As you wander by cotton candy stands and your favorite rides at the State Fair of West Virginia, make your way to the West Virginia University Mountaineer Country Tent and Underwood Youth Building, where the tradition you will learn to treasure will be you.
Festivities begin Aug. 11 and continue through Aug. 20 at the State Fairs home in Fairlea, Greenbrier County.
As the State Fair reprises last years theme ofA Tradition You Treasure,many WVU exhibitors within the Mountaineer Country Tent will includeHealthy Livingas part of the tradition waiting for your discovery.
Organized by the WVU Extension Service, the Mountaineer Country Tent and the Underwood Youth Building will feature more than 20 WVU departments via displays and activities, many of which will feature health-related information or activities.
Daily contests and prizesalong with a scavenger hunt for kidswill make the fair a fun tradition to treasure.
Plan to dance pounds and stress away in the Mountaineer Country Tent with Dance, Dance Revolution (DDR). An interactive video game, DDR challenges you to a fun dance-off while promoting physical activity.
You will step onto DDR s patterned mat and watch highlighted patterns on the video screen. The contest is underway when your feet must quickly follow the screens highlighted patterns.
WVU and PEIA are collaborating on a study to determine the health benefits of playing Dance Dance Revolution. The study has garnered national media attention, including a featured health segment on CNN as a result of a statewide Associated Press story.
After youve finished a dance contest or two, walk over to the Health Sciences Center exhibit to have your photo taken with Ernie the Skeleton. Dont forget to also gather information on how you and your family can live healthier lives.
A harvest will be waiting for you at the West Virginia Master Gardenersexhibit. The gardeners wont have fruits and vegetables for you, but they will have information on how gardening can help you treasure yourself and your community. Trained by the WVU Extension Service, the volunteers represent a variety of Master Gardener county groups. They will answer your gardening and community service questions as well as invite you to admire the products of their green thumbs.
See how technology can help farmers keep a healthy focus on theirability.The West Virginia AgrAbility exhibit will feature assistive tools and devices for hands-on use. AgrAbility is a program that helps disabled farmers continue to work on the farm by modifying equipment and facilities. AgrAbility will also display a mobility device used to make wheelchairs farm-friendly.
Many hands-on experiences await you at other exhibits, including WVU National Research Center for Coal and Energys popular chocolate chip cookie mining game and its red cabbage acid mine drainage test.
If you have an hour to dedicate to hands-on learning and you are an elementary school teacher.
4-H volunteer or youth group leader, learn how to build a Woodcraft birdhouse. And take your birdhouse home with you. WVU Extended Learning, in cooperation with Woodcraft, developed the class to teach leaders how to make birdhouse building a fun and educational experience. The class will be offered only on Aug. 16, 17 and 18. The class and materials are free.
Switch fromhands-ontofingers-onexperiences when you explore the fingerprinting journey the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences has organized to introduce youths and their families to the colleges Forensic and Investigative Science major.
After you leave the WVU Mountaineer Country Tent, walk a few feet over toHistory Hitting the Road,the 19th century wagon from WVU Jacksons Mill state 4-H Camp in Weston. Wearing 19th-century clothing, the wagonspassengerswill take time to discuss their lives with you. If you arrive at the right time, they may ask you to help them with their paper marbling, candle dipping and other routine activities from the 1800s.
Then step into the future. Thats what youll find at the NASA W .Va. Space Grant Consortium exhibit in the Underwood Youth Building. Ask about the healthy career fields of science, math and engineering.
A little science everyone can appreciate waits for you in Germ City, which is also in the Underwood Youth Building. Germ City is an interactive activity provided by the WVU Extension Service.
BecauseClean Hands Save Lives,Germ City will help both the kids and adults in your fair group learn how to wash their hands properly. You will apply a non-toxic, ultraviolet lotion that glows under black lights in the tunnel. Then you will wash thegermsoff and re-enter the tunnel. If your hands have been washed effectively, the lotion will disappear, and thegermswill be gone.
Learn how to treasure yourself by visiting the WVU Mountaineer Country Tent and Cecil Underwood Building. The schedule of events varies from day to day.
For a full schedule of activities, times and datesand for a peek inside the tent via a Webcamvisit the WVU Extension Service Web site,www.wvu.edu/~exten/.
As part of the festivities, the WVU Extension Service broadcasts live images via the Web daily from the fairgrounds. From opening to closing, approximately 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the WVU FairCam will display images from the WVU Mountaineer Country Tent. To see the FairCam in action now, launch the WVU FairCamwebsite.