Author: Kelsey Chadwick
Planning Unit: Graves County CES
Major Program: 4-H Youth Development Programming
Plan of Work: Promoting 4-H in Graves County
Outcome: Initial Outcome
During the COVID-19 pandemic, families were encouraged to stay home and Extension services could not be provided in person. To meet this challenge and provide youth with long-term programming, the Graves County 4-H program offered an opportunity for at-home learning through the 4-H Virtual Olympics. Youth ranked which of the 7 teams representing the 7 curriculum areas of Kentucky 4-H that they were most interested in. Options included River Ramblers (Natural Resources), Tech Wizards (Science, Engineering, and Technology), Muscle Movers (Health), Green Thumbs (Agriculture), Fiery Chefs (Family & Consumer Sciences), Messy Artists (Communications & Expressive Arts), and Helping Hands (Leadership).
Youth enrolled and were assigned to a team based on their interests and a weekly challenge was posted for each team to complete. Youth received three points for completing a team challenge and one point each for completing another team's challenge. Challenges were assigned that utilized materials commonly found at home to minimize trips to the store and create an activity that could be completed at home. Families took a picture of every challenge completed and submitted it through a Qualtrics link. At the four-week mark, more than 50 youth had enrolled and over 225 challenges had been completed. The goal was for youth to explore areas of 4-H they are not familiar with and also to complete a six-hour educational project in their area of choice. Positive feedback from both youth and parents has been received, as well as several pictures of youth learning in action. Overall, the 4-H Virtual Olympics was a great way to reach youth who would not have otherwise been reached by Extension programming during the pandemic.
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