Eau Claire County members of 4-H will join in the celebration of National 4-H Week during the first week of October.
More than 425 youth members and 100 volunteers are involved in 4-H activities in Eau Claire County. They will take part in the national celebration with a variety of events, starting on Monday (Oct. 2) when 4-H members across the county will wear their 4-H apparel to school.
On Wednesday (Oct. 4), which is 4-H National Youth Science Day, afterschool projects are scheduled at Flynn, Lakeshore, Manz, Northwoods, Putnam Heights, Roosevelt, Sam Davey and Sherman Elementary Schools. Local participants will join hundreds of thousands of youth across the nation taking part in the world’s largest youth-led science challenge.
The theme for this year’s challenge is Incredible Wearables. On Wednesday, youth will use the engineering design process to build a prototype wearable technology that will gather data to help solve a real-world problem. Wearable technologies, which can range from wrist watches to virtual reality headsets, are now used in industries around the globe, from education and sport to health, fashion, entertainment, transportation and communication.
Eau Claire County 4-H will partner with UW-Eau Claire Blugold Beginnings to bring the National Youth Science Day project to the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire in addition to the eight elementary schools. On Saturday (Oct. 7), from 10 a.m. to noon. Blugold Beginnings mentors and 4-H older youth will facilitate projects at the museum with over 250 students from the partner elementary schools.
On Sunday (Oct. 8) – Discovery Day – there will be an opportunity to learn about 4-H programming through project based learning stations, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Eau Claire Sport Warehouse, 2983 11th St. The cost to attend this program is $2. Preregistration is not required.
4-H is the nation’s largest youth development and empowerment organization. Its goal is to cultivate confident kids who tackle issues that matter most in their communities, according to a press release from the Eau Claire County office of the University of Wisconsin-Extension. In the United States, 4-H programs empower six million young people, working with 110 land-grant universities and more than 3,000 Cooperative Extension offices throughout the country.
Research has shown that young people in 4-H are almost four times as likely as the general population to contribute to their communities, and are twice as likely to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs in their free time.
Note: More information about National Youth Science Day is available at http://www.4-h.org/nysd/. To learn more about 4-H, click here.