Rutgerscience Saturdays
Find the Scientist in YOU

Sponsored by Rutgers Cooperative Extension
Department of 4-H Youth Development, Science Engineering & Technology (SET) Program

If you like to dig into science and learn about cool new research and technology, you will love Rutgerscience Saturdays. Our goal is to provide kids with hands-on learning experiences with premiere Rutgers scientists.

Kids in grades 6-9^th are welcome to attend. Participate in hands-on experiments, learn about exciting new projects and meet the scientists and Rutgers students who are shaping science and technology in New Jersey.

Why should I come?

Our objective is to … spur your interest in science, technology, engineering and math and expose you to the roots and global reach of Rutgers cutting edge science. Science isn’t just what’s learned in a classroom or laboratory--it happens all around us and has real impact on our daily lives.

Rutgers wants YOU! … Science, Engineering and Technology fields are exploding… Be part of the action.

Cost: $25/participant

Sign up for all 4 Saturday programs and receive a block rate for family of 4 of $200/family

On-line registration coming soon!

The blog. We have designed the blog to extend the Science Saturday into other days of the week!!! Come to the blog to post your comments of what you expect to learn. Come back to the blog again and again to discuss with others what you did learn. Chat with scientists and educators from Rutgers.

Try This. The Try This section describes an activity that can be done at home. Attempt them only with parental help and supervision.

Junior Rutgers Scientist Program. The long-term project allows kids to examine a science phenomenon over a period of time. We hope to give kids a taste of the nature of scientific research as we observe and attempt to explain the world around us.

Exploring Our Changing Environment
Sponsored by the Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences and the Department of Environmental Sciences

Date: January 23, 2010
Location: Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences & Environmental Sciences Building
Time: 10: 00 am – 2:00 pm
Limit: 50 students

Welcome to the School of the Environment and Biological Sciences (SEBS) at Rutgers University. For our first Rutgerscience program, we will explore some of the Rutgers research projects related to climate change; the most pressing environmental and social problem of our time.

The Fasting Warming Place on Earth: It may be cold outside but it is time to think about the fastest warming place on Earth…Antarctica. Explore the issue of our changing environment. Learn about the ocean’s role in our changing climate. Check out the oldest ice on Earth and learn about how a warming ocean is affecting its living inhabitants from the corals, to fish to the largest whales.

Alternative Energy Research at Rutgers: Could the sugarcane and switchgrass fields of today be the oil refineries of tomorrow? We will explore the possibilities of sustainable energy sources and the research going at Rutgers to develop new ways of fueling us to get from here to there!

New Jersey’s Weather and Climate: Find out how you can become a weather watcher and learn more about what New Jersey’s climate might be like in the future.

Changing New Jersey Landscape: Explore with Rutgers scientists the changing landscape of New Jersey using remote sensing technology. Learn about how a warming New Jersey is affecting trees and plants.

Blog about it

Geology Rocks
Sponsored by the Geology Museum and the Department of Earth, Planetary Sciences

Date: April 10, 2010
Location: Geology Museum, Old Queens College
Time: 10: 00 am – 2:00 pm
Limit: 40 students

Drilling into Science
This exploration is all about oil! Finding liquid gold is more than just drilling -play the part of a geologist and science to find reserves of the substance that makes our cars go, lip gloss shiny and our plastics possible.

Geology 101
What is it? Uncover the basics of rock and mineral identification by testing samples with techniques that real scientists use. Using what you have learned, you will even build your own rock and mineral collection to take home!

Exploring Our Family Tree
Travel into our evolutionary past and explore our bushy hominin family tree. Imagine the scene as three or four different hominin species encounter each other in East Africa 1.8 million years ago. Explore the ecological, dietary, behavioral, and morphological diversity of our close hominin cousins and learn how paleoanthropologists study our family tree.

Blog about it.

Understanding Microbes in Sickness and in Health
Sponsored by Departments of Food Sciences, Plant Biology and Pathology, and the Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences

Date: May 15, 2010
Location: Food Sciences Department and Plant Biology and Pathology
Time: 10: 00 am – 2:00 pm
Limit: 50 students

Understanding Microbes in Sickness and in Health In this program, we will explore the world of microbes including those that make us sick and those we need to survive. Discover the unseen microbes of Passion Puddle and learn how to isolate DNA from a strawberry.

Food Microbiology
Work with a Food Scientist to explore how we can control microbes in our food supply.

Microbes in the Deep Sea: Learn about microbes in the most extreme environments of deep sea hydrothermal vents.

Blog about it.

Insects of New Jersey
Sponsored by the department of Entomology

Date: June 5, 2010
Location: Entomology – 93 Lipman Drive
Time: 10: 00 am – 2:00 pm
Limit: 50 students

In this Saturday session, we will explore the world of insects both ad friend and foe.

Bee Investigations: Explore the world of bees and pollination.

Insect Museum: Take a tour of the more then 200,000 pinned specimens collection here at Rutgers.

Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite: Explore the world of urban pest management.

Insect Safari: Go on a bug safari on campus and learn to identify and collect insect species

Blog about it.

Webinars on
Climate & Environmental Change Education

Join us for a free webinar series to facilitate the design and development of a climate and environmental change curriculum and program for the Jersey Roots, Global Reach Sustainable Communities Project (SCP). The project, which is targeted for at risk youth and families, is designed is to teach youth about the causes and impacts of climate change and empower them with the knowledge and skills to take action at home, at school, and in the community.

Who should attend? This series was designed primarily for Agents and Program Associates in the New Jersey 4-H program interested in building climate and environmental change curriculum. Participants are encouraged to participate in online discussions with climate scientists to collaboratively build a robust and effective program focused on climate and environmental change.

Presenters: The webinar series is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence Networked Ocean World (COSEE NOW) and will be delivered by science education professionals at the University of California-Berkeley, Lawrence Hall of Science. The Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) is a dynamic center for teacher education, research, and curriculum development in preK–12 science and math education. The presenters are a team of accomplished science educators and curriculum developers with extensive experience in program development and implementation.

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Understanding Climate Change:
What are the Big Ideas Youth Should Understand about a Changing Climate

November 19, 2009 at 1:00 pm EST
John Erickson, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California-Berkeley
John will share his experience with building curriculum materials that support science learning in afterschool environments. The focus of the webinar will be on discussing the challenges and opportunities we have as 4-H educators in teaching climate change concepts to at- risk youth.

Effective Strategies for Afterschool Science Learning

December 3, 2009 at 1:00 pm EST
Kevin Beales, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California-Berkeley
Kevin will share his experience with the dos and don’t's of planning after school science learning. He will discuss how he developed the green afterschool curriculum and professional development program that is about to be published by the Lawrence Hall of Science.

Service Learning in Citizen Schools

January 14, 2010 at 1:00 pm EST
Kevin Cuff , Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California-Berkeley
Kevin will discuss how he combines service learning with science learning for middle school age students through the Citizen School program. He will describe a successful collaboration with a Citizen School in California and offer advice and guidance on how we can we get youth to construct new knowledge about climate change that results in a service project called a WOW.

Developing a Scope and Sequence of Learning for Climate Literacy

January 28, 2010 at 1:00 pm EST
Catherine Halversen, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California-Berkeley
Catherine will discuss the elements of an effective scope and learning sequence to raise the issues of climate change impacts and solutions with youth. She will help us explore and discuss grade level appropriateness of climate content and how we sequence and build concepts to maximize understanding for our learners.

Please Register to Reserve your Spot

Registration is free and required to participate.
Click here to register online today

Click here to download promotion brochure

 

Questions?
Please contact: Janice McDonnell
Science, Engineering & Technology 4-H Agent
Phone: (732) 932 6555 x521 Email: mcdonnell@njaes.rutgers.edu

Science in Everyday Living

Past Programs

How many kids does it take to hug a whale?
We have no whales in the Passion Paddle, but on August 7, one appeared on the Lipman House lawn. It took 350 4H students to give it a big welcome hug!

Young people from the Gloucester County 4-H program visited the Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory as part of a summer Science Engineering & Technology or SET camp. Our goal was to get the young people excited about the ocean through hands on activities. We visited the Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory’s glider lab, met Eleanor – a life size plastic humpback whale, and spent some time sorting seaweed and observing invertebrates.

4-H Youth took Rutgers by storm at the first annual 4-H Summer Science Camp

High school students from Trenton, Camden, Passaic and Hackensack participated in the first 4-H Summer Science Program for urban youths on the SEBS campus. To most people, 4-H is associated with county fairs and kids from farming or, more recently, suburban communities. But the century-old organization is now reaching out to urban youth and offering more than lessons on planting and raising rabbits. The participating youth created a video of their experiences . In addition, the science supervisor in Trenton Public School posted the program and this link on the homepage.

4-H is exploring ways to prevent the climate change

Climate change with its forecasts of melting ice caps and the extinction of our planets species can be emotionally overwhelming for both youth and adults. We are working on a 4-H curriculum unit designed to equip youth with both scientific knowledge and the life skills required to improve their understanding of the science of climate change and the skills to apply this knowledge wisely in their personal life and in their role as active citizens.

We are planning a four part series with complimentary hands on lessons. Here are some examples of our preliminary work:

• Antarctica Melting Part 1 A Changing Continent
• Antarctica Melting Part II A Small World After All