Education

My Connecticut Woods

Middlesex County Extension Center Announces a Year-long Series of Twelve Workshops for Woodland Owners and Nature Lovers called My Connecticut Woods. Workshop #1: Field Trip to a Local Vernal Pool Come join us as the UConn Extension Forestry Team and guest lecturers explore a variety of topics about Connecticut’s natural resources. Each class will begin […]

Land Use Academy Wins Award From CT Planners

CLEAR’s Land Use Academy has won the 2014 Education Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association. The Academy, created in 2007, provides basic training for municipal land use commissioners on roles and responsibilities, legal requirements and site plan reading, as well as advanced training on emerging topics. As we all know, land […]

CLIR: Forever Learning

By Cathleen Love and Betty Heiss   The Center for Learning in Retirement (CLIR) became an UConn Extension program in 2013. CLIR’s mission is to provide meaningful intellectual activities for adults from all walks of life, which closely matches with Extension’s mission to provide the knowledge and expertise of the university through outreach and public […]

Eating Healthy with UConn Extension

In March, four classrooms of 2nd grade students at Morris Street School in Danbury explored tasting new vegetables like green beans, sugar snap peas, carrots and cauliflower in celebration of National Nutrition Month. Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and UConn Extension Educator Heather Peracchio MS, RDN talked about the importance of eating a variety of different color […]

Get Ready to Guac and Roll!

By Catherine Hallisey FoodCorps Connecticut Service Member It all started with me holding up an avocado, screaming enthusiastically, “WHO IS READY TO GUAC AND ROLL?!” Unfortunately, my quirky pun did not elicit the response I had hoped for— instead students started groaning, “ewww that’s green” and “where’s the ranch?!” even “I am not touching that!” Although […]

Creating a Birdseed Bag Tote

Photo & Article: Susan Pelton for UConn Extension   This has certainly been a very cold winter and so many of the feathered species that remain in Connecticut rely on backyard feeders for a good amount of their nourishment. If you are providing for the birds in your yard (as we are) you are probably […]

Spring Bedding Plant Meetings

The ‪UConn Extension‬ Spring Bedding Plant Meetings were held the first week in February in our Torrington and Vernon offices. We had good attendance of 35 in Torrington and 37 in Vernon, in spite of the weather! #UConnExtension’s Rosa Raudales spoke on Feeding Greenhouse Crops and Monitoring Water Quality. Yonghao Li of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station […]

Master Gardener Signature Outreach Projects

The UConn Extension Master Gardener Program is an educational outreach program that started in 1978 and consists of horticulture training and outreach component in the community. Master Gardeners are enthusiastic, willing to learn, and share their knowledge and training with others. What sets them apart from other home gardeners is their special horticultural training. In […]

Privacy and Mobile Devices

By German Cutz, Ed.D. for UConn Extension   Your Private Information: At Risk on Mobile Devices With easy access to mobile devices your personal and private information are at risk. Ninety five percent of Americans use one or more cellular phones, tablets, laptops, GPS (Global Positioning System), and other mobile devices. Most cell phone users […]

Vegetable Workshops

UConn Extension will offer two workshops on pests and diseases of vegetable crops this February.  These workshops will cover common and important pests and diseases of four vegetable families: Cucurbitaceae (cucumber, squash, melon and pumpkin), Brassicaceae (cabbage family), Solanaceae (tomato, potato, pepper and eggplant), and Fabaceae (legumes/beans and peas).   The emphasis will be on identification […]

4-H FANs IM Family Night

The 4-H FANs IM program has created this great video on Family Night that showcases what the program is all about.   Connecticut Fitness and Nutrition Clubs In Motion, is a 4-H Afterschool program designed to reduce obesity rates in children ages 9 to 14, through sustainable interventions surrounding food and fitness.  The program is a […]

Garden Programs in Fairfield County

Originally published by Naturally@UConn on December 16, 2014 Written by: Kim Markesich Fairfield County gardening programs teach nutrition, integrated pest management and life skills The Fairfield County Extension Center Demonstration Garden The Fairfield County Extension Center hosts a variety of gardening programs, and the season just past was a successful and bountiful one. With the support of […]

Where to go for Food Safety Information?

By Diane Wright Hirsch UConn Extension Educator/Food Safety   The late fall, early winter holidays can be a busy time for home cooks. Whether you are preparing a traditional holiday turkey, a favorite side dish of greens from your garden, or attempting something new like a goose or Connecticut oysters, the food safety implications of […]

PEP: Building Communities

People Empowering People (PEP) – Building Communities By Robin Drago and Cathleen Love for UConn Extension   The People Empowering People (PEP) Program is a personal and family development program with a strong community focus. PEP builds upon individual life experiences and strengths to encourage growth in communication and problem solving skills, parent and family […]

Extension App Challenge

The UConn Extension App Challenge is a contest to develop innovative apps that tie UConn’s research to real life. Students are invited to work with a UConn Extension faculty member to develop software applications for smartphones, tablets, or web browsers that create greater community access to UConn science, research, and information. Students developing the most […]

Blue-Green Algae

Prolonged dry conditions can cause problems; one of these is blue-green algae, which can overgrow in a stagnant pond. Aerating a pond can prevent blue-green algae, but if this is not possible the pond should be fenced off from livestock and avoided by humans and companion animals.   Examining a water sample under a microscope […]

Youth Internet Masters

Standing (left-right) Dr. German Cutz, UConn Extension Youth Internet Master’s (YIM) instructor, State Representative Dan Carter, Marlene Ho-Yen and a representative from the Ecuadorian Civic Center (fourth from the left) were our special guests at the Youth Internet Master’s (YIM) graduation ceremony.  YIM is a UConn Extension program that teaches Webpage design by introducing students […]

UConn Extension Recognizes Award Winners

Each year the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources and the College’s Alumni Association host their annual Awards and Honors event. This event has a long history of recognizing outstanding and distinguished alumni, faculty, staff and supporters, including outstanding individuals of UConn Extension. Excellence in Outreach Award –The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program […]

Danbury PEP Graduates

On Friday, April 11th, 17 Danbury parents graduated from our People Empowering People (PEP) parent leadership program.  At left are the graduates and their children who performed at the graduation held at Hatter’s Park.  Many of them also traveled to Hartford in March for Early Childhood Advocacy Day, where they spoke with State Representatives Bob Godfrey […]

Be A Scientist for a Day

UConn Extension is hosting a large-scale statewide science project on May 8th   On May 8, 2014, UConn Extension is asking the public to join our faculty, staff, 4-H volunteers, and master gardeners in a vast science project across the state, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of UConn Extension. One hundred years ago on […]

Rain Forests, Intelligent Consumption

By Thomas Worthley-Assistant Extension Professor, Forestry Stewardship Recently an article on the environmental information website Environmental News Network caught my attention because it advocated the slowing of tropical deforestation as a key action to “significantly cut the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere”. As a professional forester, I am always heartened […]

Build Your Network, Grow Our Future

  Wednesday, February 19, 2014 8:30am – 1:30pm   East Windsor, CT Scout Hall Youth Center   Admission Fee: Free   A networking event to strengthen Connecticut’s agricultural community. This program is designed for farmers in their first ten years of commercial production. The program is a cooperative effort of UConn Extension, the Connecticut New […]

Alumni Jennifer Cushman Honored

Jennifer Cushman, UConn Animal Science Alumni with a master’s in education, recently recognized with an “Outstanding Young Member” award by the National Association of Agricultural Educators. This award is one of six hundred given nationwide by the 8,000 member professional group for agricultural educators. Cushman is currently the head Agri-Science teacher at Glastonbury High School’s […]

Barnum 4-H School Garden

This was originally posted by Organic Gardening 365.  Question: What do you get when you cross the savvy leadership training skills of 4-H with a Bridgeport, CT school that wants to teach kids responsibility through gardening? Answer: The Barnum School 4-H Garden. The Barnum School 4-H Garden is a display of hard work and great […]

4-H Saturday Science

Denise Coffey of the Reminder News covered the first 4-H Saturday Science Program at Windham County Extension: “The Windham County Extension Center in Brooklyn hosted the first 4-H Science Saturday on Nov. 16. Program Coordinator Marc Cournoyer led a group of youngsters through “Maps and Apps,” an exercise in map-reading and map-making. With nods to […]

FoodCorps Program Update

The 2013 school year in Connecticut is turning out to be an interesting one. In New London, a giant apple showed up to a cafeteria to hand out apple chips, apple cider, and applesauce from apples donated by Palazzi Orchard in Killingly. At North Windham Elementary, 4th and 5th graders were seen standing outside on a […]

Spooky Science

UConn 4-H hosts Spooky Science activities at Community Event In Griswold More than 100 kids and their families stopped by the UConn 4-H booth at the Spooktopia day at Veterans Memorial Park in Griswold, CT on Saturday, October 26th to learn a bit of Spooky Science from 4-H STEM educator Marc Cournoyer.  Dressed as a mad scientist […]

Hartford Job Corps Learns about FoodChoice

UConn Extension’s Heather Pease did a Food Day Photovoice Project on October 24th with Dr. Debarchana Ghosh from the Geography department at UConn as part of Extension’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. The program was conducted at the Hartford Job Corps program and is the second Photovoice project the team has completed for Hartford […]

Danbury 4th Graders & Root Vegetables

 “1…2…3…crunch!,”was the sound of  children at Morris Street school in Danbury as the 4th graders bit into a fresh crispy radish slice followed by a soft sweet sliced beet.  Students enthusiastically described the colors, tastes and textures of the root veggies as they explored new flavors this Fall at the Farmers Market. Heather Peracchio, Registered […]

Smartphones and GPS

by David Dickson Smartphones are the swiss army knife of the digital world. They have replaced countless single-function gadgets from calculators to cameras to pagers to, um, phones! But for mapping geeks, one of the gadgets they have not quite been able to shake is the handheld GPS unit—at least until now. The Geospatial Training Program […]