Babysitter Boot Camp

MSU Extension in Teton County is planning a Babysitter Boot Camp for Thursday, October 20 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Choteau Baptist Church.  Registration can be made at teton@montana.edu or 466-2491.   The class is being offered free of charge and will be filled on a first-registered basis.  Class limit is 25 participants, with a minimum required of 10 registered by Monday, October 17.  Participants need to bring a lunch and beverage to the class.

During the Babysitter Boot Camp, babysitters will learn basic training in first aid.  Babysitters will learn how to get marching orders from the families they serve, and will receive ammunition to become Purple Heart babysitters.  

All participants will have a chance to learn about how to plan enrichment activities (including crafts, games, singing, and science activities) to keep the children in their charge occupied. Babysitters will also learn about providing nutritious and safe foods for a variety of ages and will learn about foods that are common choking hazards.  Sitters will learn skills to provide top-notch customer service and to keep themselves safe as they develop their babysitting business.  

Members will leave the Babysitter Boot Camp fully armed with ideas for safe fun and tips to use throughout the year when in charge of kids.  To enlist in Babysitter Boot Camp, contact the MSU Extension Office in Teton County at teton@montana.edu or 466-2491.  

Don't let the TRAINing leave the station without You!

Are you a community, church, 4-H, or school volunteer or teacher who works hard to do your best to keep youth on the track to a successful future?  Do you sometimes find yourself dragging your caboose because of the energy it takes to keep things from derailing? You are invited to get “On Track to Volunteer Success” at the annual Montana 4-H Leadership Forum, which MSU Extension and 4-H in Teton County are helping to plan with other counties in District 3.  The event is September 30-October 2 in Lewistown, Montana.  There are tickets available to several topic tracks and there are OPI (Office of Public Instruction) renewal units available for certified teachers.  Jump on board now and register by August 31 to receive a discounted ticket for $80.  If you need more time to consider, you can get a main cabin registration between September 1 and 14 for $100, and for those bringing up the caboose, registering between September 15 and September 23 the cost will be $150.

On Friday, September 30, the train leaves the station for several different tour locations. Tours at Bear Gulch Pictographs, Bos Terra and a tour of three manufacturing businesses in the heart of Montana, are just three of the eleven tours that should capture the interest of volunteers who serve in a wide variety of roles.  On Saturday, October 1, there are educational tracks including Family Consumer Science, Art, Agriculture, Communications, Science, Natural Resources and some general track items such as curriculum exploration and leadership.

Holly Hoffman, Keynote

Holly Hoffman, Survivor

There will be keynote speakers to keep some steam in your volunteer engine.  Holly Hoffman will help you not only survive, but thrive as a youth volunteer or educator.  Hoffman is the author of Your Winner Within and was a contestant on the Survivor television show.  Hoffman teaches how to focus thoughts, emotions and energy to succeed.  She offers encouragement and optimism and lays the tracks for self-discovery and enlightenment.  She will be the keynote speaker on October 2, as well as teaching one of the workshops on Saturday called, Lead Simply. 

Be sure to get your ticket on the Track to Volunteer Success. Contact MSU Extension in Teton County for more details or look online at www.montana4H.org.  Consider this message your first boarding call.  Thank you to all of you out there who are the conductors and engineers of educational opportunities for youth in our communities.  We appreciate the tracks you are laying with youth as they are fundamental to our future. 

Unwrapping the Gift of 4-H

On December 23, youth from Teton County shared in the gift we call 4-H at a project day event.  Older 4-H members had been invited through the county 4-H newsletter to teach classes for the project day planned for the afternoon of Wednesday, December 23, a time when all schools in the county were closed for holiday break.  4-H members who provided leadership included Daniel Asselstine, Delaynie Beadle, Michaela Gunderson, Ben Roeder, Watson Snyder and Annie Townsend.  Each of the older 4-H members either planned and taught or assisted an extension agent teaching a class.  The learning was also supported by 4-H alum, Katie Townsend, and MSU Extension Teton County Administrative assistants, Jamie Smith and Rhea Brutosky.

After 20 youth had sewn tote bags, sewn owl-shaped rice bags, baked and decorated cupcakes, learned about synthetic vs. natural fibers, made felted wool canning jar cozies, sheared sheep, learned jitterbug and two-step moves, made survival bands, painted chalkboard coasters and decorated gift bags, the group of 4-H members talked about the way people give their gifts to others.  One of the 4-H members learned her cake decorating skills from a volunteer 4-H leader and brought the gift forward to share with others.  Another 4-H member learned her sewing skills from her mother and with the help of evaluators/judges at sewing contests and was sharing that skill not only at 4-H project day, but also by helping younger 4-H members individually and through her club.  Another 4-H member gained dance skills from his parents and neighbors and then continued self-study using internet resources.  We talked about how important it is when someone shares the gift of their time and talent with you to wrap up that gift and present it to others.  4-H is one way to keep gifts giving well into the future.

 

To complete the project day, Extension Agents Brent Roeder and Jane Wolery discussed with youth that the 4-H members already contained the necessary gifts to excel on a local, state and national level.  However, 4-H members need to know what is available and how to unwrap a larger goal into smaller pieces.  Several 4-H members had personal experiences they shared related to opportunities, such as Rec Lab, interstate and international exchanges and National 4-H Congress.  The group discussed about 30 different 4-H opportunities and events just waiting be unwrapped by Teton County 4-H members.  

We invite you to think about the gifts you can give to others in 2016.

Here is a small sampling of opportunities available through 4-H (listed in no particular order).  To learn more, contact your local MSU Extension agent in your county.

1.  Ambassador program
2.   State officer
3.   Interstate Exchange
4.   State 4-H Congress
5.   Camp Counselor
6.   Rec Lab
7.  Winter Teen Camp
8.   State Leadership Forum
9.  State Award
10. National 4-H Congress
11. National 4-H Conference
12. Citizenship Washington Focus CWF
13. Leadership Washington Focus LWF
14. Make It with Wool MIWW
15. IFYE Program
16. Japanese Exchange
17. Natural Resources Camp
18. Nile Merit Heifer
19. Ag Youth Loan programs
20. Livestock judging and evaluation
21. Fall Ambassador training
22. Communications Contest
23. Alberta Leaders Forum
24. Citizenship Seminar
25. Horse and Livestock Leaders Forum
26. State Horse Show
27. Western Heritage Shoot
28. County Textile Show
29. Range Camp
30. Western National Round Up

That Invitation Keeps Ringing

My head finally got to the pillow at one o’clock this morning, so when I shut my alarm off just a few hours later at 5:45 a.m., it was hard to remember that I set it as an “invitation” to my morning exercise routine.  The alarm is just one part of an invitation to exercise. I also have my shoes and exercise clothes set out, making them easy to grab in the morning.  I usually have a device ready with an audio book to listen to or an old TV series to stream while I start my day on the elliptical. 

There are several strategies to use when “inviting” yourself to exercise.  One of the classes I taught, 4-Health (which was for parents of teens and preteens who were trying to establish healthy households) suggested doing an “activity inventory” of the home.  The inventory or checklist asked families to go room by room in their homes to see if equipment that would encourage activity was available and easily accessible.  Having supplies and equipment ready to use makes a considerable difference in the items getting used.  Families were encouraged to make sure that balls, jump ropes, bikes, skates, sleds, etc. were easy to find and use.  That list of “exercise equipment” makes me think that exercise sounds a whole lot like play. Sometimes it is easier to answer an invitation to play than to exercise. 

Families in the 4-Health class were encouraged to take breaks from sedentary periods for active play. For instance, if watching TV, get up and do a jump rope challenge during the commercials.  For commercial-free sedentary activities, a timer can be used as a reminder or invitation to get up and move.  Families were able to set up simple and fun activity challenges, such as obstacle and relay courses.  One group had a bucket at the bottom of their stairs that they threw ping-pong balls into and when they missed, they ran down the stairs and back up for another try.  Another group designed a foam ball and somersault activity in their hallway.  Sometimes all it takes to be active is a little creativity and an invitation.

Of course, like play, exercise is often more fun with more than one person.  Another common way to incorporate motion into your day is to make it social.  Invite a friend to join you.  You are less likely to talk yourself out of exercising, if you know someone has arranged their schedule to join you. 

Take a look around your home to see if you can find any “invitations” to be active.  If not, it is time to start delivering some invitations.  Put a basket of hand or ankle weights by your favorite chair, set out your exercise clothes and set your alarm, even if it is for a mid-afternoon stroll.  I think I’ll start working on inviting myself to put my head on my pillow a little earlier, because a good night’s sleep makes it much easier to accept the invitation to get out of bed and exercise.

Planting Science Seeds for a Future Harvest!

The 4-H BioScience program 2015-16, a science experience for students grades 8-11, started August 3-7 on the MSU Bozeman campus and continues until February through experiments and video conferencing with MSU professors.  Eight Teton County youth, Berit Bedord, Jacob Boetticher, Lila Bradley, Jill Donaldson, Bryce Gramm, Oliver Jorden, Ashley Pearson and Sam Stutz have formed two BioScience teams in Teton County this year.  They are coached by Lisa Bedord, Brenda Boetticher and Jane Wolery. 

While on the MSU campus, students participated in three modules – neuroscience, metabolomics and infectious disease.  The 4-H members work with MSU professors and graduate student mentors.  The teens from Teton County were able to use their own blood to separate red and white blood cells.  The blood was then tested for a variety of nutrients, but the students concentrated on the omega-6 and omega-3 scores and the ratio.  One of the students had an excellent ratio of nearly 1:1 and credited his diet of home-raised, grass-fed beef.  The typical American diet is more askew with ratios of nearly 20 to 1 omega-6 to omega-3.  Diets high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 may make a person prone to poor brain function and health conditions such as headaches, ADHD, depression as well as cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases.  4-H members worked with Dr. Edward Dratz and his team of students drawing the blood samples and analyzing results.  They will continue throughout the year with metabolomics by completing some dietary analysis.  The 4-H members may also get to test an app being developed by an MSU grad student that will simplify dietary input and allow users to choose a nutrient of focus, such as sodium or vitamin D.  Students also did a simple zinc test and learned more about zinc’s important role in the body.

The neuroscience module is a little mind boggling.  4-H students puzzled over optical illusions and sensory input as they learned how the human brain connects to the rest of the body.  One of the more electrifying experiences was using a spiker box to see if impulses from one person’s ulnar nerve, found along the outside of the arm, could be sent to another person and control their movements.  It was a little unnerving, to say the least, to have finger movements controlled by another person.  As part of the unit, students will explore hand sensitivity and see if they can use the elasticity of the brain to change how their hands feel stimuli.  They will be creating a 3-D hand homunculus as well as studying about auditory and taste sensory inputs.

The teams participated in an infectious disease unit and were able to test their own nose and throat cultures and explore their own microbiota, guided by Dr. Jovanka Voyich.  They also used samples of a “patient” from a case study.  Students learned to use agar plates, do Gram staining and catalase tests.  One team had a patient in her early 20s present with non-bloody diarrhea following a visit to a relative’s dairy farm.  At first she thought she was just exhausted, but the students determined through a variety of tests that she had an e-coli infection.  As part of the continued work the teams will choose an infectious disease experiment to explore further using skills they learned in the lab at MSU.

While on the MSU campus, students were able to tour the Schutter Diagnostics Lab, where plant and insect diseases are identified and monitored and learn how the lab’s efforts affect agriculture producers as well as urban consumers.  Students also got a tour of Cooley Lab with a graduate students studying the herpes virus.  Cooley lab is a hub for biomedical research.  Students received a tour of the Renne Library and learned about services available on campus.  They were also able to spend time at the Museum of the Rockies, enjoy the features at the planetarium, use the fitness center on campus and stretch out with climbing at the Spire climbing center just a few blocks from campus.  

Of the eight members involved in the SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) funded BioScience program, five are new to 4-H since April.  A few who joined specifically to take part in BioScience Montana now plan to take other projects and participate in leadership trainings.  Extension Agent Jane Wolery says one of the best parts of the BioScience program is how students start to see other opportunities and gain confidence in their ability to maneuver on a college campus, interact with professors and gain exposure to different areas of study and careers.