4-H School Programs
4-H Environment Program
The 4-H Environment Program offers a variety of interactive lessons, focused on Solid Waste Management topics such as recycling, composting, and landfills. This program is fully funded by the Broome County Division of Solid Waste Management to provide free education to its residents. Groups must be a part of Broome County to participate.
Recycled Paper Making
- First, learn how
paper is used and created with an interactive presentation complete with real
samples and easy to understand visuals. Youth will learn how this process
affects our environment and experience first-hand how paper is recycled. All
this complete with the finished product to take home!
- Request Recycled Paper Making Lesson
When Trash Comes Back
- This interactive presentation can be delivered on
it’s own or in combination with the “Recycling Lab” for the greater impact.
Discover where our trash comes from, how it connects to our natural resources
and the environmental impact. Students will be fully engaged with vivid
visuals, short videos, and easy to understand analogies. Get the inside scoop
on what’s recyclable in Broome County, how recycling is handled, and the
products (some extremely unique) created as a result.
- Request When Trash Comes Back Lesson
Recycling Lab (3rd-6th)
- This lesson can
easily be offered on it’s own, but is best received when combined with “When
Trash Comes Back.” Youth take on the role of Environmental Scientist when they
receive a (clean) bag of trash to analyze with this hands-on lab. Youth will
discover how trash is connected to natural resources and what can be recycled
in Broome County through experiential learning, the use of reference charts,
and a little teamwork. Your students are bound to be amazed with their new
- Request Recycling Lab
- Request Recycling Lab to Follow "When Trash Comes Back"
- Our program believes
hands-on, experience based learning is the most effective and engaging lesson
for youth. However, with the increasing demands in schools, we understand that
time can be hard to come by. This lively performance helps students learn about
the garbage problem and how they can help make a difference with vivid examples
of wasteful behavior, audience participation and lots of visual props.
- Request TrashMan
Compost Stew with Worm
Bin Discovery (Pre-K-1st)
- Literacy and Science
come together! Discover the “ingredients” for compost through an interactive
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary
Mckenna Siddals. This rhyming story provides the perfect lead-in to an up-close
discovery of “Compost Stew” and the wiggly creatures that help create it.
- Request Compost Stew
Garbage Helps our
Garden Grow with Compost Creatures Discovery (K-3rd)
- Literacy and Science
Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story by Linda
Glaser is an easy to follow, non-fiction piece with vivid step-by-step photos
to share nature’s own form of recycling. Youth are sure to be engaged as they
discover the tiny creatures that recycle garbage in a real compost sample,
equipped with magnifying glasses for a closer look! Due to the availability of creatures, this program is offered from late April through late October.
- Request Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow
Nature's Recyclers with
Compost Creatures Discovery (4th-6th)
- Literacy and Science
come together! We all know that paper, plastic, glass, and metal can be
recycled but what about food scraps? Learn more about outdoor recycling with an
interactive read aloud of
Composting: Nature’s Recyclers by Robin
Koontz. Get up-close and personal with the stars of the composting story-
decomposers (and even a few predators) as you search through a real compost
sample, equipped with a magnifying glass! Due to the availability of creatures, this program is offered from late April through late October.
- Request Naure's Recyclers
Compost Creatures (6th-12th)
- We all know that
paper, plastic, glass, and metal can be recycled, but what about food scraps?
Learn more about outdoor composting- how it affects our ecological footprint
and the creatures that play a key role in the process. Get an up-close look at
the creatures with a digital microscope after collecting them from a real
compost sample! Due to the availability of creatures, this program is offered from late April through late October.
- Request Compost Creatures
Not seeing what you're looking for? Contact us to discuss options.
Last updated May 13, 2016