New UNH Summer Camp Teaches High School Students About Agricultural Science

New England high schoolers interested in learning about agricultural science this summer – and spending time canoeing on Great Bay – are invited to attend a new residential summer camp offered by the University of New Hampshire College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, according to a press statement.

“Agriculture, Food, and the Environment Summer Youth Program” runs August 2-8, 2015, for students ages 15 to 17, and is now open for registration.

The camp will educate students about agriculture and its relationships to the natural and human-impacted environment, including how UNH researchers are working to maximize positive interrelationships among these. Activities include visits with faculty to the UNH dairies, research farms and greenhouses operated by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, demonstrations of laboratory analyses, explorations of local ecosystems, canoeing, gardening, and learning about healthy eating and nutrition. The camp culminates with a lunch with parents prepared by campers using fresh, local ingredients.

Andrew Ogden, a lecturer in horticulture at UNH, organized the camp. “Our goal is to expose high schools students to the exciting worlds of agricultural and environmental sciences. Students will learn a great deal about their local food system and what process are in place that enable food to arrive to their plates each day. In addition, our UNH farms and facilities are at their peak of activity during the summer months when most students are not here. We are very excited to show off some of the great research and related work our faculty conduct during the summer,” Ogden said.

The camp fee is $700. To register, visit events.unh.edu/RegistrationForm.pm?event_id=17741.

For more information, contact Andrew Ogden at andrew.ogden@unh.edu or 603-862-4893.

Founded in 1887, the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agricultureis UNH’s original research center and an elemental component of New Hampshire’s land-grant university heritage and mission. We steward federal and state funding, including support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to provide unbiased and objective research concerning diverse aspects of sustainable agriculture and foods, aquaculture, forest management, and related wildlife, natural resources and rural community topics. We maintain the Woodman and Kingman agronomy and horticultural farms, theMacfarlane Greenhouses, the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, and the Organic Dairy Research Farm. Additional properties also provide forage, forests and woodlands in direct support to research, teaching, and outreach.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state’s flagship public institution, enrolling 13,000 undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students.