The University of Arizona Transition to Teaching Program in collaboration with the Cochise County 4-H Youth Development program, held their summer camp last week.

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The camp started on Tuesday and ended on Thursday at Douglas High School.

The Transition to Teaching program prepares teachers for the rigors and rewards of teaching on the U.S./Mexico border. Through the exploration of film, art, dance and culture, they gain an understanding of the rich and complex cultural life that characterizes border living.

Being involved in 4-H gives youth that extra edge for life success by offering numerous opportunities to develop leadership, responsibility, citizenship and other life skills. They help develop competent, caring and actively engaged citizens who strengthen our communities. Through their research-based curriculum and university ties, they open up doors to different interested such as aerospace to gardening to dog care to robotics to horse to any project you can imagine.

Last week leaders from the 4-H and student teachers of U of A, helped the kid grow pumpkins in the DHS land lab and harvest rain water for drinking.

They also worked on Lego Robotics using software and hardware to create small, customizable and programmable robots.

“I had a lot of fun, I learned about chain reaction and how to make robots out of Legos,” said Roberto Garcia one of the participants at the camp.

During the week campers were able to make a video presentation. They learned how to edit, add graphs, pictures and sound to their videos.

“We are working on a video on how to make our schools better, I learned a lot of new thinks while still enjoying myself,” Alex Duarte said another camp participant.

There were an estimated 35 campers from fifth through eighth grade with seven U of A transition to teaching students and three 4-H leaders.

“I hope they come back, and I’m also hoping during the year to join the 4-H group,” Duarte said.