Since 2009, the Rutgers 4-H Youth Development department has trained and supported teenagers from several of New Jersey’s biggest cities to lead STEM programming for youth through camps, libraries, and afterschool programs. This July, the program’s 15th cohort of STEM Ambassadors spent a week at Rutgers-New Brunswick to expand their own understanding of STEM topics […]
New State-of-the-Art Composter on the George H. Cook Campus
The Cook Campus Animal Farm has received has received a new state-of-the-art composting system. Earth Flow™, an in-vessel system manufactured by Green Mountain Technologies, has the capacity to automatically process up to 30,000 pounds of compostable materials each month. This aerated in-vessel composter is part of a research and demonstration project. Instead of being disposed […]
NJAES Office of Research Analytics and the Bloustein Local Government Research Center Develop NJ Property Ownership Database
Lucas Marxen, associate director of the Office of Research Analytics, and Marc Pfeiffer, Bloustein Local Government Research Center, worked together to develop he NJ MOD IV Historical Database an online, searchable database of New Jersey MOD IV parcel information data sets from 1989 to 2022. Providing land parcel and property ownership data, the MOD IV database […]
New Jersey Healthy Kids Initiative Teams with Franklin Police Department to Get Kids ‘FranklinFit’
This summer, the New Jersey Healthy Kids Initiative (NJHKI) collaborated with the Franklin Township Police Recreation Department’s FranklinFit afterschool program to offer 30 township middle school and high school students culinary nutrition lessons. The lessons were developed by Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) student ambassadors and taught by Peggy Policastro, director of Behavioral […]
Plant of the Month: Cyclamens – Dancing in the Woodland Garden
by Bruce Crawford, Manager of Horticulture, Morris County Park Commission It is amazing how some plants become pigeonholed into specific categories and on occasion, it is difficult for even experienced gardeners to break free of this mindset. Cyclamen is a plant that is most befitting of this conundrum. Most people think of Cyclamen as a somewhat finicky winter blooming […]
Explorers of the Deep, 4-H Bringing Ocean Exploration to the Classroom
Experts from Rutgers University and National 4‑H Council hosted a live webinar training for over 250 participants on this year’s STEM Challenge, Explorers of the Deep. Designed by Rutgers University, Explorers of the Deep, focuses on the mysteries and adventures of ocean exploration—with robots! The challenge includes three activities which develop observational and critical thinking […]
Plant of the Month: A Colorful Bromeliad for the Holiday Season
December ushers in the winter season and our attention turns indoors for festivities and family for the holiday season. It is also time to buy and gift plants appropriate to the season. The Poinsettia, with its bright red bracts is the traditional plant of the season, but there remain numerous other long lived candidates that […]
President Holloway Announces University Climate Action Plan
Rutgers will establish an Office of Climate Action and work to eliminate greenhouse gases before the university’s 275th anniversary In his second address to the University Senate on Sept. 24, President Jonathan Holloway announced the university’s commitment to a Climate Action Plan and the formation of the Office of Climate Action that will lead the […]
Join the March to Rutgers Gardens Event on September 25
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, September 25, 2021 (rain date: September 26), Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts will co-host a two-mile walk winding from Douglass Campus through Cook Farm to Rutgers Gardens. The March 2RUGardens event is meant to underscore the rich and varied […]
Plant of the Month: Nasturtiums–Great for the Garden and Table
by Bruce Crawford, Program Leader in Home and Public Horticulture Why do some plants have flowers that simply beg for further investigation, while others we can grow for years, perhaps even eat, and never really stop to appreciate the plant for its beauty? I have grown Nasturtiums, botanically know as Tropaeolum majus since youth and […]
