4-H members enthralled by science

Hands-on science activities offered as part of 4-H SET (Science, Engineering, Technology) at a El Dorado County park recently were colorful enough to warrant a lengthy feature story in the Mountain Democrat yesterday.

The 4-H'ers experimented with resin to understand how tree sap trapped and preserved insects that flew and crawled 100 million years ago. They examined fossils, viewed a collection of dinosaur bones and went on a fossil fuel scavenger hunt.

“We have great schools, but they don’t have much hands-on experiential learning any more,” Tracey Celio told reporter Dawn Hodson. Celio is the UC Cooperative Extension 4-H youth development coordinator for El Dorado County.

“Our country used to be cutting edge but we’ve lost that in the last 10-15 years due to the outsourcing of jobs and technology,” Celio said. ”Now there is a push to re-energize youth about the opportunities through SET. We want to prepare kids for the 21st century and the jobs available in the 21st century.”

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