Isabelle Hauser- Week 8

 This week was one for learning, through school programs and 4-H engineering events. While some of these blogs may begin to seem slightly repetitive, I have learned an array of skills I can't wait to apply to my classroom one day. 

I started my week out the way I will from now till the end of the internship, and that includes our nourishing neighbors distribution and box packing. Over the last two weeks, this program has been able to give away 188 vegetable boxes to people in Garrett and Alleghany counties. This program is an excellent way to maximize food reach, so that people have the opportunity to integrate healthier foods into their everyday lives. 

Wednesday, I continued to polish some details for the lessons I would be leading on Friday with 4-H members. This means I read over it several times to ensure I would have the overall idea of how carburation works and also how to wire a flashlight, considering I am probably not the first person you would come to for mechanical advice. But I was able to finish out the day completing the first official trial build of the Altoids tin flashlight. This was my first time soldering, and I accidentally burned a piece of the switch off, but it was not crucial to the success of this project.

Thursday, I took a break from being "Izzy the electrician" to help with the Jr Gardeners Program we helped with at a local elementary school. This day was centered around how our food gets from plant to food. Students were able to learn about planting seeds, pollinators, and also how food grows. This day, Madison and I hung out with Mrs. Kenzie, the family and consumer science agent in the Garrett office. Our station was centered solely around strawberries; Madison and I led a lesson showing the students how to extract DNA from the fruit. Then they were able to explore a strawberry s'mores recipe with Kenzie, for a healthy snack that day. 

Lastly, I finished out the week working with 4-H members at Engineering Events. On this day, 7 members participated in the bicycle events, where they had races, newspaper drops, obstacle courses, and safety knowledge. After completing those events, we came inside for the afternoon lessons, which included electrical and small engines. I led these lessons and talked them through how to wire and solder the bulbs, battery pack, and switch to make the flashlight light up. Then we moved on to small engines, where they explored the concept of carbureation while taking the components off of the engine. I was able to talk them through the pieces of the carburetor and how they all work together to create combustion to make the engine run. 

                                              Pictured with engineering events participants and motor 

This week was a bit nerve-racking teaching concepts I was not super familiar with, but I am grateful to have mentors and resources to help me along the way. Willie would tell me that teaching agriculture is about learning as you go and probably right alongside my students. This week's connection was centered around healthy soils, and while we often only associate soil health with growth, we have to remember that our soils serve as a foundation to just about everything we interact with in everyday life. Under our roads, barns, offices, and houses is a soil strong enough to hold it up. Soil health is about maintaining and taking care of what we have because, unfortunately, it's not just something our states can buy more of. I think it's important to educate not only our farmers about the effects of overworking our soils but also the people on the outside of the agriculture industry that most likely just see it as "dirt."