The National 4-H Council has created CLOVER, a new platform in educational technology. With over 190 interactive activities online, CLOVER caters to learners from ages 5 to 18. Through the CLOVER site, users can earn rewards and customize their experiences as they progress through the activities. CLOVER also offers hands-on opportunities through downloadable lessons. Whether you’re a student, parent or educator, CLOVER has something valuable to offer to everyone who’s interested in having fun while learning! Join CLOVER today by creating an account at http://4h.org/clover or download the CLOVER mobile app.
Lancaster County 4-H is offering a chance to win 4-H swag! To enter, join CLOVER, complete one of the online projects, take a photo of it and upload it to http://go.unl.edu/cloverdrawing. If you have questions, contact Extension Educator Tracy Anderson at 402-441-7180 or tracy.anderson@unl.edu.
EXAMPLE CLOVER ACTIVITIES:
Cooking Code
Did you know that a recipe is a type of an algorithm? An algorithm is a set of instructions that can be followed to tell someone how to complete a task to get a specific result. In this activity, you’ll follow an algorithm to bake cupcakes, use patterning to decorate those cupcakes, change variables in an algorithm and design an algorithm for others to follow.
Code Your Garden
Welcome to the garden of code! You may not think something outdoorsy, like gardening, can have anything to do with something indoorsy, like coding, but you’d be surprised! In this activity, you’ll identify some computational thinking skills, including pattern recognition, decomposition, abstraction and algorithmic thinking.
Best in Breed
There are hundreds of breeds of dogs! In this activity you’ll get to be a veterinarian and learn how dogs have evolved over time, about the different breeds of dogs and characteristics of each group of breeds.
Engineer a Bee
Bees are vital to agriculture, pollinating over $16 billion worth of crops just in the United States each year. In this activity you’ll learn why bees are important to agriculture, the unique anatomy of bees and how bees work as pollinators.
“I like to learn new things. So I liked looking for projects on Clover and finding the ones that I was interested in.”
—Avery Vlasnik, Lancaster County 4-H’er
“I just like to see how things grow. So I liked doing this project and watching my seeds grow in the little greenhouse!”
—Jaxon Vlasnik, Lancaster County 4-H’er
“From my perspective as the mom: I have planted seeds and baked cookies with my kids before, but I liked having the Clover activities as a guide. It gave the activities structure and provided me with purposeful questions to ask the kids throughout the learning process.”
—Amber Vlasnik, parent