4-H Health Jam

Working with the University of Illinois Extension Rock Island County has been an awesome experience so far. Not to long ago we had an event called Health Jam at the Putnam Museum. We had about 10 days to plan it all after a sudden change happened. There was about 150 5th and 6th graders who attended Health Jam. There was five different stations that the students attended during the morning. Two of the stations took place in an Exhibit called Bodies Revealed. Bodies Revealed is a traveling exhibit that has been all over the world. It takes visitors up close through galleries providing an up-close look inside the skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory and other systems of the human body. It was the most awesome exhibit that I have ever been in. Since the youth may not understand it as well, we had a student from Palmer College of Chiropractic come in and explain everything to the children and us too! It was quite the learning experience. We also had several volunteers throughout the exhibit. I was in charge of the Polymers session.

Teaching about Polymers

There, I talked about many different polymers such as what is inside a baby diaper.We did an experiment with water gel to show how a diaper absorbs water very quickly. The youth thought that was the craziest thing ever. We also made bouncy balls in the microwave to show how it turns into plastic because plastic is a polymer. The bouncy balls may not have bounced as well as a real one but it was really cool to be able to make one still just out of corn oil, cornstarch, and water. For another session, we had a dietitian from Hy-Vee come in and talk to the youth about nutrition and how much sugar is actually in their sodas. From what I heard, some of the youth said they were going to cut back on how much soda they drank.

For the last session, we had the Dean of Allied Health from Black Hawk College come in and talk to the youth about different careers in the health field. She demonstrated how to give blood on a fake arm and demonstrated many other cool things. To wrap up the day, we let the the youth have fun in all the other exhibits in the museum. While they looked at all the other awesome exhibits, we had them do a scavenger hunt throughout the museum. Then, we would have a video camera and ask them a question like, "Why is the Mississippi River important to us?"We wanted it all to relate back to health.

Dietitian from Hy-Vee talking to youth about MyPlate

After this day, the rest of the summer we have follow up sessions once a week.The youth have learned about cooking, stretching, bicycle safety, and many other things during these sessions.They each were given a pedometer also. Our goal for the end of the summer is to walk across Illinois. If they take 10,000 steps everyday, they will reach their goal. So far this summer, health jam is something I really look forward to every week. It is a lot of fun and the kids are so much fun to be around!

Making his Bouncy Ball

Dean of Allied Health giving demonstration