(Spirit Lake)– This week is National 4-H Week. Noel Petersen is the County Coordinator for ISU Extension and Outreach Dickinson County. She tells KUOO news there are five “traditional” 4-H clubs in the county…
“They meet once a month. They work on 4-H exhibits for fair, they do community service projects, they have speakers come in and talk about specific agricultural things. So those would be our traditional clubs for members that are signed up, wanting to do their county fair and state fair.”
Petersen says they also offer two non-traditional 4-H clubs centered on STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, as well as cooking…
“Our cooking club, currently we are learning the history of foods. So the kids come in and we learn a little history and then they get to make the foods that we talk about. With our STEM club, our STEM club this year we’re doing a whole bunch of STEM challenges. So they’re going to learn about wind energy. They’re going to learn about aerospace when it comes to understanding how gliders work. They’ll also create some catapults, rollercoaster concepts, and then our first one that we’re getting ready to have here, we’re going to do a little goal setting and team building and meet each other and then move on next week to marshmallow shooters.”
All total, Petersen says more than 300 kids in Dickinson county are involved in 4-H in one way or another.
She adds they will be having special events to commemorate the week, including an ice cream social today (Mon.) from 4:00 until 5:00 pm; a coloring contest; a 4-H Day of Giving and “wear green on Wednesday”.
More information is available by contact the ISU Extension & Outreach Office in Dickinson County at 336-3488 or by visiting the Dickinson County ISU Extension website or their Facebook page.
