4-H, which has been associated with agricultural education for decades, is expanding its science and technology curriculum.
By Kathleen Jamison

There was a time not long ago when providing children with strong analytical, creative, and communication skills was enough to give them the tools they needed to be fully functional citizens. In the 21st century, however, that skill set now must also include a firm grasp of science, engineering, and technology. Those are the tools that enable youth to turn their knowledge into action, to become innovators and engineers, and to effect positive change both in their own communities and across the globe.

By that measure, American students are lacking exposure to the programs and curriculum that give them technical skills. Consider this: Only 32.4 percent of undergraduates in America are leaving college with a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering. In Japan and Germany, by way of comparison, more than 60 percent of college students obtain science or engineering degrees, and in China the figure is 56 percent.

In an effort to improve knowledge and application of science, engineering, and technology, there has been a recent increase in new out-of-school programs. Working in conjunction with the more formal in-school curriculum, such programs are playing an integral part in improving science, engineering, and technology literacy. One organization that has renewed its dedication to addressing this issue is 4-H. As America’s largest youth organization, with an unparalleled reach to six million children nationally, 4-H is launching a series of campaigns and programs designed to develop passion for science, engineering, and technology at an early age.

While most people perceive 4-H to be bound to agricultural science, nutrition, and citizenship programs, the organization has much more to offer in the sciences. The organization’s 106-year history reveals a long-standing devotion to engineering education.

In the 1940s, for instance, electrical engineering committees started forming in rural areas, and they brought a new awareness of circuitry and control systems to those communities. Around the same time, farm equipment became more mainstream, which gave people opportunities to learn more about small-engine design. Because 4-H projects mirrored societal needs and advancements, youth began learning more about electrical and mechanical engineering, and how these disciplines applied to their everyday life.

The more they learned, the more they wanted to demonstrate their newfound knowledge. Consequently, these enterprising young people began creating opportunities to showcase their skills in the form of regional engineering events in the 1950s and national events in the 1970s.

Richard Mahacek, county director and 4-H youth development advisor at the University of California, has fond memories of that time when he was a 4-H’er during the 1960s. “Typically, when we think of 4-H, we think of animals and agriculture,” Mahacek said. “What I really got out of 4-H was a better understanding about electricity by participating in electrical projects. We made toy buzzers and electromagnets. It was an opportunity to internalize and understand electricity, not from a textbook, but from hands-on activities that brought those concepts to life.”

As a 4-H member for nine years and a working member of the organization for more than 30, Mahacek currently oversees 4-H in Merced County and is a member of the state and national science, engineering, and technology (SET) program. Mahacek works with kids from fifth through eighth grades to teach them about design, electricity, torque, gears, motion, and force via a robotics curriculum.

“4-H supplements what young people can get in the school setting,” Mahacek said, “which is even more critical now than in the 1960s because of the reduction in vocational and industrial classes. Kids today don’t have many opportunities to do hands-on activities. Too many times, kids get the answer correct on the test in school, but they have no idea why or how something works in a real-life situation.”

Because many 4-H projects are created to bridge scientific knowledge and engineering principles, youth can build a solid foundation to which they can gradually add more advanced concepts. “We try to meld inquiry learning with experiential learning so we are giving them a chance to explore information, letting them internalize the concepts to create their own knowledge, and then to apply their understanding to other applications,” Mahacek said.

The projects that Mahacek oversees are just some of the five million 4-H science, engineering, and technology projects in communities across America. Because of its reach and existing SET curricula, 4-H considers itself positioned to help promote science education in urban and suburban settings as well as in rural areas. And this year, the organization has taken steps to expand on its hands-on, technical projects and a curriculum developed with the help of some of the nation’s leading universities.

By 2013, 4-H plans to expand its SET program by preparing one million additional youth in technical subjects and exposing them to a variety of potential careers in engineering-related industries. In support of that goal, 4-H recently launched a public service campaign called “One Million New Scientists. One Million New Ideas.” Additionally, the organization launched its first-ever 4-H National Youth Science Day on October 8 of this year with the goal of encouraging youth to pursue science as well as other technical careers.

The combination of 4-H’s established curricula and newly expanded national SET initiatives has reinvigorated the organization’s commitment to the sciences. In 2003, 4-H established a SET Working Group to evaluate opportunities to strengthen SET education. As a result, 4-H established a goal to develop and deliver SET programs whose content is relevant to youth, no matter their location or background. 4-H is also making changes to provide a wide variety of SET programs that meet the National Science Education Standards (NSES). The organization is creating processes for constantly evaluating, revising, and developing new 4-H SET curricula to meet new developments and changes in science, engineering, and technology. All of these initiatives are strengthening 4-H’s ability to better prepare youth for the skills they will need later in life.

In addition to increased internal resources for SET initiatives, some corporations have stepped up to the plate and offered grants in support of national SET programs. For example, this spring, Toyota awarded 4-H a grant of nearly $1.5 million to introduce a multitiered environmental curriculum that focuses on water conservation. The new program includes 4-H2Online—an interactive learning experience that connects youth to water conservation issues and environmental engagement. Support from the 3M Foundation has also enabled the organization to launch a nationwide curriculum called The Power of the Wind. That cutting-edge educational resource teaches youth how to use engineering principles to design and build alternative energy projects, utilizing wind as the primary resource.

Mentors help guide youth in 4-H programs and can provide career counseling. This technology group meets at Fort Meade, Md.

4-H has an existing system for disseminating its hands-on curriculum quickly to the local level. As part of the Cooperative Extension System of the United States Department of Agriculture and the 106 Land-Grant Universities across the country, 4-H’s science and engineering programs are created by researchers from leading universities in every state. Those programs are then distributed throughout the 4-H community with partner youth development organizations and within school systems. What’s more, youth development professionals and community volunteers, operating from Cooperative Extension offices located in every state and county in the U.S., teach from the newly developed curricula within months of its approval.

Because of this rapid dissemination, students in 4-H programs can work on projects dealing with such cutting-edge technology as robotics and uses of the Global Positioning System. Aaron Schroeder, a recent graduate of California State University in Fresno now working as a project engineer, credits the opportunity he gained in a 4-H robotics club for honing his skills in mechanical engineering and communication. “We had to have attention to detail and good communication skills,” Schroeder said. “We had to present our projects, and when I became a junior leader in 4-H, I had to have a good understanding of what I was talking about and effectively communicate those principles to other people.”

Another 4-H member, 19-year-old Anna Grimley, is a freshman at Iowa State University majoring in engineering. She is a third-generation 4-H member who started out in sewing and ended up in rocketry activities. After overcoming resistance from some of her peers—“I wanted to prove that girls could do science and math,” Grimley said—she began building rockets, which she painted pink for additional flair.

Grimley said the communication skills she gained from presenting her projects and teaching younger team members about rocketry will prove invaluable to her career as an engineer. “It’s a huge thing to find women in engineering,” she said, “but engineers also have to communicate well with others.”

Some of the more recent 4-H technology programs still have roots in the organization’s agricultural heritage. A program for students in Nebraska, for example, uses robotics and geo-spatial principles to teach local youth about the science and engineering that are behind precision agriculture, which is widely used in the region. Bradley Barker, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who helped create that curriculum, said that the youth involved in the project responded to the hands-on nature of their work.

“Youth are on the floor, working in teams with a ton of cool equipment,” Barker said. “We also do community mapping projects where kids map their schools. They take coordinates and build maps. It’s personally relevant to them.”

Barker also helps young people make the connection between what they are doing in 4-H and what they could be doing in the future—careers in mechanical engineering, programming, or robotics. “We want to help kids know these careers are out there,” Barker said. “We talk to middle school students and encourage them take the right classes that will better prepare them in high school and college.”

Science, engineering, and technology education is a topic of national debate—and deservedly so. Educators, parents, and politicians have noted that more needs to be done in schools to better prepare students and encourage them to enter engineering and technology-oriented fields.

But the reality is that schools themselves won’t be enough. The field of engineering still needs a longer reach to inspire under-represented youth to pursue technology-related careers—or to simply think like engineers and scientists. Because out-of-school programs like those offered by 4-H are so rich in hands-on projects and adult participation, they already have gone a long way toward achieving those goals.

They will also play a major role in strengthening America’s competitive position and in ensuring that those young people are fully functioning citizens in the 21st century.

Kathleen Jamison is an associate professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University at Blacksburg and serves as national project director for SET curriculum for the National 4-H Council.