Once a national youth group associated with cows and plows, today’s 4-H aims to cultivate a renewed interest in technology and science education.
Citing studies that show American students lagging behind their foreign counterparts in math and science, 4-H leaders across the nation are focusing on after-school projects that get children excited about these subjects in a hands-on way.
The goal: to offset a work-force shortage of scientists and engineers by helping prepare 1 million youngsters to excel in science and technology by 2013.
“We want to be right there around one of the most serious issues this country faces - getting young people into sciences,” said Donald Floyd, CEO of 4-H, which will hold its National Youth Science Day on Wednesday.
“Four-H has been a player in science issues for over 100 years, but we are changing and adapting to the times and needs of the community and national interest,” he said.
“We see in other nations around the world that really train so many new scientists, and we here in the United States hire a lot of them,” he said. “It would be great if we had a lot more scientists in our own right, so we want to make sure we can spark that imagination in a young person that science is really cool.”
While many have an image of 4-H Club members raising livestock for county fairs, which is still common in certain places, the group has moved steadily beyond its agricultural roots into urban areas for years.
“In rural America, we still have a very strong presence in those communities, but we also do multiple levels of programming, and we want to have an equal footprint: rural, urban and suburban,” said Mr. Floyd, who explained that his organization’s ability to teach subjects like science comes from ties with the nation’s land-grant universities.
In Oregon, for example, 42 percent of the state’s Hispanic youths are involved in 4-H programs. One of the most successful is Tech Wizards, by which students in after-school programs commit 50 hours a year to study and 15 hours to a service project - all geared not only to teaching them science, but also keeping them in school.
Recent efforts include learning how to use software, spatial data, cartography and quality-assurance programs to map the safest routes for students to walk to local schools.
The Tech Wizards also use geographic-information software to take inventory of city trees and create a database to help city workers provide maintenance.
In New York, 4-H students have learned to grow vegetables in a rooftop hydroponic garden. Working with technology designed by scientists at the Cornell University Extension Service, the students use water, rather than soil, to grow vegetables that are sold in local farmers’ markets.
The program not only helps them with agriculture, but also teaches basic business skills.
In storm-struck regions of the Gulf Coast, including Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, 4-H members involved in science projects have used what they learned with GPS and other mapping systems to map out evacuation routes that are now being used by emergency-service first responders.
“It’s not just fun, but a young person can see firsthand how their work in science can lead to helping their communities,” Mr. Floyd said of the program.
In Merced County, Calif., Richard Mahacek is teaching 4-H students robotics in a way that he describes as “hands-on and heads-on.”
Using such basic, inexpensive materials as ice-cream-bar sticks, paper cups, paint-stirring sticks and plastic needles, he helps children see firsthand such concepts as pneumatic movement and ratios, and such applications as gears and motors.
“What we hope happens is, if they do this, they may want to move on and try to learn about advanced robotics,” he said of sparking student interest in higher education and bigger dreams for the future.
Robotics, he added, has been used in agriculture for years, and while many of his students are from urban and suburban areas, he calls such subject matter a natural evolution for 4-H. He has developed his own curriculum and works with about 300 adult volunteers and high school teams, which augment what students are learning at school.
“When we look at science education, they often just look at content. But if all we are teaching is basic book knowledge, then we are missing out on the importance of what they can get out of science, including investigation and figuring out how to make things work.” Mr. Mahacek said.
“A lot of what we are trying to do is teach 21st-century work-force skills, including communication and problem solving. We know that a lot of kids turn off to science in middle school, so we are focusing right at that age.”
Today, 4-H serves about 6 million youths around the world. Many are gearing up to participate in a collective “National Science Experiment” on Wednesday that will focus on water conservation and hydrogen polymers.
The experiment will have participants remove some of the polymer materials contained inside baby diapers and combine them with water. They will observe that the water turns into a gooey solid in the presence of the polymers, which is what makes them useful in water conservation.
“This will create a fun moment that will help shine a spotlight on a critical issue around the world,” Mr. Floyd said. “We hope it’s the kind of moment that will bring focus to the importance of science. I think sometimes people just don’t get it in this country how crucial this problem is.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.