A college campus experience for my middle schoolers

Three days of learning and experiencing life in the residence halls on a college campus was all part of the 4H Connecting Kids to Campus conference we attended this past weekend.

The conference is run by UMaine's Cooperative Extension 4-H program and invites 12- to 17-year-olds (kids not enrolled in 4-H program can attend this program) to the Orono campus to introduce them to college with workshops choices representing a wide variety of academic departments. The not-so-subtle message from the conference to the kids - going to college should be in your future.

The girls had about 20 different workshop options to choose from but could only make 3 choices. There was much indecision from both of my girls about which workshops to choose when registration time came around (there were team building group experiences, pool time, a movie and other large group activities in addition to workshops too for the 3-day conference).

One of the workshops both girls chose was in the food science department. The focus was on the science behind ice cream and blueberries. The girls thought it was a BIG treat to not only learn the chemistry behind ice crystals in ice cream - the smaller the ice crystals, the more creamy the frozen confection - but to have a chance to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

And in case you didn't know, you just pour the liquid nitrogen into the ice cream mixture and voila! It's frozen.

Then you eat it.

Yes, you can eat liquid nitrogen.

Actually, many kids eat liquid nitrogen ice cream because that's how they make Mini Melts and Dippin' Dots, those cups of colorful little ice cream balls you see at amusement parks and at the grocery store.

The kids first made ice cream in LL Bean ice cream maker balls (yes, the do work and after 10 minutes of rolling, the ice cream was the consistency of soft serve and very tasty).

Then they tried the liquid nitrogen, which took about 10 seconds to make a much firmer ice cream.

My kids preferred the soft serve consistency from the ice cream balls, which was the minority of the group. The liquid nitrogen was just too cool (literally) for most to agree that the soft serve was better.

The kids also learned about pH in blueberries in the UMaine kitchen, and how to change that pH using vinegar and baking soda (and because the kids in the group were all familiar with these ingredient's chemical reaction they had to combine the two to make the beaker mixture foam and bubble over at the end).

The kids used a pH sensor tool to determine the pH in the blueberry extract, then with vinegar added, and then again with baking soda.



That workshop was a lot of fun and we got to see some very cool commercial kitchen equipment.

The commercial freezer was impressive, as was the freeze-drier, smoker, cheese making vat and a bunch of other large-scale appliances the kids had never seen before.

The next class took G. off to the campus farm to see a demonstration with standard bred horses. It turned out that the 2-week old fowl stole the show at the barn.

L. opted to visit the Biomedical Engineering/Advanced Robotics (BEAR) Laboratory to learn about robotic surgery. The professor running the lab made sure each workshop participant had a chance to do some open heart surgery while in the lab.

It was great hands-on learning for the kids (with assistance from the lab staff because this was a seriously advanced robotics experience). And learning about the R&D they're doing at UMaine is quite fascinating. They're working on developing sensors so surgeons can "feel" the tissue they're working on at the end of the scope (based on pressure and resistance).

The girls also spent some time in the Innovation Center on campus. Their class focused on developing a popcorn flavor and then learning how to market and sell their new product. I didn't attend this particular workshop but the kids had rave reviews about the experience of learning how to start their own business.

If you have middle schooler or a young high schooler, I highly recommend taking them to a campus to learn what college has to offer (take them long before the campus tour time junior and senior year).

My kids have enjoyed every visit to UMaine's Orono campus (they've been several times in the past couple of years) and both believe UMaine is where they want to go to college. Whether they end up at that campus or another doesn't matter to me. They have seen a variety of academic departments that can open up all sorts of career possibilities for them to explore. They just assume they're going to go to college and that's exactly what I want them to think.

Thanks UMaine!