Wrapping Up in Region 11

Week 12

As our internship comes to a close, we are so thankful for the memories made along the way! It feels like it was just May and we were anticipating all the exciting programs that were to come. We don’t know how it is already August and everything is coming to an end. 


In our last week, we completed a program at Franklin Middle School and finished our last lesson at the Jane Boyd Community House.  At Franklin Middle School, we met with the Cooking Club and demonstrated proper knife skills to prepare fresh salsa. We also discussed why it is important to eat a rainbow of vegetables and fruit every day. Our second activity was completing a $10 meal challenge. The youth were split into groups of four and then had to search through grocery ads to find at least one food from the five different food groups to include in their meal to feed a family of 4 for under $10.  Everyone had a lot of fun with this activity and were excited to present their different meals at the end.


On Tuesday, we completed our last program at Jane Boyd where we reviewed the different parts of a plant including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. We discussed what vegetables fit into each of those categories and then made a FrankenPlant using one vegetable from each category. The youth enjoyed picking out and drawing different vegetables to compose their FrankenPlant with some popular options being tomato heads, celery bodies, and carrot legs. They also tried a rainbow vegetable medley including broccoli, celery, sunflower seeds, cabbage, radish, and zucchini, which we paired with our healthy homemade ranch dip. As a group, we toured the garden one last time and were even able to spot some tomatoes and peppers growing that will soon be ready to harvest!

We would like to thank everyone that supported us throughout our internship. The ISU Extension and Outreach staff in both Linn and Benton Counties have been amazing to work with! We cannot say enough good things about the great people in these counties! It has been such a fun experience getting to share our passions of food science and agriculture with over 1,100 youth! 


On Thursday, we are excited to share about all the programming we have completed over the summer in our final presentation in Ames. You can watch it live on the ISU Rising Star Internship Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/220108296666254/


Goodbye one last time from Region 11,

Tatum and Maelyn