4-H AWW Group of the Year:
Clarke County
This group was started in 2017 after long-time Clarke County 4-H Foundation Regional Extension Agent Wendy Padgett and local 4-H Volunteer and Homeschool educator Tamara Norris teamed up to attend the 4-H AWW Exploring Our Living Streams (EOLS) Workshop at Weeks Bay. Tamara taught the students about the water environment, water pollution, and how to conduct water monitoring and stream biomonitoring.
In February, Mona traveled down to Tamara’s home in Thomasville to conduct a field day with her students. Each student had placed a leaf pack in a local stream several weeks prior to catch macroinvertebrates. During the class, we observed and compared the critters the students caught and discussed why some waterbodies may have had more or different critters than others. These students had been tested on the EOLS concepts by Tamara, and their water chemistry skills were impressive to say the least! It was clear that Tamara’s use of the curriculum was very effective.
The way Tamara and Wendy worked together to make this happen, with Wendy providing 4-H support all along the way, is a model for our 4-H AWW groups that I hope will be replicated again and again in the coming years.
Congratulations 4-H AWW Clarke County!