Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Case Study Comparing The Life Skills Development And Knowledge In Youth Participants Of Horseless And Traditional Horse Programs In Utah, Haley M. Johnson, Kelsey L. Hall, Benjamin Scow

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

This study compared four horseless and seven traditional horse participants from Washington County 4-H in Utah for horse knowledge gained and for the development of 10 life skills from Hendricks’s Targeting Life Skills Model: leadership, teamwork, self-responsibility, personal safety, problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, goal setting, communication, and concern for others. This study’s mixed methods design employed interviews to learn about life skill development and quantitative data from a 20-item horse knowledge quiz and demographic survey. The traditional horse youth showed greater development of leadership, self-responsibility, decision-making, goal setting, and communication than the horseless youth. Roughly half of the participants in …

Confluence: Evaluating The Individual Learning Outcomes Of A Combined Citizen Science And Environmental Education Project, Evan A. Harms

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Citizen Science has moved beyond a methodological tool for ecologists to crowdsource data to a novel platform for environmental and informal science education. However, few studies document the individual learning outcomes of citizen science as an educational tool, particularly in youth or extension education. This quantitative study focused on evaluating the individual learning outcomes of an environmental education and citizen science non-formal learning experience about water quality.

In this study, an existing lesson plan using four sequenced activities was adapted for use with West Virginia 4-H summer camps in 2022. Potential outcome areas were first identified from foundational environmental education …

Assessing 4-H And Its Circle Of Courage In A Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility: A Case Study, Elizabeth Steering

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This 4-H case study takes place in a psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) in Kentucky. The PRTF provides clinical services to youth that are not able to be safely maintained in their homes due to having demonstrated unsafe or harmful behaviors. Youth admitted to the PRTF stay for an average of three to six months while they receive intensive therapeutic and psychiatric care as well as medical treatment and public schooling. The current case study incorporates programming from 4-H, which is the youth development program of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), …

Exploring Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In The 4-H Presentation Program, Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, Yu Meng, Steven Worker

The Journal of Extension

Strong communication skills are important in an individual’s personal and professional life; however, research regarding what influences youth’s public speaking self-efficacy is limited. To address this gap, we surveyed youth who participated in a statewide presentation event about their self-efficacy and sources of that self-efficacy. Results show mastery experiences have the greatest relationship to youth’s public speaking confidence. Extension can strengthen youth’s public speaking self-efficacy by increasing the number of presentation opportunities and by removing barriers from participating in existing presentation opportunities.

Understanding The Perspectives Of First-Generation 4-H Members, Kristy Lee Ouellette Phd

Muskie School Dissertations

Informal education programs like 4-H have the potential to expose young people to opportunities and experiences which may lead to increased social and educational capital. Previous research has consistently found that young people thrive within the 4-H Youth Development program.

The study identified commonalities throughout the multiple modes of participation and identified the ways in which participants are indeed on a thriving trajectory. It involved 12 first-generation 4-H members in Maine between the ages of 14-19. Through the use of in-depth interviews and the creation of ecomaps, this qualitative case study uncovered participants’ perspectives of the Maine 4-H program. This …

Rockets: Reaching Our Community Through Kindness, Education, Togetherness And Stem – A Sustainable Communities Project In Sumter County, Georgia, Crystal Perry

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

This poster session highlights the ROCKETS program implemented in Sumter County Schools through UGA Extension. Through the ROCKETS Project in-school sessions, youth with disabilities are provided additional opportunities to belong to a larger group of youth through the Georgia 4-H Program. The ROCKETS Project focuses on Agricultural literacy and STEM education as content areas to cultivate, recruit and graduate the next generation of a highly-skilled diverse workforce.

Citizen Science In 4-H: Youth Volunteer Motivations, Participation, Retention And Scientific Literacy, Veronica Del Bianco

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the influence of volunteer motivation, participation, and citizen science project type on the retention and scientific literacy of 4-H youth volunteers ages 8-19 years participating in science projects. The conceptual model of participation in organized activities (OA) proposed by Bohnert, Fredericks and Randall (2010) was used as a framework for the variables included in the study categorizing them as predictors of participation, participation, program characteristics, or outcomes. A systematic review of volunteer motivations, retention, and scientific literacy in citizen science projects exposed that the literature contains silos of information published in …

Participation In Positive Youth Development Programs And 4-H: Assessing The Impact On Self-Image In Young People, Karen Bloomquist

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to identify relationships between youth involvement in 4-H and self-image. The study also explored whether there were relations between self-image and development of the 5 C’s (confidence, competence, caring, connection and character) of Positive Youth Development. The study focused specifically on the differences in self-image between youth who participate in 4-H and youth who do not.

Participants included 180 youth from grades eight through twelve in the state of Nebraska. Demographic responses indicated that 47% of respondents were male and 53% were female. Approximately 72% of the respondents were not participants in a 4-H …