Norfolk Master Gardeners
830 Southampton Ave., Ste 2069
Norfolk, Virginia 23510-1045
My Week at 4-H Camp
Well, it was really only three days, but still…
An important part of Virginia Cooperative Extension is the 4-H Youth Development Education program. And a very important part of the 4-H program is summer camp. Virginia supports six 4-H educational centers throughout the state, each serving a separate geographic region for camping and other educational and recreational opportunities, and each is accredited by the American Camp Association. Airfield 4-H Educational Conference Center in Wakefield serves the southeast region, which includes Norfolk.
The week-long 4-H Junior Camp is for ages 9-13. Campers get to choose three classes to take, which each meet for 50 minutes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. A variety of classes is offered, such as canoeing, kayaking, archery, arts and crafts, performing arts, and yoga. Class offerings change depending on the interests of the staff and volunteers.
Since the NMG Association provided three scholarships for Norfolk youth to attend 4-H camp this year, we thought it would be appropriate to participate by offering a garden-themed class. I met with Aaron Martin, the Norfolk 4-H agent, in May to plan such a class for the campers. We came up with Seeds and Trees and Bees, Oh My! The plan was to spend the first day learning about seeds and dissecting a lima bean seed; the second day would focus on pollinators and bees, with the campers learning about various insect feeding methods and making seed bombs; and the third day would be all about trees, with a tree leaves scavenger hunt. Aaron did most of the class preparation for the Seeds and Bees, while I took on the trees. Aaron scheduled the class for the 11:00 a.m. slot so that I had time to drive the 60 miles from Norfolk without having to leave too early.
All did not go as planned, which is normal for camp. Only two campers signed up for our class, so we combined forces with the forestry class. Our Tuesday class became a forestry class, with a walk in the woods on the nature trail. The class was taught by one of the staff members, a college student named Tweety (all camp staff members receive special camp names). Will Redfern joined us for the Tuesday class. Our task was to pick up a fairly large leaf from the ground that we would extract chlorophyll from, which we would then use to make a chlorophyll picture. We stopped several times on the trail to close our eyes and listen to and smell nature. We saw a baby frog on this trail – about the size of a thumbnail.
We brought our leaves back to the classroom and ground them up in small jars. Tweety added alcohol to our jars of ground-up leaves and we left them to marinate overnight. The next day we dipped coffee filters into the jars. As the coffee filter absorbs the alcohol the chlorophyll pigments separate out and leave a pattern on the filter.
Wednesday’s class was led by Aaron. He valiantly combined his original plans for seeds and bees into one class. He had soaked lima beans overnight so we could split them open with our fingernails and see the seed coat, the cotyledon, and the embryonic stem and root. Then we made seed balls. After the seed balls we moved on to talking about insects and the different ways they feed – sucking, chewing, and sponging. The campers got to try to eat using these different methods. To mimic chewing insects, they used their two index fingers to grasp M&Ms and put them into their mouths. To mimic sucking insects, they had to put a straw in a juice box and suck the juice out while their hands were behind their backs. Since we were running out of class time, Aaron demonstrated the sponging method by using a damp kitchen sponge dipped in sugar. He handed out party blowers to the campers to show them how a butterfly’s probiscis works. He also had honey in a honeycomb for them to try. Most of the campers liked the honey but not the wax.
Thursday’s class was all about trees. A couple of weeks before camp week Joey Rothgery accompanied me to Airfield to scope out the trees that we would use for the tree leaves scavenger hunt. We walked along a lovely trail beside Airfield Lake and found trees with alternate leaves, opposite leaves, toothed margin leaves, lobed margin leaves, entire margin leaves, simple leaves, compound leaves, and needle-like leaves. If you have participated in the Significant Tree program orientation this will sound familiar. The day before the tree class I went back to the tree trail and placed a bright pink tag with a letter on each of the identified trees. On class day I followed Ziggy’s advice and brought in samples of the various types of leaves to show the campers. We talked about the benefits of trees, and then went out to do our scavenger hunt. After the scavenger hunt, we went back into the classroom to discuss what we found, and to use a dichotomous key to identify one of the sample leaves. And that was the end of my camp experience, except for one last visit to the tree trail to remove the bright pink tags.
But it may not be the end of Norfolk Master Gardener participation in 4-H camp. The program director, Joey Patterson, was excited to have our participation this year and hopes to have us again next year. He talked to Will about putting in a pollinator garden, and he is planning on bringing in some honeybee hives next year. He also wants to do more with their forestry program. So we may be going to camp again next summer.
For those of you who are wondering what the 4 Hs are, they are spelled out in the 4-H pledge:
I pledge
My Head to clearer thinking
My Heart to greater loyalty
My Hands to larger service and
My Health to better living
For my club, my community, my country, and my world.
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