Kenton County Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Agent – Kelley; surveyed teachers in 3 Kenton County school districts at the end of each school year beginning in 2009 (12 years continuous reaching approximately 3600 youth and presenting 1152 programs) requesting the evaluation of 4-H Natural Resource school program lessons.  The 2019 Ky CES Community Assessment for Kenton County specifically identified the Kenton 4-H Natural Resources school program lessons as an important component the community education outreach.  The 2020 Kenton County Expansion and Review survey also reflected that involving youth via school programs and sending information home to adult caregivers was an effective way to reach the 4-H age targeted audience.  Additionally, the connections between 4-H school programs and the many opportunities that exist for 4-H members outside of school time were discussed with youth when 4-H newsletters were presented monthly.  4-H members predominately represented (289 in 2019-2020) 4^th grade urban and suburban youth in multicultural schools.   86% of the students attend schools with 100% free lunch program for the entire school population.  Less than 2% live on a farm or have exposure to production agriculture.  National science standards and 4-H Common Core identified standards have been reached as reported by teachers responding about students in their classrooms.  Youth experienced credible and relevant lessons – 100%.  The youth were engaged and were able to relate the program content to practical situations – 100%.  

“There’s NO New Water” 4-H curriculum reinforces for youth that the Earth’s resources are not finite. Youth often reason that there is an endless supply of water, petroleum, and mineral resources.  All “we” have to do is make more or clean the supply.  It is vital that youth begin to understand that natural resources are finite; if used continuously the supply will be exhausted.   Youth must also learn to recognize the importance of protecting and conserving water as well as other natural resources.

The continuous data collection from youth and teachers reflects commitment to educational outreach.  The adjustments to lesson styles and experiments reflect the commitment to make the hands-on lessons engaging, informative, and memorable.  The addition of vocabulary sheets and changes to the worksheets provided with each lesson reinforces the commitment to working with individual school needs as well as addressing the needs presented for special education students.  

The cognitive outcomes expressed in written comments by teachers reflect the intent of NGSS and success of the natural resource lessons in achieving the goals of the 4-H program.  The responses from year end youth surveys indicate they are consistently learning why natural resources are important, where natural resources come from, and that natural resources are not man made.  Unfortunately, due to the pandemic youth surveys were not able to be collected in 2020 for the first time in since 2009