Greene County schools CTE Program hosts Summer Camps
Snow Hill – Greene County Schools Career and Technical Education program sponsored multiple summer camps for students in Middle and High School. All of the camps were led by different CTE Teachers and featured everything from Culinary to Robotics to Agriculture to Medical Sciences.
GCS Robotics Camp participants accepted the Lego Space Challenge by building a basic Mindstorm robot then adding a robot arm to perform various tasks. Next, they built a REV robot designed to compete in the First Tech Challenge competition and programmed the robot to respond to their commands using a game controller. Campers also visited Worth Manufacturing where they saw their automated systems and watched employees operate the machining equipment to build the 3D designs their engineers created. Precision Graphics was kind enough to allow the campers to see their agricultural robot that can follow workers in the field as they harvest crops then carry the picked produce to a collection system and report back to the fields to carry on the task. To top it off, campers visited the campus of ECU where professor Nic Herdon and one of his computer science students allowed the campers to program the Nao robot to move, play music and dance.!
Culinary Camp hosed 9 middle school and high school students. It featured activities not justcentered around teh concepts of a traditional culinary camp but also worked on leadership, collaboration, safety and creativity. Students also learned about the ServSafe program and working in a commercial kitchen. The cooked a variety of recipes including Chocolate Chip Cookies, Bacon Stuffed Hamburgs, Buffalo Chicken Meatballs and Chicken quesadillas. They topped of their Culinary experience with a trip to Pizza Inn where the campers made their very own personal pizzas.
Greene County Health Sciences Camp was held June 19-22. The camp was opened to rising 6-10th graders in Greene County and focused on several of the hundreds of health careers available today. Students enjoyed trips to Campbell University, Country Doctor Museum, Wilson Community College, Greene County EMS and Greendale Forest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Certifications in CPR, First Aid, Stop the Bleed and AED were obtained by all. In addition, students received community service hours by completing a butterfly project for the residents of Greendale Forest.
Two Greene Central HOSA students have sponsored community blood drives this summer, earning them potential scholarship money. Katelynn Walters and Makayla Memmelaar have both planned, scheduled and ran their own blood drives through the American Red Cross.
The Ag department was very busy this summer as well. From June 12-16; there were five GCHS FFA members who attended FFA camp held at the FFA Center at White Lake, where they had the opportunity to build relationships with FFA members from all across North Carolina while competing in many different activities like volleyball, softball, waterball, and many more.
From June 19-23; there were ten participants who attended the Greene in Agriculture Day Camp where participants from grades 6th through 12th were able to explore the many different opportunities in agriculture found in North Carolina. They toured S&N Poultry Education Center in Pinetops to learn how our poultry is raised, A Zoo's Life in Macclesfield to see the exotic side of agriculture, Simply Natural Creamery in Ormondsville for the dairy side of agriculture, and were exposed to the Sustainable Agriculture program at Lenoir Community College. They completed the week by becoming YQCA Certified (Youth for the Quality Care of Animals). This certification taught participants how to care for the health of their animals when it comes to keeping them safe with biosecurity, well fed and how to properly medicate animals if needed.
Rounding out June, four rising sophomore FFA members attended the State FFA Convention in Raleigh to compete in the State Agriculture Tool Identification contest against 60 other FFA teams. They had to properly identify 40 tools out of 200 and the uses of 20 tools. They placed 21 in the state, 4th in the Southeast Region and 2nd in the Neuse Federation!
The summers not over for the AG students as the officers for GCHS FFA will be attending their officer training August 8-10. They will participate in the three components of a total agriculture program, growing leaders, strengthening agriculture, and building communities through team building activities. During this training, the officers will also plan out the years program of activities for the Greene Central FFA Chapter with goals in each of those same areas.
Greene County Schools CTE Coordinator Meredith Wilkes shared that these camps are” great exposure for our CTE program!” She also shared that these camps allow Middle School students to be exposed to what we have to offer at GCHS.”
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