AMES, Iowa -- Amidst the smells of livestock, fuel and funnel cakes, the 4-H Exhibits Building at the Iowa State Fair contains projects from students across Iowa.  People can spend hours wandering through the building looking at all the creative exhibitions, but a new program is moving to the forefront of technology and 4-H activities.  

4-H TV is a program from the Iowa 4-H Technology Team that films events and then posts the video online, on the team’s vlog (video log).  The students worked throughout the entirety of the Iowa State Fair, presenting new and exciting projects to inspire interest in 4-H.

“The goal of 4-H TV is to present the public with a variety of interesting topics that can easily be accessed on our Web site,” said 4-H TV member Daniel Stiner.

The team covers events ranging from the fair queen competition, to the speech by Sen. Charles Grassley, to student events such as racecar safety and LEGO League Robotics.

“The LEGO robots activity was a pretty big hit this year.  It drew a lot of attention from all age groups,” Stiner said.

The 4-H TV team posted daily updates on their Web site to keep people up to date on events that were taking place at the fair. 

“We had a great deal of people just stop and watch the televisions [broadcasting video feeds] in the 4-H Exhibits Building” Stiner said.  “This let them check into things they missed while busy with something else.”

“We really learned a lot about setting up a feed and keeping everything running for over a week at the fair,” said Morgan Johnson, another 4-H TV member.  “It’s been a good experience and [is] interesting.”

Because 4-H TV is a relatively new program, it isn’t widely known about and used.  Eventually, the team hopes to have a broad viewer base that checks the Web site whenever new and relevant events take place.

“We don’t know the impact of the Web yet, but it seems to have a positive outlook,” Stiner said. 

In Iowa the 4-H program is administered by Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development and headquartered on the university campus in Ames.

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