4-H members contribute thousands of hours of service to their communities each year, resulting in both benefits to others and growth in the 4-H members. Community service has always been an important part of 4-H youth development. Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) is also a highly desired curriculum from 4-H agents.  Combine community service and SET and Boyd County 4-H came up with barometer soup!

Boyd County 4-H collaborated with the Ashland Community Kitchen to provide hands-on education for local elementary school summer camp youth and a meal for those in need within the community.  

4-H donated 100 cans of spaghetti sauce to the Ashland community kitchen with the stipulation that the cans would be rinsed and returned to 4-H.  Ashland Community Kitchen offers free meals to anyone in need in the surrounding area.

Those empty cans were then used by students in an elementary school’s summer camp.   4-H taught youth all about the weather and the tools used to predict it.  4-H Youth at Crabbe elementary used the recycled cans to build homemade barometers to help them predict the weather.

Students observed the changes in barometric pressure throughout the week of the school camp.   All the while, students also learned how their barometers helped feed local people in their community.

The donated cans coupled with SET curriculum made for a delightful barometer soup that fed local people in need and knowledge hungry students.