Suchergebnisse

Although camping has been a successful 4-H delivery method, we believed a more intentional approach that viewed camp counseling as a job would allow teen camp counselors to connect skills they were learning with those needed for workforce success. Eighteen Ohio counties participated in a pilot project to test the implementation of this work-based learning approach. 4-H youth development professionals added specific workforce-related topics and made minor changes in their camp counselor training. In addition, they used a performance appraisal process consisting of teens' self-assessment and supervisor assessment. Focus groups were conducted to gain implementation data. Although there were some challenges, this approach took relatively little additional effort, and there were benefits for both counselors and professionals. This intentional approach could be applied to other youth programs.

Partnering has become a growing strategy within the Minnesota Extension 4-H program to support a strong organizational commitment to reach all youth with opportunities to learn, lead, and contribute. A partnership approach requires recognizing the unique contexts in which youth live. Since not all communities are the same, adaptable partnership approaches are essential to developing programs that are responsive to diverse communities. These approaches require staff skills and perspectives that recognize how, with partnerships, we can do better together what each entity could not do alone. Staff with a partnership mindset help pave that pathway. To learn about what a partnership mindset entails and how organizations can support its development, the authors completed a literature review and collected survey data from 32 4-H staff who had successfully developed viable community partnerships to support youth programming in Minnesota, reaching new and typically underserved audiences. Merging youth development research with our survey results, we found that a partnership mindset included persistent effort, effective relationship skills, transparent communication methods, and adaptability. We also learned that organizations can support successful partnership building when they remain adaptable to the needs of varying community contexts and actively provide resources for staff.

Disasters can and do occur on a regular basis. These events, which range from earthquakes to wildfires and other natural and human-made disasters, can happen at any time and often do so with little or no warning. When emergencies occur, they have the potential to affect every facet of life.In this project, members will learn how to effectively prepare for an emergency how emergencies are handled by government agencies and other organizations to respond quickly and appropriately in an emergency or disasterThis sheet outlines activity ideas at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of skill; also gives suggestions on how to tie the activity to STEM, healthy living, civic engagement, leadership and college and career readiness goals.

Retention of volunteers and participants is a critical concern for programs that rely on their manpower, but limited empirical research exists, especially on youth volunteers. This descriptive, cross-sectional quantitative study examined the influence of volunteer motivation, participation, and science project type on the retention of 4-H youth volunteers ages 12 to 19 years participating in science projects in 3 states. An instrument was created for this study that included both existing survey scales and researcher-developed items based on combined research from the citizen science, volunteer development, and youth development fields. The research revealed that consistency and engagement were correlated with the predictors of retention, but race was not. 4-H science programs have a significantly higher likelihood of retaining youth participants than 4-H citizen science programs. Suggestions for youth educators to develop retention strategies are discussed based on the findings and future research into youth volunteer engagement is proposed.

4-H and the Extension Service were instrumental in contributing to the nationwide increase in food production that sustained the United States and its armed forces during World War II. At the onset of the war, the Extension Service distributed essential information at the national, state, and local levels through universities and the 4-H program. 4-H drew upon the intellectual and cultural tradition that they had cultivated to motivate and organize the food effort and help the allies win the war. 4-H's national influence and resources provided eager allies to war-oriented programs. The war had a lasting impact on 4-H as wartime programming and innovations stayed with the organization, leaving 4-H stronger than before. The aid provided by the 4-H program during the war was rewarded by greater funding from the national government, culminating in the Bankhead-Flannagan Act of 1945. This new funding allowed the 4-H program to continue to expand and impart intellectual and cultural traditions on future generations of 4-H'ers.

Contemporary Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) youth are identifying and communicating their identities earlier in childhood then generations before as a result of more awareness and more acceptance. A qualitative study of U.S. 4-H program leaders and Extension directors resulted in an emergent theme around serving LGBT youth. The administrators of 4-H, the largest youth serving organization in the country, recognize the presence and believe the organization to be inclusive. Challenges remain in ensuring youth experience inclusion at all levels of the organization and to manage political and societal pressures resulting from shifting focus friction. ; Published version ; True (Extension publication?)

In response to budget cuts in 2002, 4-H staffing models were restructured. The response by University of Idaho Extension was intended to continue meeting the needs of Idaho's citizens with fewer UI Extension faculty. This staffing reorganization led to the formation of the District III 4-H Team who united to bring stronger 4-H programs to south central Idaho and expand programs to underserved audiences. Information from surveys and interviews over the past seven years reflects the effectiveness, challenges and successes of the District III 4-H Team. In Making the Best Better: 4-H Staffing Patterns and Trends in the Largest Professional Network in the Nation (2007), author Kirk A. Astroth notes a nationwide change in 4-H leadership at the county level from 4-H faculty to program assistants or coordinators. The information gathered in our research may help other states determine staffing models to meet the needs of clientele in these changing times.

The society's social and technological context is in constant change, which causes the need to innovate and experiment changes in higher education, namely as far as teaching and learning strategies are concerned. In this paper, particular emphasis is given to the assessment of the teaching and learning strategy known as Project Based Learning (PBL). Among the features characterizing this strategy, we highlight the possibility that students have of: learning by doing and by applying their own ideas, getting involved in real-world activities applicable to the world of work, researching questions and issues, discussing ideas, and elaborating and executing projects. According to several authors, who will be cited in the article, the PBL methodology makes students more creative and constructive and helps them develop skills for researching and developing solutions to the problems they might face in their professional life, by learning to solve problems with increasingly higher levels of complexity. Students' perceptions on the project based learning strategy were obtained from a sample of subjects attending a course in software development in a Portuguese public higher education institution. This course started in the academic year of 2017/2018 and is integrated in a nationwide pilot project, included in the Portuguese Government initiative INCoDe.2030. The main aim of this course consists of training professionals in the field of computing programming who will develop skills to respond to the needs of the real world, as well as fomenting intervention projects within the community. The predominant methodological strategy in all the course units is anchored in Project Based Learning. The main aim of this paper is to assess the Project Based learning strategy, namely by identifying the students' level of satisfaction and motivation with the strategy used, its strengths and weaknesses, aspects that can be improved, and the skills acquired. The methodology used in this research work is a mixed one, with both qualitative and quantitative characteristics and with procedures associated with experimental research. The main data collection tool used was the survey. The results of this research provide the characterization of the Project Based Learning strategy from students' perspective, and highlight indicators which enable the assessment of the referred strategy's strengths and weaknesses as well as the reference to some skills acquired by the students, aiming to the eventual improvement of the strategy and its extension to other courses. Project Based Learning may constitute an approach which is well received by students and enables them to get involved into the paths of innovation and updating, needed to meet the demands of the 21st century. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This study aimed to conduct an impact assessment on the technology-based extension projects undertaken by the faculty extensionists from the College of Information and Communications Technology to provide a basis for designing sustainable extension activities. Descriptive research was utilized for this study. The researchers employed a survey instrument via Google Form to gather data from the 25 respondents from the city of Cabanatuan, province of Nueva Ecija. Results show that the college caters to a diverse range of beneficiaries. Beneficiary respondents believed that the projects had contributed to their capacity building, computer literacy, and livelihood. Their participation in the extension project made them productive at work and allowed them to develop new knowledge and skills relevant to contributing to community building. The researchers suggest that the results be utilized to design sustainable extension projects, consider partnerships with other higher learning institutions, and conduct regular evaluations and assessments of different extension projects.

This paper seeks to analyse the extent to which organizations can learn from projects by focusing on the relationship between projects and their organizational context. The paper highlights three dimensions of project-based learning: the practice-based nature of learning, project autonomy and knowledge integration. This analysis generates a number of propositions on the relationship between the learning generated within projects and its transfer to other parts of the organization. In particular, the paper highlights the 'learning boundaries' which emerge when learning within projects creates new divisions in practice. These propositions are explored through a comparative analysis of two case studies of construction projects. This analysis suggests that the learning boundaries which develop around projects reflect the nested nature of learning, whereby different levels of learning may substitute for each other. Learning outcomes in the cases can thus be analysed in terms of the interplay between organizational learning and project-level learning. The paper concludes that learning boundaries are an important constraint on attempts to exploit the benefits of project-based learning for the wider organization.