4-H School Enrichment materials create an environment for hands-on discovery.  The curriculums target specific Performance and Instructional Objectives identified from Ohio's Model Competency-Based Programs, Ohio Department of Education.  Curriculum & kits can easily be adapted for Grades K-6.  Due to budget constraints, a OSU Extension Belmont County staff member, may not be available to assist teachers in implementing the curriculum through individualized training and through classroom presentations.

How to Participate:

Schedule Programs by contacting Tracey Dickerson at (740) 695-1455.  Program reservations are accepted on a first-received, first-served basis.

Materials may be picked by a school representative.

One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 will be charged to participate in 4-H in the Classroom Program each academic year.  There is no limit to the number of programs you can sign up for after you pay your yearly fee.

Have FUN intergrading hands-on, experimental learning activities into your regular classroom curriculum.

All Materials should be returned upon completion of the program.

Kits & Curriculum:

Below you will find a short description of each program and the suggested grade levels.  Contact Tracey Dickerson at (740)695-1455 if you have questions, would like additional information or would like to schedule a program.

BREADS OF THE HARVEST

  • Suggested for Grades: 3-5
  • Fee: One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description: Bread and butter. Bread and jelly. Bread and history?? Yes, bread and history have a long history together.  Using the Breads of the Harvest curriculum, students explore the science, nutrition, and history of bread-making since the Pilgrims voyage to the New World.

         Students "rise" to new heights":

  • Analyzing dietary needs
  • Comparing the properties of different leavening agents
  • Demonstrate grinding various grains into flour
  • Testing and tasting various bread recipes
  • For a fun finale, each student makes and takes home his/her own loaf of bread!
  • Volunteer help recommended for bread-making activity.

The Breads of the Harvest education kit includes 8 Food Pyramid activities.

ChickQuest

  • Suggested for Grades: 3-5
  • Fee: One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description: A classroom journey through the life cycle of chickens, is a 4-H SET School Enrichment Program that challenges 3rd grade students to use Science, Engineering and Technology to investigate the life cycle of an embryonic chicken egg.  From monitoring living eggs to observing fluffy chicks, these lively activities pique curiosity, encourage collaboration and communication and provide young scientists with unforgettable experiences.

          Hatch inquiring minds with these activities:

  • Locating the parts of the raw egg
  • Testing the strength of an egg shell
  • Observing stages of a developing embryo
  • Watching a fertilized egg hatch

Get students eggcited!  The Incredible Egg kit includes a teacher's manual, resource materials, an incubator, fertile eggs, and a chick brooder.  The four lessons in this curriculum were developed with assistance from the American Egg Board.

FISHY SCIENCE

  • Suggested for Grades: 3-5
  • Fee: One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description: Explore the world of fish and water...Dive into these activities:
  • Identifying body parts of fish
  • Figuring out how to make a quarter float
  • Detecting carbon dioxide in exhaled air
  • Exploring the breathing mechanism of fish
  • Observing fish for color vision

 A 10-gallon aquarium and a Fishy Science kit will soon have your students schooled in the ways of fish.


GO PLANTS!

  • Suggested for Grades: 3-4
  • Fee: One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description: Searching for a way to get to the root of plant science?  Dig into the GO PLANTS! curriculum.  Students explore plant-science through a variety of skill-building activities.

          Each lesson focuses on a specific plant part:

  • Seeds
  • Roots
  • Stems
  • Leaves
  • Flowers

 The all-inclusive GO PLANTS! kit has the equipment and consumable supplies necessary to complete activities in the teacher's manual.  Also provided...everything needed to grow Wisconsin Fast Plants, from seed to plant in 4 to 5 weeks, including seeds, grow light set-up, soil, and more.  Contact us about this growing opportunity.

ROCKETS AWAY

  • Suggested for Grades: 4-6
  • Fee: One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description: Blast off for an action packed adventure in math, engineering, aerospace, and physics with the 3-unit study of rocketry science.

          Soar to new heights with these activities:

  • Testing turbulence
  • Exploring stability and motion
  • Understanding and applying Newton's Laws of Motion
  • Observing the relationship between force and mass
  • Constructing and launching a 2-liter bottle rocket

 The Rockets Away kit contains the supplies to ignite student's imaginations on motion, gravity, and aerodynamics.  A rocket launcher is also readily available.

 THE EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD

  • Suggested for Grades: K - 12
  • Fee:  One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description:  Edible Schoolyards are springing up throughout the United States.  School gardens are limited only by one's creativity.  The garden environment can be used to teach across the academic spectrum: science, art, math, reading, spelling, nutrition and languages can find a place to flourish in the school garden.

         Encourage growth with these activities:

  • Build raised beds and grow vegetables to harvest.
  • Plant flower gardens using the flowers and seeds for art projects.
  • Establish a butterfly garden.
  • Start a vermiculture program.  Use the cafeteria waste to raise worms.
  • Plant sweet potatoes.  Have the students start their own "slips."

These are just a few of the potential projects an Edible Schoolyard offers.  Our pilot project at Bellaire Elementary School began in the spring of 2006 when we built two raised beds.  Third grade students planted lettuce, spinach, onions, and radishes in April and harvested and prepared salads in May.  They also started sweet potato slips which were planted in the beds after the salad harvest.  They were dug in the fall when the students returned to school.  Two additional beds were built in 2007.  That year the students harvested 70 pounds of white potatoes that were sold at the local farmers' market, which provided some operating funds for the next season.


WEATHER TOGETHER

  • Suggested for Grades: 3-5
  • Fee: One-time Yearly Classroom Fee of $10.00 to participate in all 4-H in the Classroom Programs.
  • Description: Glaring sunshine, gloomy clouds, slushy snow, soaking rains.  Whether one follows old wives' tales or a trained meteorologist, we cannot influence the weather.  With the Weather Together curriculum, however, students will develop an air of authority about our atmosphere.

           Flood students' knowledge by:

  • Building a weather vane from a straw
  • Discovering the nature of wind with a sheet
  • Blowing bubbles to demonstrate buoyant air forces
  • Showing the Coriolis Effect with an empty soft drink can

Weather Together curriculum is a 5-week, 5-lesson unit.  The kit contains basic supplies necessary to conduct the experiments