According to the article “Why Is environmental Education Important for Kids” on the website Rubricon, environmental education promotes critical and creative thinking skills and inspires kids to become more engaged with their communities. It helps kids understand why the environment is important and provides them with the building blocks they need to live eco-friendly and sustainable lives. (https://www.rubicon.com/blog/environmental-education-for-kids)   Many times youth do not have or take advantage of education opportunities in their own communities, let alone get to experience a diverse opportunity of ecosystems and environmental education that is different than their own. 

Forty-two youth, 2 volunteers, 1 Agriculture/Natural Resources Agent and 7 4-H Youth Development Agents from 8 Western Kentucky counties (Caldwell, Crittenden, Hancock, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Meade, and Muhlenberg) were able to experience many facets of environmental education learning by attending Camp Jekyll 4-H Environmental Camp April 2-6, 2023. Camp Jekyll is a 4-H Environmental Camp that is located on the Georgia coastline.  This camp focuses on educating youth about marine ecosystems, marine conservation, and the environment. Participants were taught the following classes by degreed natural resources educators employed by the camp: beach ecology, maritime forest ecology, salt marsh ecology, fish dissection, environmental issues, sloughing, and comparing the north and south end beaches’ ecosystems.

Objectives and goals of the program included:

1. Apply knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom to real life situations and learn about global impacts and how actions, even in their local area, can impact the environment as a whole. 
2. Provide experiences in using scientific processes, such as observing, measuring, and classifying while developing an awareness, curiosity, and appreciation for the environment.
3. Learn about best management practices in relation to watershed management and water quality and understand that better management of our oceans resources is important to ensuring global food security. 
4. Provide unique leadership opportunities for youth. 
5. Travel to other states and learn about the world we live in. 
6. Expose youth to occupations in the field of marine biology and ecology. 

Kentucky 4-H believes that all youth should have opportunities for positive youth development in our four guiding concepts: mastery, belonging, independence, and generosity.(https://4-h.ca.uky.edu/content/environment).    The trip and it’s environmental focus lined up perfectly with Kentucky 4-H’s beliefs and provided a diverse group of youth with many positive experiences both personally and educationally.  After the trip, youth were asked to provide feedback based on their personal experiences during the trip.  All youth participants indicated they learned something new either natural resources or personal development focused.  Ninety-seven percent of youth indicated that 4-H is a place where they usually or always get to figure things out for themselves and that they learned at least one way to conserve our natural resources and will put that knowledge into use.   When asked if 4-H is a place where they have a chance to be a leader, all youth responded usually or yes.  

Youth were asked the following questions and provided a variety of answers to those questions.

Question 1:   What is a new skill you learned or improved as a result of this trip?               

1. My photography skills. Photography is something I have always done with 4-H, especially for the state fair. Being here with the beautiful scenery, I have been very interested in the pictures I have been able to produce.            
2.  How to check the ph and see if there is any living things in the swamp, marsh or slough.
3. How to perform a dissection on a fish.                                  

Question 2:  The most important thing I learned was ...       

1. How to take care of our eco systems and the stages of an eco-system.       
2. How to activate the bioluminescent things in the sand.
3. Beach ecology. It was very interesting and something I’ve never really thought about when I went to the beach but learning about these different creatures that live in the ocean was super neat.                  

Question 3:  As a result of this event…                       

1. I want to continue learning about animals and ecosystems.
2. I have learned more leadership skills. Life lessons. How to take care of our ecosystems and animals and how to care for our marine life.  
3. I feel like I have learned things that can't really be taught in a classroom.                           
4. I learned a lot about an island and what it contains and how different life works within the island.
5. I have gained lots of new friends, grown in my knowledge about marine life and ecosystems and have become a better leader.                     

Question 4: A new skill I learned or improved as a result of this trip…         

1. Get out of your comfort zone and try and learn something new. 
2. I improved my knowledge about sea creatures.         
3. How to communicate with people better.                   
4. How to take care of myself better.
5. Improved my knowledge of environmental science.   
6. Independence                          
7. I can take things slower and see the beauty hidden beneath my feet.           
8. How to tell if a ghost crab hole belongs to a male or female.                        

As one can see, this trip made a huge impact on the youth participants through knowledge gained and personal life changing experiences. They are already asking when they can come back.