We are excited to announce the New Jersey 4-H Animal Art Contest – FREE and open to all NJ 4-H members in grades K-13! While all artwork must be animal-themed, you do NOT need to be enrolled in that particular animal project to enter art in that department. You don’t even need to have an animal project to enter the contest, as long as you are a registered NJ 4-H member with … [Read more...]
Learning how to do research in the field: A Pilot Study in Guyana for Coral Snake Mimicry
Or how research really goes in the field! Everyone talks about research being done in the field. It can sound glamorous, especially when the results are exactly what you hope for or even expect. But the reality is just the opposite. More often than not, it is what you don’t find or what doesn’t work that helps you learn and adjust your experiment. Anthony Sena, a first … [Read more...]
Hometown Hero: The Blue-spotted Salamander
If towns are shutting down entire roads for you, you must be important, right? Every spring in central New Jersey, temporary road closures are created to protect amphibians who migrate across roads in search of perfect mating grounds. In March and April as the temperatures warm to 40-45 degrees, amphibians including frogs and salamanders make the trek from their winter homes in … [Read more...]
Ideas to Make Virtual Club Meetings Fun and Educational
In this year of the coronavirus pandemic all 4-H staff and volunteers have had to pivot from in-person programs to virtual programs, AND so did the school system. Our 4-H members have had a double whammy of virtual programs and spend a lot of time on their computers. So, how do you continue to keep your members engaged in this environment? They might really want in-person 4-H … [Read more...]
Club Support: Three Online Courses on Food Safety and Microbiology
If you are looking for ways to supplement your 4-H club or other youth program in the area of Animal Science, Animal U by the Iowa State University has a wealth of interactive and educational resources. The web trainings here are educational yet highly accessible to youth audiences. Production livestock projects may benefit from asking youth to complete the Food Safety and … [Read more...]
So You Want to Work in a Zoo?
This past July, 4-H Program Associates Amelia Valente and Brittany Rigg held a S.T.E.P (Short Term Exploratory Program) called Career Detectives. The mission of this program was to expose youth to zoo careers they might be interested in pursuing. Participants virtually connected with several professionals in the field, including Zoo Keepers, Behavioral Specialists, Water … [Read more...]
What can snakes on Madagascar teach us about evolution?
Arianna Kuhn, PhD Candidate, City University of New York, American Museum of Natural History As a PhD candidate at the City University of New York, my current work aims to understand the evolutionary events that cause new species to form, but my career in herpetology actually began with geckos from Africa! As an undergraduate at Villanova University, I knew that I … [Read more...]
4-H Entries for Statewide Virtual Fair!
Calling all those in 4-H animal projects - there are multiple classes for each of you at the New Jersey 4-H Virtual Fair, but you only have a few more days to enter! All information (and a link for entries) is available at the 4-H fair's website. The many categories for project entries are outlined in the exhibitor’s guide, also available at the same site. While we hope … [Read more...]
The Search for Urban Snakes in NJ
Written by Tianqi Huang, a PhD student majoring in Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University - New Brunswick , currently working on urban snake ecology. Tianqi is co-advised by Dr. Peter Morin and Dr. Sara Ruane. Nowadays, a large proportion of world’s population lives in urban areas, but we know that cities are not only home to … [Read more...]
Congratulations, Top-Scoring Clubs
A total of 276 4-H members from 88 clubs participated in the 4-H Animal Science Blog Contest from April 10 through May 31, 2020 (keep reading for a list of the top 15 clubs). These 4-H members evaluated classes of horses and livestock; visited a variety of farms, zoos, and museums; joined educational webinars with experts from across the country; developed new skills; and … [Read more...]