21^st Century is a program that many public schools offer to school age youth to participate in as an after school activity. During the relationship that the Marion Co. Extension Office has built with the Marion Co. Public School Systems’ 21^st Century Program, we as an office have been able to be a part of the programs summer camps. Each year the 21^st Century Coordinator will host a camp for students to attend with many different activities to take part in during a week to two week day camp. This year the Marion Co. Office was once again invited to participate.

For the Agriculture and Natural Resources activity I choose to demonstrate a Dairy lesson with the students. I choose this lesson because the camp was taking place during the month of June, and June is Dairy month.

The first lesson I taught the students was about cows. We discussed different breeds of cows, cow nutrition, and some other fun facts about Dairy production. During this lesson I incorporated facts about the snacks/food we would be doing a demonstration with later in the class.

The first food we demonstrated was Ice Cream. Ice Cream in a bag was the chosen demonstration since it allows the students a chance to participate in the making of the food. The students helped to read the recipe to make Ice Cream and we talked about what food group Ice Cream comes from. After the recipe was read, I allowed the students to help mix the ingredients together in the bag. Then students passed the bag around to shake up the mixture. Students were amazing that the few simple ingredients we mixed together quickly changed to a solid form to make Ice Cream.

The next food demonstration we did as a group was making Butter. I shared a quick butter recipe with the students and they helped to read the ingredients for this project as well. Students helped to combine ingredients in a jar and the jar was passed around the shake it up. The students were once again amazed that the simple liquid ingredients turned into the solid form of butter. During this demonstration we discussed the many foods that we use butter to make or add to for extra flavor.

While the students were busy shaking the bags of Ice Cream and jar of Butter a book about Dairy was read to the students for a better understanding of all the work that goes into making a Dairy Farm run smoothly on a day to day basis.

This program reached many 42 Hispanic, 1 African American, and 5 White participants. Everyone enjoyed learning a little more about where their food comes from.