Another great week has wrapped up here in the REEU 2019 summer internship. Week 5 was full of various extension activities, lessons, speakers, demonstrations, and lots of brainstorming and development of ideas for our very own extension project regarding our research. Each group was tasked with designing and implementing an extension activity to relay their research purpose and importance for a younger and more general audience. As a part of this process, we have been testing each other’s games and activities all week long (I think most of us got WAY more into the activities, games, challenges, and competition than any of the children will).

Emily and I have designed a fun and interactive game called “Butternut Bucket Relay” to help educate and apply our scientific findings to children and the general public. We will be implementing this educational game at several extension events coming up next week. The first event, PALS Field Day, will take place next Monday and will include over 200 young children (ages 8-14). We will be working with groups of 12 children at a time for 15 minute stations to speak with them about the general purpose and importance of our research regarding Butternut trees. To simplify and “liven up” our message, we will also play a game of “Butternut Bucket Relay” with the children. The object of the game is similar to most relay races. There will be two teams and each member of the team will be challenged to carry a Butternut seed using a spoon by carefully balancing and delivering the seed back to the starting point. They will then need to successfully toss the Butternut seed into a bucket before the next member of their team is allowed to advance and continue the relay. For the older children, we will also be incorporating a set of trivia questions including basic “Butternut knowledge” that was relayed to them in the introductions of the game. The winning team will receive “Nutter Butter” cookies (or Oreos if they prefer/ have peanut allergies).

The second extension event will be “The Wabash Riverfest” where there will not only be children, but all ages and backgrounds of people from the general public. Here we will attempt to relay quick and memorable facts to our audience while incorporating a light-hearted game of “Butternut Bucket Toss”. The process of designing and practicing this extension activity was a new and fun way to consider the relevancy and relatability of our research to a specific audience. Emily and I were careful to stick to general facts and information regarding our project and the Butternut trees and not dive too deep into the nitty gritty “scientific” details and jargon. We are looking forward to implementing the extension portion of our project next week and evaluating the effectiveness of our efforts. Updates to come next week!

Here's my submission for the contest: