick Up Leaves

Here's the deal.
It's fall, you have a pile of leaves to shift from A to B.
What can you do?

Rake or leaf blower?
Or let the wind take care of them?
Use your hands?
Or you can make your own scoops with two flat boards of 1/4 inch x 12 x 18 inch plywood.
It's your choice....

Here's another option - a great off-the-shelf tool to help you pick up your leaf pile:
Leaf Scoops by Gardex

The Leaf Scoops are fun-to-use "hand extenders".

Why do you think the scoops are bright yellow? And plastic?
Do they remind you of paws, claws and jaws?
The scoops retail at under $6 a pair online at Walmart or slightly more at a local hardware store

Bottom Line: These Leaf Scoops are cheap, cheerful, colorful - and work well.

Thanks to the product designer, manufacturer and marketers who helped bring these scoops to you!

Go out and have fun picking up a leaf pile this fall!

Mt. Vernon Power On Tackles 4-H NYSD Experiment Maps & Apps!

2013 4-H National Youth Science Day is right around the corner! This year Alexandria 4-H and the National 4-H Council partnered to kick things off with a bang. 4th and 5th graders from Mt. Vernon Recreation Center Power On! program were among the first in the country to try out the new experiment, Maps & Apps!

Mt. Vernon Power On Tackles 4-H NYSD Experiment Maps & Apps!

If you’re interested in learning more about this year’s experiment or would like to take a crack at it yourself, join Alexandria & Arlington 4-H on Monday October 14, from 10:00 am – Noon at Four Mile Run Park in Alexandria VA.

For event information click here —–>https://www.facebook.com/events/662152483809828/

For more information on National Youth Science Day
click here ——> http://www.4-h.org/4-h-national-youth-science-day/

Hope to see you on October 14

Reggie Morris, 4-H Youth Development – City of Alexandria

Reposted from the Arlington & Alexandria Virginia Cooperative Extension Blog
http://blogs.ext.vt.edu/arl-alexvce