Tag Archives: STEM

21-century Extension

people and cows in field

Carl Stafford (left), an Extension agricultural and natural resources agent, visits with dairy producer Terry Ingram about forage management strategies.

“When Extension began nearly 100 years ago, its purpose was to help people take research developed at a university and other places and put it into practice on the land and in the home,” said Edwin Jones, director of Virginia Cooperative Extension. “Can we still do that today? I believe so.”

Virginia Tech magazine takes a closer look at Virginia Cooperative Extension in its latest issue. Read more…

 

 

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Dominion Virginia Power Helps Educate 4-Hers About Energy

The electric energy kits contain all of the supplies needed to conduct the lessons with a group of 30 children.

Dominion Virginia Power has been a long-time supporter of Virginia’s 4-H youth program and this year their outstanding generosity continues with a $25,000 gift in support of educational kits and training funds related to wind and alternative energy. These funds were used to support the Virginia 4-H electric energy curriculum, which consists of seven lesson plans and an energy kit, which contains all of the supplies needed to conduct the lessons with a group of 30 children.

The lessons were designed to satisfy all of Virginia’s 4th grade science standards of learning related to electricity and magnetism by providing hands-on, learn-by-doing activities for children.  Virginia 4-H under the leadership of Lori Marsh, Extension engineer, developed the activities and electric kits in the early 1990’s with input from the major electric energy providers in Virginia and support from the Virginia 4-H science programming committee.  Since that time, Dominion Power has continued to provide financial support for the program. Continue reading →

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Surry County School Garden Promotes Healthy Lifestyles

student with basket of vegetables“What is that purple thing?”

“How come that cucumber is so big?”

“How can these banana-shaped things be peppers?”

These are some of the questions that students at Luther Porter Jackson Middle School asked as they harvested their first school garden.

The school garden project — a collaboration of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Surry County Office and the middle school — promotes healthier lifestyles through better nutrition and increased activity.

“We incorporated science, engineering, technology, and math, as well as numerous aspects of healthy living,” said Billie Jean Elmer, unit coordinator and 4-H agent for Surry County. “One would think in a rural community that children would have a gardening background; however, just like many of their urban community partners, the home garden is not so common anymore.” Continue reading →

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