I had a very exciting week this week. I was able to go to Ithaca to help out at Career ex. This was a three day program teaching about Animal tracking. The program was three days but I was able to live in the dorms for four days to get the classroom set up in Emerson Hall. I was also able to get the program schedule worked out and all of the technology charged and connected to wifi.
The first day with the youth started off with an animal based ice breaker. Then a warm up quiz on different types of animal tracks that we took as a group. We then went over the basics of how satellites work with mapping and how there needs to be 3 satellites connected to get a location. This is also where the youth were able to learn about the GPS units that they used for the program.We then finished off the day by working on a story map. This is a way of showing what you are doing through pictures and captions. It is very similar to a blog.
The second day was the only full day and we were very lucky to have two red tailed hawks living right outside of Emerson Hall. We were also able to have the youth speak with people who have been tracking and photographing the hawks.They both work at Cornell but tracking the hawks is just a hobby for them. This was very interesting for the youth to learn as the main goal of the program was to learn about different careers.
After learning about hawks we moved onto geocaching.The geocaching was a big success as all of the youth had a great time and were able to apply the information they learned the day before. We sent out three groups to hide one geocache per group and then had them save that data in the gps units. We then regrouped back at the classroom and shared the coordinates of each geocache. The groups went out to find the geocaches using the coordinates in the gps. When they did, they took the stamp hole punch out and stamped their piece of paper to prove that they found the geocache.
After geocaching, the youth came inside to learn about different types of animal trackers and its benefits in agriculture. We then transitioned into the creation of GeoArt. This is where pairs would look at a map and create an image along the roads and walking paths. This was a very fun activity but was slightly difficult as some paths that were on the map were closed due to construction. I was able to go out with a group and help them make their heart.
I was really excited for the next activity as we were working with the New York state giant map. This is the first kit that I will be creating a kit profile for. I am excited to be able to share the fun activities that can be done with this map.
We then ended the day with soil painting. This was a great way to teach the youth about different types of solid and how you can use things from nature to make art. They had a lot of fun painting and made a ton of nature and animal based paintings. Some youth were even inspired by animal tacking and decided to paint animal tracks.
On the last day we only had a half day. We started off by revealing the soil paintings and then spent the rest of the day playing with sphero robots. These robots are able to be coded and can follow a drawn path. The youth also had a great time racing them around obstacles. This program was a lot of fun and very beneficial for myself to see the youth interact with these kits.
