On Sunday December 15th, the Outdoor Pursuits Project Members went on a winter walk to Emily Murphy Park. While we were walking in the snow, we also counted how many birds we saw. We saw a few small birds called chickadees at a small bird feeder that someone set out on one of the trees. That's where most of the birds were. Unfortunately we didn't see any other types of birds but we did see a squirrel. 

After our walk we made smores, and tried different fire starter. We tired cotton ball and Vaseline, water proof matches, flint, dryer lint in a egg carton, wine cork soaked in rubbing alcohol, and newspaper to see which ones would work the best, the longest and the fastest. We also put tea lights in a tin can to see how well it would work as a heat source. Then we made homemade bird feeders that were toilet paper rolls covered in peanut butter and rolled in bird seed. I was excited to see how many birds would visit my backyard now that I had a feeder for them but sadly, no birds like my bird feeder. After that we went to Southgate Mall and went to Enchanted Illumination which is a section in the mall with a collection of winter art work displays with Christmas lights.

The day was fun. I enjoyed the smores the most because I was hungry.

• Nicholas

On Saturday December 14th, Mila, our parents and I volunteered to help the Strathcona Community Hospital Foundation sell truck raffle tickets at a hockey game. That evening, we helped sell 1500 dollars worth of tickets that night just by raising awareness to hockey fans coming in the door. We had fun and the Sherwood Park Crusaders won the game 9-5. The experience was fun and it was a nice way to help the community out. 

• Nicholas

Our first outdoor adventure for 4 H Multiclub this fall took place at the University of Alberta (U of A) in Edmonton. It is an extremely large post secondary institute, with its combined campuses spanning over 200 hectares. Our field trip was to the North campus and this area has many tall buildings, which add to the imposing feel. After we found our group, we took an elevator up to the fifth floor of the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences (CCIS) to visit the observatory.

 The observatory contains an indoors section that has some demonstrations and a small display on the history of telescopes. Looking into the cabinets, there were many old telescopes, some dating to before 1900. Some of these telescopes were used in surveys during the formation of Canada. It also included an interesting device called a “light detector” which dates back to  the 1930s. It  was used by photographers to measure the light in a space so they could set up their camera flash to get the best photos. Using a selenium cell, the device produces a small amount of high voltage electricity which then powers the light detector without the need for batteries.

After seeing all these old devices, there was another display cabinet that contains many space rocks found over the years, with some of them being 10,000-20,000 years old!  Unlike other museums, where these precious stones are only for display, here we were allowed to hold them. While they did not seem very different to the stones that you would find outside, they had some interesting stories behind them. The volunteer told us about a piece of meteor that had come from Mars. While it was forming, it trapped some of the planet's atmosphere. When researchers split the rock open, this small part of the atmosphere was released and allowed the researchers to pinpoint where the rock had come from.

The indoor section of the conservatory also contained two demonstrations. One was a model of a black hole, or at least, how scientists hypothesize it would look. It consisted of a black cloth laid over a hollow wooden frame. The volunteer put weights in the center of the cloth and this caused it to flex and bend, inward and down, creating an upside down cone. Different sized marbles, each representing the various planets, were then swirled around the cloth. The marbles slowly went down the cloth to the center where the weights were. The volunteer then explained how this model shows us, in theory, how a black hole works. She described the event horizon and spaghettification effect. Theoretically, getting sucked into a black hole, would cause the person to stretch infinitely, getting longer and longer. Gross! It was a very interesting discussion.

The other demonstration was a Lego built model of the solar system. It included the sun, earth and our moon. Turning a hand crank on the side, caused the whole mechanism to rotate as it would in space; with the earth spinning fast and the sun spinning quite slow. It also had a pointer that showed where the earth would be in relation to the sun every month. It was quite an impressive and creative display!

After exploring the inside of the observatory, we went outside to look at the telescopes. There are four telescopes in total on the rooftop. Three are housed in their own retracting domes and the fourth one is portable and can be moved around. Three of the telescopes were purchased, however, the 4th one has a unique story. In the 1970s, a researcher at the U of A wanted a new telescope. He asked the University machine shop to build him one, and they obliged. The majority of parts were created at the University of Alberta, with only the lens coming from Japan. The telescope was originally stationed out at Devon, but was later moved back to the north campus for easier access by students. 

Unfortunately, on the night of our field trip it was difficult to see many stars and planets due to the clouds that moved in the sky.  However, Jupiter and four of its moons were very visible, you could even see them with your naked eye! One of the volunteers brought out the smaller telescope called a Sky-Watcher. Through it, Jupiter was even more clearly visible, with the magnification being high enough to see storm rings. We downloaded a neat app that allowed us to see the constellations and identify various stars in the sky. The time passed by very quickly and soon we had to leave. After taking a group photo with all my fellow 4 H members, we said our goodbyes and headed home. This was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it. The U of A observatory is open to the public every Thursday from 7:00  to 8:00 pm and  I would highly recommend visiting it. 

• Matthew

On December 1st, the North West Regional Fair hosted by the Parkland 4H District, happened in Wildwood at the community hall. The day was broken up into 4 activities, The first thing we did was learn to curl. Then we made 4 different Christmas crafts. We also made bird houses with a working front door. Lastly, we learned how to carve food.  I made a truck out of cucumbers, carrots, and cranberries. The lunch was the best! It was taco in a bag with ground beef, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce and it weighed like 5 pounds. They gave us A LOT. There was also juice, donuts and cookies.

The experience was nice and fun. I saw some friends I knew from Wildwood, and also met some new kids. It was well organized and my favorite part of the day was lunch.

• Nicholas

My name is Emily and I am in the Arts and Crafts Project with the Edmonton 4H Multi Club. I'm the new content creator for this 4H year. This year we have thirteen members and five projects. The projects we offer are Arts and Crafts, Foods, Outdoor Pursuits, Video Game Development and Dungeons and Dragons.

Another part of 4H is supporting the community. We recently brought in socks to donate to a local organization that has been helping inner city seniors since 1969, Operation Friendship Senior Society.