 |
TENNESSEE 4-H IDEAS IN THIS ISSUE 2008 Salute to Excellence Awards for Volunteers UPCOMING EVENTS
September 7-16
September 7-16
September 15
September 18-19
September 22-30
September 22
September 28-29
October 4-7
October 7-13
October 13
October 19-20
October 21-25
October 29
November 23-27
Tennessee 4-H Home Page: 4h.tennessee.edu Online version of Ideas: 4h.tennessee.edu/ideas07 Ideas index: 4h.tennessee.edu/ideas07/07-index.htm 2008 SALUTE TO EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR VOLUNTEERS The Salute to Excellence Award (STE) is a national program that aims to acknowledge those volunteers that are the backbone of 4-H programs. The award is sponsored by Monsanto through National 4-H Council, providing awards for volunteers in each region of the nation. Each state can nominate one volunteer in each of two categories. The Volunteer of the Year Award is for individuals who have served as 4-H volunteers for less than 10 years at the county or state level. The Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer Award is for individuals who have served 10 or more years at the county or state level. The applications are reviewed by an independent review panel. Two winners (one from each category) will be chosen from each of the four regions. Later, those eight winners will be reviewed again to choose the two national winners. The regional winners will all be acknowledged at their regional leader forums. Tennessee has outstanding volunteers. This is a wonderful opportunity to recognize them! The application and guidelines and forms can be downloaded from 4h.tennessee.edu/ideas07/attach/STEapplication08.doc. Please read instructions carefully, especially item number 3 of Selection Criteria. Nominations must be received at the Tennessee state 4-H office via email with applications and letters of recommendation as attachments no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on December 10, 2007. Send your nominations to Carmen Burgos at cburgos@utk.edu. Any questions should be directed to Carmen Burgos at 865-974-2128 or through the email listed previously. Carmen Burgos 2008 STATE RADON POSTER CONTEST Information for the 2008 State Radon Poster Contest was sent to all family and consumer sciences educators in the July county mail packet. If you did not receive a packet and are interested in the contest, please contact your FCS counterpart and ask for the information. County Extension educators are encouraged to promote this contest to different groups such as school art and computer classes, 4-H clubs and home-school programs. If a county participates, the county should coordinate its own contest prior to October 5. Up to three winners should be selected from the county contest and then sent on to the state competition no later than noon, Friday, October 5. They’ll be judged later that day. Youth, ages 9-14, are able to compete. Posters are to be 11" x 17" on white drawing paper. The drawing can be either horizontal or vertical. Posters could be drawn in crayon, colored pencil, paints or markers. Note: the computer-generated category no longer exists. Posters should be the student’s original design from one of the five topic areas: 1) What is radon? 2) Test your home for radon. 3) How does radon get into our homes? 4) Where does radon come from? and 5) Radon can cause lung cancer. State winners will receive a gift card and a plaque for their state winning efforts. All participants in the contest will receive a certificate, radon test kit and some type of radon incentives. The contest is coordinated by Martha Keel, Housing and Environmental Health Specialist, Family and Consumer Sciences, UT Extension. The poster contest is sponsored by the National Safety Council. Other partners of the event are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation-Air Pollution Control: Radon. For more information, contact Dr. Keel (mkeel@tennessee.edu) or Jacki German (jgerman@tennessee.edu) at 865-974-8197. Martha Keel ENTRIES DUE FOR STATE FALL JUDGING EVENTS State Fall Judging Day will be Saturday, October 13 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Registration will be at 1:00 p.m. in the lobby of the Hollingsworth (Plant Science) Auditorium with the competition starting at 2:00 p.m. An awards banquet will be held at 6:00 p.m. Competition will be for senior teams in consumer decision-making, dairy products judging, forestry judging, outdoor meat cookery, plant and seed identification and poultry judging. Junior high competition will not be offered on the state level. The dairy products, plant and seed identification and poultry judging contests are non-qualifying events. Team members should be in the 9th-12th grades on January 1, 2007 in order to be eligible. There is no limit as to the number of teams that may participate from a county. Participants in the consumer decision-making, forestry judging and outdoor meat cookery contests will be determined by regional events. The top four (4) forestry teams per region and the top three (3) outdoor meat cookery teams (plus any of the four specie winners if they were not a member of a regional-qualifying team) will advance to state competition. In order to prepare for the judging day, we need to know how many are coming. There is a preregistration requirement for all teams. We must receive a COMPLETED Entry and Score Form (F615) for each team and/or individual participating. Please send this information to Steve Sutton, State 4-H Office, 2621 Morgan Circle, Room 205, Knoxville, TN 37996-4510 by October 1. Your completed forms will be your reservation for the awards banquet on October 13. Cost for the meal is $8.00 per person. This includes contestants, coaches, parents and other guests. You may pay at the registration table as you arrive. Counties will need to be responsible for any meals not cancelled by October 5. Guest reservations should come in with your team’s entry form. Extension staff meals will be taken care of internally. Steve Sutton FINALISTS NAMED FOR MID-SOUTH FAIR ACTIVITIES Finalists have been named from among the entries submitted for the 4-H Career Pursuit event and Agribusiness/4-H Public Speaking Contest at 4-H Day at the Mid-South Fair. Our number of finalists increased this year since we were allowed to fill positions not used by other states. Tennessee’s finalists include:
Congratulations to 4-H agents who made this opportunity available and encouraged 4-H members to submit tapes and resumes to qualify for the events. The first place winner in each of these events on Saturday, September 22 will receive $300; second place will receive $200; and third place will receive $100. Steve Sutton FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FROM CONNECT FOR KIDS WEEKLY General Mills "My Hometown Helper" Awards Youth Power Grants: Service Learning and Foster Care Denise Brandon LIFE SKILLS AND JUNIOR 4-H CAMP A survey of life skill adoption was conducted during the 2007 summer junior 4-H camp. The selected respondents were campers in the 4th, 5th and 6th grade. They were asked to respond to 16 statements on a five-point Likert-type scale. The possible responses range from "Never" or "Definitely False" (assigned a score of 1) to "Always" or "Definitely True" (assigned a score of 5). Of the 16 statements, 15 have a mean score of 4.00 or higher. The 16 statements are: Because of my 4-H experiences…
In general, statements focusing on "responsible citizenship" scored highest, followed by "communicating" and "teamwork" respectively. All statements have a mean score higher than the midpoint of 3, indicating at least some degree of agreement. Another observation is the consistency regarding camping location. You may see the entire results at 4h.tennessee.edu/ideas07/attach/campeval07.pdf. Daniel Sarver NATIONAL 4-H WEEK KIT ON 4-H BRAND NETWORK Some of you might not be aware that the National 4-H Week Kit is available on the 4-H Brand Network at 4hbrandnetwork.org. The link to the National 4-H Week kit is on the 4-H Brand Network homepage. You can register or log-in to access the downloadable materials, which include a brochure, news release, public service announcements, bookmarks, print ads, posters, certificates, placemats, Web banners and other event materials that showcase the 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology program. You can contact Allyson McMahan at amcmahan@fourhcouncil.edu or 301-961-2915 if you have any questions about the National 4-H Week Kit or 4-H Brand Network. Alice Ann Moore NEW FOOD SCIENCE ACTIVITY PAGES ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON WEB SITE We are pleased to offer the following new 4-H project activity pages. The pages have been posted to the "Project" pages on the Web site. Each activity sheet is available in both color or black and white versions. There is also a leader's page for each activity in both color and black and white. The leader's page provides the answers to the puzzles, games, etc. in each activity page. For a complete listing of all the activity pages, please go to 4h.tennessee.edu/projects/actsheets.htm.
New pages are continuing to be developed. The following projects are coming soon.
If you have any questions, please contact Lori Belew via email at lbelew@utk.edu or by phone at 865-974-7434. Lori Belew PREPARING STAFF TO WORK WITH IMMIGRANT YOUTH According to the last Census, one in five children in this country today is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant, and the number is rising. National Collaboration for Youth has developed a guide which offers the context of the immigrant youth experience and practical tips for hiring, developing and retaining staff to work with this population. This publication is based on hands-on experience by national and local youth organizations who do this work effectively. This resource can be found at www.nydic.org/nydic/staffing/workforce/PreparingStafftoWorkwithImmigrantYouth.htm. Denise Brandon READING MAKES CENTS AFTERSCHOOL CURRICULUM PILOT SITES NEEDED Reading Makes Cents is a financial literacy and reading curriculum for children in grades 3-5. The goals of the curriculum are to 1) introduce children to basic money management concepts such as saving, sharing, spending, managing, earning, borrowing and lending; 2) use children's literature as a tool to attract youth to the topic of financial management; 3) improve children's attitudes toward reading; 4) support literacy and literacy-related activities in the home and 5) provide opportunities for youth to practice important life and money skills. Most of the activities are stand-alone and designed to be completed in one session. Some of the activities build on one another, but generally the adult helper can select activities within or among sections. This format makes the curriculum ideally suited for out-of-school time programs. There are seven financial themes or concepts that are introduced through a featured book that is read aloud to the youth. The seven money themes in Reading Makes Cents are:
Please email Claudia Mincemoyer at cxm324@psu.edu if you are interested in piloting this curriculum between October 2007 and January 2008. Please include your name, email and potential sites where you may pilot the curriculum. Interested pilot sites will be sent the URL to access the curriculum in early October. Completion of an online survey by the adult helper to provide feedback on the curriculum is a requirement to pilot the curriculum. Claudia C. Mincemoyer The National Gardening Association and the Home Depot will award Youth Garden Grants to schools and community organizations with child-centered, outdoor garden programs. In 2008, 150 programs will receive gift cards to The Home Depot for the purchase of gardening materials and supplies particular to the needs of their program, and an activity package from NGA. The top 50 programs will receive gift cards valued at $500, and 100 will receive $250 gift cards.
Each award package includes:
The application deadline is November 1, 2007. For more information, visit the Web site at www.kidsgardening.com/YGG.asp. Steve Sutton THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.
|
