The Skillathon: Program Evaluation Can Be Fun!

Extension professionals continue to look for innovative methods to evaluate programs, especially tools that capture improvements in skills but are not burdensome to participants. This article describes how an often-used educational activity, the skillathon, can be adapted easily for use as an assessment tool well suited for documenting skill changes. The authors used this technique successfully for 3 years with up to 35 special needs youth per session to assess skills learned in the RCE Youth Farmstand Program. Participants describe the skillathon assessment as fun and one of the best parts of the program

Journey to Successful Collaborations

Due to ongoing budgetary restraints, reduced staffing, and other challenges to continued program growth, Extension personnel must understand how to bring together the resources needed for successful programming and sustainability. The most effective way to accomplish this is through collaboration. Unfortunately, . . . little is written describing how to approach the developmental process [italics added] of collaboration (Gardner, 2005). This article provides readers with an easy to understand, step-by-step guide for navigating the road to successful collaborations

Training Teens to Teach Agricultural Biotechnology: A National 4-H Science Demonstration Project

This article discusses a National 4-H Science agricultural biotechnology demonstration project and the impact of the pilot programs on the teenage leaders and teachers. A total of 82 teenagers were extensively trained, who in turn, engaged 620 youth participants with agricultural biotechnology education in afterschool and summer programs in five states. This article details the national and state level trainings for these teen teachers as well as the content rich partners from agribusinesses, agricultural commodity groups, and universities who supported their involvement. The impact on the content knowledge, science process and life skills, and program development and implementation skills of the teen leaders and teachers was evaluated using multiple instruments over multiple administrations (pre-training, post-training, and post-teaching). Results indicate significant gains in most areas assessed. Project recommendations and future plans are also discussed

Evaluating the Social and Economic Factors Related to Successful Labor Force Development for the Value-added Forest Products Industry in Northwestern Louisiana (Bulletin #871)

This bulletin explains the goal to develop the secondary forest products industry while adding value to existing resources, creating employment opportunities with transferable skills and maintaining the stewardship of renewable resources in rural communities.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_bulletins/1029/thumbnail.jp

Science Saturdays: A Ground Up Approach to Partnering with Content-Rich Corporate Volunteers

This article discusses the pilot year of a 4-H Science project in which Mercer County 4-H partnered with content-rich corporate volunteers of a global STEM corporation to plan and implement six Science Saturdays for 4th-7th grade youth from Trenton and surrounding urban neighborhoods. The program was a ground up initiative designed and implemented by a core group (mostly women), which expanded to include 31 corporate volunteers by the end of the pilot year (2013-2014). The Science Saturdays were held once a month with each session focused on a different theme and included demonstrations or experiments along with other supporting activities. While all four program goals were met during the pilot year, results from the 4-H Science Common Measures survey did not reveal significant increases or improvements in youth outcome objectives. Findings and implications are discussed, as well as current and future programming

The SCANS Skills and Competencies Checklist: An Assessment Tool for Youth Work Readiness Programs

The SCANS Report for America, 2000 (1992) identified the skills youth need to compete in the workplace. The not-for-profit sector responded by implementing programs designed to give at-risk youth opportunities to learn the skills and competencies required to be work ready. Program evaluators, however, are challenged with the need to assess behavioral changes, which at best are difficult to document. In addition, at-risk youth often do not perform well with traditional paper and pencil assessments (for a variety of reasons). Improvements in SCANS attributes must be captured while the youth are engaged in learning and practicing the desired skills and behaviors. The SCANS Skills & Competencies Checklist, developed by evaluators of the RCRE Youth Farmstand Program, is a tool that can be customized easily for use with youth work readiness programs that include an experiential learning component

From Kickoff to Handoff: Coaching Teens to Tackle STEM Literacy

This article discusses how intensive, content-rich, multiple-day conferences for teams of youth and their adult coaches can be used to initiate the training and planning needed for teens to successfully serve as STEM teachers. The concepts are based on three 4-H teens as teachers projects that included 29-36.5 hour initial training conferences. Teenagers (173) completed pre/post surveys on STEM knowledge, skills, careers, resources, and teaching ability. The teenagers exhibited increases in these areas for all three conferences. The authors discuss the common elements of these conferences, provide implementation examples and suggest resources that support this type of training

Science Saturdays: A Ground Up Approach to Partnering with Content-Rich Corporate Volunteers

This article discusses the pilot year of a 4-H Science project in which Mercer County 4-H partnered with content-rich corporate volunteers of a global STEM corporation to plan and implement six Science Saturdays for 4th-7th grade youth from Trenton and surrounding urban neighborhoods. The program was a ground up initiative designed and implemented by a core group (mostly women), which expanded to include 31 corporate volunteers by the end of the pilot year (2013-2014). The Science Saturdays were held once a month with each session focused on a different theme and included demonstrations or experiments along with other supporting activities. While all four program goals were met during the pilot year, results from the 4-H Science Common Measures survey did not reveal significant increases or improvements in youth outcome objectives. Findings and implications are discussed, as well as current and future programming

Training Teens to Teach Agricultural Biotechnology: A National 4-H Science Demonstration Project

This article discusses a National 4-H Science agricultural biotechnology demonstration project and the impact of the pilot programs on the teenage leaders and teachers. A total of 82 teenagers were extensively trained, who in turn, engaged 620 youth participants with agricultural biotechnology education in afterschool and summer programs in five states. This article details the national and state level trainings for these teen teachers as well as the content rich partners from agribusinesses, agricultural commodity groups, and universities who supported their involvement. The impact on the content knowledge, science process and life skills, and program development and implementation skills of the teen leaders and teachers was evaluated using multiple instruments over multiple administrations (pre-training, post-training, and post-teaching). Results indicate significant gains in most areas assessed. Project recommendations and future plans are also discussed